I’m working on a project that requires addressable RGB LEDs. Unlike the LEDs of our youth, each addressable LED contains integrated driver circuitry, meaning that some of the computation you’d otherwise do with an MCU (e.g. Arduino) is handled by the LED itself. Adafruit sells these as Neopixels, but as we scale up, I want to have more control over my part sourcing.

As of this writing, the most popular LEDs in this category are the WS2812/B series. By popular, I mean most commonly written about; a lot of folks also complain about the reliability of this part, particularly if you are reflowing them yourself. This was the first time I started paying attention to that portion of the datasheet; as it turns out, some manufacturers give you all sorts of info about preheating time, max reflow temp, and even the number of seconds you can hand-solder before risking damage to the part.

I’ve just ordered 100 each of SK6812 and WS2812B from Aliexpress, and will report back once we start putting the parts through the paces!