This was my main draw to the Neopixel; Adafruit has written a custom Arduino library and provided sample code to get things up and running quickly.

The code writes values to the NeoPixel strip algorithmically, so if you can’t build your animation with for loops, you’re out of luck.

An Arduino Pro Mini drives an LSM303DLHC compass/accelerometer breakout board and a 12-LED NeoPixel ring. The heading is indicated with a red ‘Pixel between two yellow ones.