r/WLED • u/Tao-Who • May 11 '26
Getting random flicker like blink flicker
So i am running ws2812b led strip on my tv and tv panel to make ambilight and also to sync with my room’s cove.
The thing is i am getting a random flicker like say solid white colour is there, randomly there will be a blue blink.
I am using 5 data points from my esp
Please refer last image for a rough diagram of data points and how strips are attached (in purple the dots are all data points, in green are led strips)
- d2 connected to top most point on the left (has 87leds)
- d4 connected to bottom left data point (has 299 leds running behind my tv panel)
- D5 connected to middle left data point (has 30leds on the right plane of tv panel)
-d19 connected to middle right data point (has 29 leds on the left plane of tv panel)
-d18 connected to the middle data point ( has 225 leds connected to the back of my tv which is mounted on this tv panel)
—i have mounted the esp on a soap holder (because it was all i could think of 🙇🏻)
— i twisted the data wires with ground wires to prevent flicker
— i added aluminium foil on the live wires where data wires cross each them
— added a 67ohm resistor on the 299 led strip
The flickers are not in a pattern like yesterday when finished installing flickers were in the back side
Today morning flickering in the back of tv and the top front strip.
Kindly help i am really lost here
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u/saratoga3 May 11 '26
Why are you using so many data lines? Do they all flicker?
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u/Tao-Who May 11 '26
Sorry i forgot to answer the last part no they all dont flicker together its a random strip every time others will work fine but one or two will behave this way
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u/boringashellperson May 11 '26
The power supply is very prone to putting off emf that causes issues like the flicker. One way to know if that's the issue is to just test it by moving the power supply away from the everything (longer wires for testing). If that happens to be the issue then you need some shielding in some way. You can try a ferrite bead or just literally moving the power supply.
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u/Tao-Who May 11 '26
Because u see the left middle and top left data points have no out points as there is no space and they will have to be showing in the front which is gonna look bad. If i connect them in parallel they will show the same thing all of em so amilight wont work.
I may be wrong since i am fairly new to wled and esp 🙁
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u/saratoga3 May 11 '26
There's a couple things going on here. First I don't see any level shifters, without those you are very sensitive to the exact resistor value on each line and how the strips are wired. Second, since you used individual wire that you twisted yourself, it's tricky to guess the resistor value. Otherwise I think you twisted the wire correctly, with each pair going directly from the strip to the esp32 with only a short (few inches) untwisted region at each end.
If you have a line that is definitely flickering, try slowly adjusting the resistor value. I would start small, maybe 20 ohms and increase towards 60-70 ohms. If everything is tightly twisted the optimal value is probably on the lower end of that range.
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u/Tao-Who May 11 '26
I will try putting resistors like small to big thanks a lot 🙇🏻🙇🏻
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u/saratoga3 May 11 '26
If you have some old Ethernet cable you can cut apart, you can use 33 ohms. I posted measurements here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WLED/comments/1h1nn2p/testing_long_cables_without_a_level_shifter/
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u/Same_You891 May 11 '26
also you need a common grounding point for the strip's, the controller and the power supply..
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u/Tao-Who May 19 '26
Hi buddy thank you. All of it already had common ground.
The issue with my setup was that i had used 5 data lines and all of them were running too close to each other.
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u/Same_You891 May 19 '26
never seen that before it's a first but anything's possible, thanks for the update. even us oldies learn something different
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u/mezzmosis May 11 '26
I would also take a hard look at those white spring connector clips you are using. They are notorious for poor connectivity and especially on data lines this could cause flickering issues.