I’ve finally got the RGB LED strips I bought from Sim Lim the other week to work. The secret? The damn pads are labelled wrong. For future reference, if anyone else is having fun and games trying to get these strips working (the only marking on them is “ZJ168”), this is the pinout:
Di = +12V (Arduino pin Vin)
Ci = MOSI (+5V, normal logic level—Arduino pin ~11)
St = Clock (again, +5V—Arduino pin 13)
Li = GND (Arduino GND, obv.)
The 12V and ground are on the far sides of the strip, with the data and clock lines in the middle (as I thought made sense originally.) They’re LPD6803-based and work great with the Fast_SPI library written by Daniel Garcia who’s been graciously helping me out via email.
Next steps are cutting this little strip up into a “demo” display (maybe t-shirt mountable) and writing a little code to transform 2D coordinates into a linear pixel address. I’ve also learned a little bit about soldering technique and, armed with a new tip, will reconsider my options for putting everything together (maybe using 0.1" header sockets rather than Clincher connectors.)