Nusbio using the 'APA 102 adapter extension' to control up 2 strips. Each strip has 10 LED powered from the USB.		The 'APA 102 adapter extension'.

The first things to know about RGB LED strip is that here are multiples standards. The 2 most popular are:

• APA 102 also called DotStar which uses an SPI like protocol for communication is supported by Nusbio.
• WS2812 with a b or not, also called NeoPixel will be supported via an extension coming in 2016. The WS2812 standard requires a feature called PWM (Pulse With Modulation) generally supported by micro-controllers.
  
  
• You can power more LEDs by plugging an external 5 volt 2 or 4 amps power adapter into the extension.
  
  
• Datasheet.

Source Code:

• Project Source
• Demo.cs
• APA102LEDStrip.cs

Breadboarding

An APA 102 RGB LED strip has 4 connections

• 5V (5 Volts or power)
• Ground
• DI - Data In
• CI - Clock In

• Connect Nusbio gpio 0, to CI
• Connect Nusbio gpio 1, to DI
• Connect Nusbio VCC (AKA Power or 5 Volts, The red dot), to the 5V of the strip
• Connect Nusbio Ground (The black dot), to the Ground of the strip