Can I control a raspberry Pi or Arduino with a PC

[dal]

So what I ultimately want to do is control some addressable LED strip lights via my PC, I don't mean ones inside my case but a external strip ( about 1M / 144 LEDs ). I'd like to make a PC application with a user interface for this. Now I'm assuming I can't directly control the lights with my PC so I'm thinking I will need to pass instructions to somthing like a raspberry pi or arduino to make it possible.
BTW the lights / pi will be in the same room as the PC, about 2M away.

So a couple of questions if you will :
1. Can I control EXTERNAL addressable leds with a PC ?
2. If the above answer is no then would what I've described above be possible ?

I know next to nothing when it comes to raspberry pi /arduino so any help for a begginer appreciated.

 

[Frozennova]

I'm assuming these will be WS2818B addressable RGB strips? If so you can.

I would recommend a Pi Zero W or an ESP32. The ESP32 is an arduino "like" device, low cost, easy to work with but offers built in WiFi. There's plenty of tutorials online for controlling LED strips from either device. I'd use an ESP32 for this as it eliminates the boot times etc you'll have to deal with by using a Pi

Interacting with the LED strip from the PC could be done in a few different ways. The simples IMHO being a small front end webpage running on the controller, giving you some buttons to toggle lighting effects, colours etc. If you wanted to get a little more complex along with potentially learning some new skills rather than a front end on the ESP32 a simple HTTP Based API along with a C# WPF/WinForms style application would be a simple foray into desktop applications


Edit: This YouTube video should give you a great idea on getting started and even provides a GitHub project to get started with

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZxY_BLSsGg

 

[dal]

Hi, thanks for your help.
The ones I were looking at were WS2812B ( addressable ) not sure if there's any difference to WS2818B but I havn't bought them yet so could get somthing different, although I've not seen any WS2818 strips.
What I like about the ones Ive linked to is they are quite close together although it might make them a bit tricky to cut and solder.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07TB198W5?ref_=pe_780071_41837251_dpLink

 

[Frozennova]

WS2812B looks to be more common. I only had a very quick search to see how the LED strips are controlled an WS2818 was the first result.
The video I linked focuses on WS2812B Strips though

 

[RevBillyG]

I use an Arduino and Prismatik for ambilight control on my screen.
Works very nicely.