Wow,  almost exactly a year ago I started my deck led project based on an AVR, WS2812B Led strips, and a Bluetooth LE Breakout board.  I’ve finally completed the project. The LED strips were installed in Oct 2014, but I just completed the wiring today. The project took a few turns, I’m using an ARM now since I’m controlling about 1000 LEDs, and the AVR didn’t quite have the jam. To expedite things I’m using the teensy 3.1 module. Dave built a “Big Buck” regulator to drop the 12v from a car battery to the 5V/~40A needed by the circuit.  I’ve still to install a solar panel and MPPT solar charger, but at least the LEDs light up. In the picture you can see the Teensy at the bottom, it is sitting on top of a board (OctoWS2811) that does the 3 to 5v conversion for running the leds. The output connector is a dual RJ-45. The BLE module is sitting on top of that.  The Big Buck, has a  house keeping regulator that always powers the micro.  The micro controls the main regulator via the green enable wire in the photo.  This should help conserve battery life, since the leds can draw considerable power even when off.

There is a cheese-ball iphone app to control everything. Here are the LEDs in action. There were a few casualties over the winter, about four LEDs lost one of their channels.