Driving WS2801 and similar LED controllers with BBB

[John-Mark Gurney]

Sulev-Madis Silber (ketas) wrote this message on Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 20:19 +0300:
> Hello.
> 
> Maybe someone else works on things like this? I basically know how those
> are controlled, however I'm unsure what should I choose. Maybe SPI,
> maybe I should bitbang GPIO for clock / data? Last should work with that
> specific model (WS2801). Others use weird protocols (or "protocols"). I
> guess I should just try something. I just let people know that I'm
> working on that. I won't be surprised if I'm the first one to get it
> working.

I'd look at using SPI...  From what I've read on the WS2801, SPI
will do exactly what you need to do, and be the most straight forward
solution...

> I'm also aware that this platform contains PRU's, which are maybe better
> for this task. Though, that seems like even more complex task. Like how
> to get code compiled for that (there seems to be one open way for C),
> how to get it running there and how to
> assign IO pins.

The PRU is probably more complicated than you need compared to using
SPI...

-- 
  John-Mark Gurney				Voice: +1 415 225 5579

     "All that I will do, has been done, All that I have, has not."