addressable.wiki

Every addressable LED, and what it actually is

“NeoPixel” is a brand, not a part. Adafruit coined it in December 2012, because “WS2812 Intelligent Control LED Integrated Light Source” is not a name anyone can sell. It stuck — and now one word covers dozens of different chips from half a dozen makers. Almost every NeoPixel is a WorldSemi WS2812B or an OPSCO SK6812.

This catalogue lists the driver ICs behind the trade names and every package each one ships in, with timings, pinouts, clone relationships and datasheets — so you can tell a WS2812B-2020 from a SK6812MINI-E at a glance.

36 variants across 25 parts

Known as Face / lens Supply Datasheet Angle Bit period Reset
APA102 5050 · smd 2
APA102 APA102 DotStar, Adafruit DotStar, APA102 5050 APA102 apa102 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2013 — 6 120° 60 mA SPI — — FastLED WLED Adafruit APA Electronic active
APA102-B APA102 DotStar, Adafruit DotStar, APA102 5050 APA102 apa102 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2013 — 6 120° 60 mA SPI — — FastLED WLED Adafruit APA Electronic active
APA102C 5050 · smd 1
APA102C APA102C DotStar, APA102C 5050 APA102C apa102 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V unknown — 6 120° 60 mA SPI — — FastLED WLED Adafruit APA Electronic active
APA104 5050 · smd 1
APA104 APA104 APA104, WS2812B compatible APA104 ws281x 5050 RGB clear 4–5.5 V unknown — 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 280 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit APA Electronic active
APA106-F5 F5 · through-hole 2
APA106-F5 APA106-F5 APA106, APA106 5mm, through-hole NeoPixel APA106 ws281x F5 RGB diffused 4–5.5 V unknown — 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 280 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit APA Electronic active
APA106-F5-C APA106-F5 APA106, APA106 5mm, through-hole NeoPixel APA106 ws281x F5 RGB clear 4–5.5 V unknown — 4 30° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 280 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit APA Electronic active
HD107S 5050 · smd 1
HD107S HD107S HD107S 5050, high refresh DotStar HD107S apa102 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2025 — 6 120° 60 mA SPI — — FastLED WLED Adafruit Dongguan Shiji Lighting active
HD108 5050 · smd 1
HD108 HD108 HD108 5050, 16-bit DotStar HD108 apa102 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2025 — 6 120° 60 mA SPI — — FastLED WLED Adafruit Dongguan Shiji Lighting active
PL9823-F5 F5 · through-hole 2
PL9823-F5 PL9823-F5 PL9823, PL9823 5mm PL9823 ws281x F5 RGB diffused 4.5–5.5 V IC 2015 — 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1710 ns — FastLED WLED Adafruit APA Electronic active
PL9823-F5-C PL9823-F5 PL9823, PL9823 5mm PL9823 ws281x F5 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2015 — 4 30° 60 mA 1-wire 1710 ns — FastLED WLED Adafruit APA Electronic active
SK6805-EC15 1515 · smd 1
SK6805-EC15 SK6805-EC15 SK6805, SK6812 1515 SK6812 sk68xx 1515 RGB clear 3.7–5.5 V IC 2015 — 4 — — 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK6812 5050 · smd 2
SK6812 SK6812 NeoPixel, SK6812 5050 SK6812 sk68xx 5050 RGB clear 3.7–5.5 V IC 2015 PDF 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK6812-B SK6812 NeoPixel, SK6812 5050 SK6812 sk68xx 5050 RGB clear 3.7–5.5 V IC 2015 PDF 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK6812-4020 4020 · smd 1
SK6812-4020 SK6812-4020 SK6812 side emitting, SK6812 4020 SK6812 sk68xx 4020 RGB clear 3.7–5.5 V IC 2015 — 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK6812MINI 3535 · smd 1
SK6812MINI SK6812MINI SK6812 MINI, NeoPixel Mini SK6812 sk68xx 3535 RGB clear 3.7–5.5 V PDF 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK6812MINI-E 3535 · smd 1
SK6812MINI-E SK6812MINI-E SK6812 MINI-E, SK6812MINI E, reverse mount SK6812 SK6812 sk68xx 3535 RGB clear 3.7–5.5 V IC 2015 — 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK6812RGBW 5050 · smd 3
SK6812RGBW-WW SK6812RGBW NeoPixel RGBW, SK6812 RGBW, RGBW NeoPixel, SK6812 RGBWW, warm white NeoPixel RGBW SK6812 RGBW sk68xx 5050 RGBW 3000K clear 3.7–5.5 V IC 2015 PDF 4 120° 80 mA 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK6812RGBW-NW SK6812RGBW NeoPixel RGBW, SK6812 RGBW, RGBW NeoPixel SK6812 RGBW sk68xx 5050 RGBW 4500K clear 3.7–5.5 V IC 2015 PDF 4 120° 80 mA 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK6812RGBW-CW SK6812RGBW NeoPixel RGBW, SK6812 RGBW, RGBW NeoPixel SK6812 RGBW sk68xx 5050 RGBW 6000K clear 3.7–5.5 V IC 2015 PDF 4 120° 80 mA 1-wire 1200 ns 80 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK9822 5050 · smd 2
SK9822 SK9822 SK9822 5050, APA102 clone SK9822 apa102 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2016 — 6 120° 60 mA SPI — — FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
SK9822-B SK9822 SK9822 5050, APA102 clone SK9822 apa102 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2016 — 6 120° 60 mA SPI — — FastLED WLED Adafruit OPSCO Optoelectronics active
WS2812B 5050 · smd 3
WS2812B WS2812B NeoPixel, NeoPixel 5050, Adafruit NeoPixel WS2812B ws281x 5050 RGB clear 3.5–5.3 V IC 2013 PDF 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 50 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812B-B WS2812B NeoPixel, NeoPixel 5050, Adafruit NeoPixel, black NeoPixel, WS2812B black face WS2812B ws281x 5050 RGB clear 3.5–5.3 V IC 2013 PDF 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 50 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812B-V5 WS2812B NeoPixel, NeoPixel 5050, Adafruit NeoPixel WS2812B-V5 ws281x 5050 RGB clear 3.5–5.5 V IC 2024 PDF 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1225 ns 280 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812B-2020 2020 · smd 1
WS2812B-2020 WS2812B-2020 WS2812B 2020, micro NeoPixel WS2812B ws281x 2020 RGB clear 3.5–5.3 V IC 2013 — 4 120° 36 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 50 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812B-3535 3535 · smd 1
WS2812B-3535 WS2812B-3535 WS2812B mini, NeoPixel Mini 3535 WS2812B ws281x 3535 RGB clear 3.5–5.3 V IC 2013 — 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 50 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812B-MINI 3535 · smd 1
WS2812B-MINI-V3 WS2812B-MINI WS2812B-MINI, WS2812B MINI V3 WS2812B-V5 ws281x 3535 RGB clear 3.5–5.5 V IC 2024 — 4 120° — 1-wire 1225 ns 280 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812C-2020 2020 · smd 1
WS2812C-2020-V1 WS2812C-2020 WS2812C 2020 WS2812C ws281x 2020 RGB clear 3.5–5.3 V unknown — 4 120° — 1-wire 1250 ns 280 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812D-F5 F5 · through-hole 2
WS2812D-F5 WS2812D-F5 WS2812D, 5mm through-hole NeoPixel WS2812B ws281x F5 RGB clear 3.5–5.3 V IC 2013 — 4 30° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 50 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812D-F5-D WS2812D-F5 WS2812D, 5mm through-hole NeoPixel WS2812B ws281x F5 RGB diffused 3.5–5.3 V IC 2013 — 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 50 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812D-F8 F8 · through-hole 1
WS2812D-F8 WS2812D-F8 WS2812D 8mm, 8mm through-hole NeoPixel WS2812B ws281x F8 RGB diffused 3.5–5.3 V IC 2013 — 4 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 50 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2812E 3535 · smd 1
WS2812E WS2812E WS2812E WS2812C ws281x 3535 RGB clear 3.5–5.3 V unknown — 4 — — 1-wire 1250 ns 280 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi unknown
WS2813 5050 · smd 2
WS2813 WS2813 WS2813 5050 WS2813 ws281x 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2016 PDF 6 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 300 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2813-B WS2813 WS2813 5050 WS2813 ws281x 5050 RGB clear 4.5–5.5 V IC 2016 PDF 6 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1250 ns 300 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
WS2815 5050 · smd 1
WS2815 WS2815 WS2815 5050, 12V NeoPixel WS2815 ws281x 5050 RGB clear 12 V IC 2020 PDF 6 120° 60 mA 1-wire 1100 ns 300 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit WorldSemi active
XL-5050RGBC-2812B 5050 · smd 1
XL-5050RGBC-2812B XL-5050RGBC-2812B XL-5050RGBC-2812B, Xinglight WS2812B compatible WS2812C ws281x 5050 RGB clear 3.5–5.3 V unknown — 4 — — 1-wire 1250 ns 280 µs FastLED WLED Adafruit Xinglight active

Take the data: data.json · data.csv. Every row links its sources — and if one of them is wrong, please tell us.

If you only know the word “NeoPixel”

NeoPixel

Adafruit’s trade name for individually addressable RGB LEDs with the driver built into the package, coined in December 2012 as a sellable alternative to WorldSemi’s “WS2812 Intelligent Control LED Integrated Light Source”. Adafruit did not make the silicon - they popularised it, wrote the library and the guides, and the name stuck to the whole category. It is a brand, not a part: almost every “NeoPixel” is a WorldSemi WS2812B or an OPSCO SK6812.

ws2812b

DotStar

Adafruit’s trade name for the APA102 family. Unlike NeoPixels these use a separate clock line, so they refresh far faster and do not care about precise timing — which makes them the sane choice on a busy processor or for persistence-of-vision work.

apa102

1-wire

A single data line carrying self-clocking pulses, where a bit is encoded as the ratio of high time to low time. Cheap — one pin, three wires total — but the driver must hit sub-microsecond timings, so interrupts can corrupt a frame. WS2812 and SK6812 work this way.

SPI

Separate data and clock lines. Because the clock is explicit, timing is no longer critical and refresh rates are much higher. Costs one more pin and one more conductor along the strip. APA102, SK9822 and HD107S work this way.

RGBW

A fourth, dedicated white die alongside red, green and blue. Mixed white from RGB is greenish and wastes power; a real white die is cleaner and brighter. Sold in warm (~3000 K), neutral (~4500 K) and cool (~6000 K) flavours, and you must pick one at purchase.

white temperature

The colour of the white die in an RGBW part, in kelvin. Lower is warmer and yellower, higher is cooler and bluer. It is a physical property of the die, so it cannot be changed in software.

reset time

The low period that tells a strip “the frame is over, latch it”. Get it wrong and the strip either never updates or shifts colours down the line. This is the single most common source of “my new LEDs flicker” — later WS2812B silicon (V5) extended the required reset from ~50 us to ~280 us, so code written for older parts can glitch on newer ones.

silicon revision

The same part number can ship with different dies over time. WS2812B-V5 is the clearest case: same package and pinout, but a longer reset period and a higher PWM frequency. This catalogue treats a revision that changes timing as its own protocol, so the difference is visible rather than buried.

package

The physical body, named for its size in hundredths of an inch: a 5050 is 5.0 x 5.0 mm, a 3535 is 3.5 x 3.5 mm, a 2020 is 2.0 x 2.0 mm. Smaller packages mean denser strips and less heat per LED, but finer soldering.

face colour

The plastic housing around the die, usually white or black. Purely cosmetic when lit; black faces look better when off and give more apparent contrast, and usually cost a little more.

side-emitting

A package that throws light out of its edge rather than its top, for edge-lighting a diffuser or lighting along a surface. The 4020 is the common side-view addressable package.

reverse mount

A part designed to be soldered to the back of a board and shine through a hole in it — used in keyboards for per-key lighting. The SK6812MINI-E is the reverse-mount sibling of the SK6812MINI, and critically its DIN and DOUT pins are swapped relative to the standard part, so the two are not footprint-interchangeable.

clone

These parts are copied constantly. Some clones are genuinely drop-in; others advertise compatibility but differ in ways that bite — the SK9822 looks like an APA102 but handles global brightness and end frames differently. This catalogue records how strong each compatibility claim is, with the caveats attached.

backup data line

A second data input so that one failed LED does not kill the rest of the strip. WS2813 and WS2815 have it; WS2812B does not. Worth having in a long or permanently-installed run.

cutting point

The marked pad between LEDs on a strip where it can be cut and rejoined. Not modelled in this catalogue yet — strips are out of scope for now.