Check the datasheet before you design
This catalogue is a reading aid, not a specification. Here is where its numbers come from, how sure we are of them, and what to do when you find one that is wrong.
What is covered, and what is not
230 parts (376 orderable variants) across 114 protocols. That is the WorldSemi and OPSCO LED-with-IC lines, the common SPI parts and a handful of through-hole ones, plus other makers only where we have a sheet. It is not every addressable LED: most other makers' workalikes are listed in the research notes but not modelled, and some protocols have no package because only the bare driver IC is sold. The honest list of gaps is in DATA-QUALITY.md, which also records every field we know to be uncertain and what would settle it.
Where the numbers come from
Wherever possible a figure is read from a manufacturer datasheet that is mirrored in this repository, with the PDF linked from the part page. Page references in the data point into that mirror. A figure we cannot support from a sheet is left blank (shown as an em dash) rather than filled with a plausible guess: a blank makes you go and check, a confident wrong value gets designed into a board.
Datasheets are not gospel either. The same part number often has several sheets (different revisions, different vendors, or the manufacturer's own and a distributor's mirror) and they do not always agree, sometimes with themselves. The catalogue records which sheet each figure came from.
Datasheet, convention, driver-tuned
Three words do the work of saying how much a number or a drawing can be trusted.
| Label | Meaning | Where you see it |
|---|---|---|
| Datasheet | Read from a manufacturer's drawing or table that we hold. For a package drawing it means the pad layout, pin numbering and pin-1 corner were checked against that sheet (209 of 230 drawings). | Timing sets tagged datasheet; package drawings captioned "checked against the manufacturer datasheet" (package_shape.basis: datasheet). |
| Convention | Drawn the way parts of that kind are usually laid out, because no sheet we hold shows the layout, or the one we hold is wrong or unreadable. Good for orientation, not for a footprint (14 drawings, each with a note saying why). | Package drawings captioned "not yet checked against a datasheet" (package_shape.basis: convention). |
| Driver-tuned | Values a software library uses, tuned to drive real parts reliably (including clones with loose tolerances). They are what works in practice, not what the manufacturer promises. | Timing sets tagged FastLED. The page prefers the datasheet set and shows the driver-tuned one beside it. |
| Measured | A scope trace of a real part. The only thing that settles a disagreement; we have almost none yet, so please send yours. | Timing sets tagged measured. |
When sources disagree
Where two sources give different values for the same thing, the page says so in a panel headed Datasheets disagree. Each entry names the field, says in one sentence what differs, lists what every source states with the file and page it was read from, and then says what the catalogue shows and why. A small beside a value on a part page, or in the catalogue table, marks a figure with such an entry recorded on that part or variant; it links to the panel. Disagreements about the driver IC itself apply to every part that uses it, so they are shown on the protocol page and in the part page's panel rather than repeated on every row of the table.
The panel is not a verdict that anything is broken. Often both sheets are right for the silicon they describe, and the catalogue simply cannot tell which silicon is in your reel. That is the case for most of the entries below.
19 entries currently record at least one disagreement:
- SK6805 (protocol; pwm frequency)
- SK6812 RGBW (protocol; supply voltage, pwm frequency)
- SK6812 (protocol; reset period, bit timing, pwm frequency, supply voltage)
- SK9822 (protocol; pwm frequency, colour order, supply voltage)
- WS2812B-V5 (protocol; supply voltage)
- WS2812B (protocol; reset period, bit timing, pwm frequency, supply voltage)
- WS2812C (protocol; supply voltage)
- WS2813 (protocol; reset period, bit timing, supply voltage)
- WS2815 (protocol; reset period, bit timing, pwm frequency, supply voltage)
- APA102 (part; current per channel)
- APA102C (part; current per channel)
- SK6812 (part; current per channel, pinout)
- SK6812RGBW (part; current per channel)
- WS2812B (part; current per channel)
- WS2812D-F5 (part; colour order, pinout)
- WS2812D-F8 (part; colour order, pinout)
- WS2812E-2020 (part; package drawing)
- WS2812S (part; package drawing)
- WS2813 (part; current per channel, pinout)
Report a correction
Use the contribute form and pick "A specification that is wrong". The most useful report names the part, the field, the value you believe is right and a source for it: a datasheet and page, or a scope trace. A correction with a citation can go straight in; one without has to be verified first. You can also read, and correct, the source data in the repository.
None of this replaces reading the sheet for the part you are buying. If a number here matters to your design, open the datasheet, check the revision, and when in doubt measure.