Review on 💡 Upgraded BTF-LIGHTING WS2813 3.2ft 144 Pixels Individually Addressable RGB LED Flexible Strip Light 5050 SMD Dream Color Dual Signal Backup Data IP30 Non-Waterproof DC5V Black PCB by Julie Watkins

I got this for a school project due tomorrow morning. I've had a few days to use them. I wrote a quick program to make sure they work. They looked great and at first I was very impressed. I have a decent power supply for them (5V/5A). Then I started my main program by mapping sound to light using an FFT (spectrum analyzer). They started acting a little strange, flickering randomly and turning on a light that was supposed to be off. I shortened my code to only use 10 LEDs in my troubleshooting software if that was my code. Then my code controlled the first 9 of 10, and the rest of the tape partially toggled different colors on and off. Then the whole strip turned on partially, blinked, and then turned off. Then I couldn't program my microcontroller (Adafruit Feather M0 Basic) anymore. I switched to a different one, but no matter what I do, the LEDs don't come on. Soooo, I'm concluding that something is wrong with this strip and it disabled my controller. I've currently spent about 40 hours on this project due tomorrow morning. I won't be able to present my work in class tomorrow.