Reprogramming an Arduino while embedded in project?

[MRHunter]

I humbly return with another, more basic question. As I said in a different thread, I'm controlling a bunch of LED strip with an Arduino Micro's PWM pins and some MOSFETs, and I'll be powering it with a 12v battery pack. It was suggested that I experiment with the brightness to conserve battery life, and I intend to do so. I'm wondering if it's possible to upload variations of the programming to the Micro after it's been soldered into the board with all the rest of the components. My concern is that if I plug it into USB to reprogram it, it might give that 5v supply to my board's power rails,but because the LED strips want 12v, I might end up damaging them or the Micro. Does that make sense, and is my concern baseless or reasonable?

I'll post further details, schematics, etc. as requested. Thanks in advance. This is only my second question and yet I've made so much progress because of you kind people.

[dennisma]

I do not know anything about your project but remotely an Arduino "wirelessly" may be done with a couple of XBees and the Adafruit Xbee adapter with a slight modification.

Instructions on how to accomplish this (after you solder together the Xbee adapter) may be found in the Adafruit tutorial here:http://www.ladyada.net/make/xbee/arduino.html

[MRHunter]

I appreciate the idea, but it seems like overkill to get into Xbee just to play with the PWM numbers - the project is a TRON Legacy light suit, and the lights are meant to be a static brightness and colour, so the Xbee would be completely unused while the suit is being worn.

[franklin97355]

I don't see why you can't plug in the usb connector. If your power is off the micro should not be in any danger as long as the circuit is built correctly.

[MRHunter]

I've been asked to make the brightness adjustable while powered with a knob, so this question is now irrelevant. Thanks for the opinions, anyway.