What is it?

APA102-2020s are little addressable LEDs can be used to make all sorts of neat glowy projects. They are the same chipset sold as "DotStars" by Adafruit, and can be driven using a variety of libraries including FastLED and the Adafruit Dotstar library. These LEDs can be driven at crazy high speeds, making them great for persistence of vision projects like fidget spinners. Unfortunately, these cool little parts are somewhat difficult for mere mortals to acquire in small quantities. I invested hundreds of dollars purchasing a large count of these directly from the manufacturer for my own projects, and I'm selling the excess to help support future product development.

How to use them

To use them, you'll have to design your own PCBs and solder them yourself. You can start using the the verified Eagle library I use for my own projects. They cannot easily be hand-soldered, so you'll need solder paste (I use ChipQuick) and a hot air rework station (I use a ProKit SS-969).

How cool are they really?

Pretty neat. They open the door to all sorts of glowy projects. See the photos above. My favorite right now is the glowy heart of blink.