Default pixel_order and bpp don't match

[caternuson]

If NeoPixels are created without specifying a bpp or a pixel_order:

pixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.D18, 8)

then this would get used: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_NeoPixel/blob/c0bdd8b10383725ee9293f5d88fb8d47eb1272bd/neopixel.py#L94-L96 and bpp=3 by default:

 def __init__(self, pin, n, *, bpp=3, brightness=1.0, auto_write=True, pixel_order=None):

so you end up with bpp=3 and GRBW for pixel_order, which is bpp=4.

This is my bad, since it was introduced with #24 to fix #1. I think there was some attempt to maintain backwards compatibility with the older style of using bpp only. So that's why both bpp and pixel_order are still there: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_NeoPixel/issues/1#issuecomment-367432340

But might be good to somehow check and protect against this: https://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=151980

[ladyada]

oops yeah we are usually wordy in the definitions - we could warn people for now they must define the color order?

[caternuson]

Just to throw out the suggestion - how about removing bpp from the parameter list? pixel_order is all that is really needed. This would maybe break some things, but would be cleaner. And then any older examples that are still using bpp should be updated to use pixel_order.

[ladyada]

im ok with that, do any of our examples use bpp?

[caternuson]

All the examples here are using pixel_order. Not sure what else might be out there.

@tannewt You were more involved in the bpp approach. Any reason to keep it?

[tannewt]

I'd ask @rhooper since he's got some big changes in the pipe for the RGB led libs.

[caternuson]

@rhooper - see above. What are the changes?

[caternuson]

@tannewt Any idea of status of above w.r.t. "big changes"? I'm in favor of getting rid of bpp in favor of just using pixel_order.

[rhooper]

The changes will be to use _pixelbuf which will be using a string to compute everything to do with the byte order and bpp. Bpp will then be able to be based on that string. For backwards compatibility we can check its a sane value and ignore otherwise.

[caternuson]

@rhooper thanks. can you link to where this is being done? it's still not clear to me how this applies here.

[rhooper]

Here's the repos for the WIP. Ping me on Discord if you want to discuss in more real-time. Dan also wants to sync up on this work soon.

https://github.com/rhooper/circuitpython/tree/new-pixelbuf-api https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_CircuitPython_Pypixelbuf https://github.com/rhooper/Adafruit_CircuitPython_NeoPixel/tree/pixelbuf https://github.com/rhooper/Adafruit_CircuitPython_DotStar/tree/pixelbuf

[rhooper]

@caternuson is this still an issue?

[caternuson]

@rhooper Thanks! Yah, this is probably fixed with the new logic. Let's close this for now. I think it might still be worth considering dumping bpp all together and use pixel_order for everything. But we can defer that to a new separate issue.

[houshmandX]

Hi all,

I have recently purchased a NeoPixel Ring - 12 x 5050 RGB LED from amazon.

I have also followed the link https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/downloads/pdf/neopixels-on-raspberry-pi.pdf to install NeoPixel Library.

So, I can turn the LEDS, but they are not acting as desired, for instance, colors are randomly changing/blinking.

So, for the test, I want to turn all the LEDs on and be colored red:

`import time import board import neopixel

pixel_pin = board.D18 num_pix = 12 order = neopixel.GRBW # won't matter if I use orders, RGB, RGBW, GRB

pixel = neopixel.NeoPixel(pixel_pin, num_pix, brightness = 0.2, auto_write = False, pixel_order = order)

while True: pixel.fill((255,0,0)) pixel.show() `

what am I missing, why, few of LED gets change colors, blinking and etc.

[caternuson]

@houshmandX Please post in the forums with photos of your setup: https://forums.adafruit.com/