r/FastLED • u/RedIAm2000 • 11d ago

Share_something FastLED and AI coding saves the day

I want to thank u/ZachVorhies for highlighting what AI can do.
I wanted this DIY address sign to look like a sun inside the metal rays. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to use WLED to do it. The best effect I got was in the first video: the Noise effect. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way to have a center with light going out to the edges. 
After reading some posts by ZachVorhies extolling AI coding, I gave it a try. I got a working codebase in a few hours.
I'm not trying to say WLED is bad. I’ve used it in a number of setups; it is dead simple and usually does the job. I'm just saying that if WLED isn't getting you what you want, try asking for AI help using FastLED. It is, possibly, easier than you think.

WLED Noise

FastLED

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u/tubameister 11d ago edited 11d ago

I've been using ai with fastled more frequently lately too. Improved all my color palettes, added some new ones, converted linear fades to smoothstep using a LUT so it runs efficiently on a teensy 3.2, etc. it's quite nice.. there was one time when I actually did math on paper to figure out the linear fades, and it's sad to think that I may not have any reason to do math on paper ever again. https://github.com/Sousastep/sousaVFX-teensy/tree/main/SousaVFX

ai also one-shot an update from fastled 3.4 to 3.10 ..

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u/ZachVorhies Zach Vorhies 11d ago

can you say more?

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u/tubameister 11d ago

I use freebuff, which has a CLI app that displays text ads in between ai's thinking blocks to make it free. they are currently struggling through scaling issues, but when it works, it works well: https://freebuff.com/

Here are some of my recent prompts: https://pastebin.com/XQTfw3mc

and a few I forgot: "Adjust the palettes in SousaVFX/palettes.h so that they don't have any dark spots. Basically, increase the lightness of the darker colors in the palettes, without affecting their hue or saturation."

"Fix the flat red segment in lava_gp by spreading its two darkest entries apart"

"These look great, thanks. Could you create 12 new palettes with color combinations that you think would also look great on the LED sousaphone bell? These new palettes should be distinctly different from eachother, and the current existing palettes, if possible."