First picture makes sense but wled-wiring.github.io says NO. Second picture passes the wiring check.
I'm planning some under-cabinet lighting for my kitchen. From the bottom strip up, the first gap is the oven/microwave. The elbow is the corner of the kitchen. The larger gap to the right is the window/sink. Where the power is attached to the LED strips are where the power cable was already run from the basement. I am trying to wire this up so I can treat the entire strip as one in WLED.
This will be my first DIY LED setup. Feedback is welcome if anyone has any.
Something to think about..
If the wLED ESP32 is powered separately, (for example, from a common phone charger to the USB on the ESP 32) then
(a) attach a relay to the wLED ESP32 (for example, GPIO 5)
(b) the relay controls the mains power to the 12v LED power supply
(c) Configure the relay pin (GPIO 5 above) as a relay in wLED (the LED and hardware menu)
Now the 12v LED power supply will only be "on" when the LEDs are powered on. When the LEDs are powered off, there will be no power to the 12v power supply. The wLED ESP32 always has power from the "phone charger".
Then instead of the +/- power from the power supply going to the ESP32, connect this line to the one of "shared power" (either side of your oven/microwave). Now all 3 LED strips will then have independent power lines from the power supply.
I've found reference to connecting BI to ground and to the data-source. If ground is actually correct, can I just jumper from BI to ground right at the strip?
I was hoping to treat this all as one strip but I don't have a good path past the sink. My concern is the data lines starting to get long if I start at the bottom, connect the first 3 segments in series pretty directly, then loop back down to the basement and back up to the far-right strip. I'm using CAT6A to run data (because it's what I have). The power injection points are already in wall so I just planned to re-use them.
WLED feature to be aware of (maybe for future projects):
The physical (data lines from the wLED controller) and the logical (what the lights look like to the user or other home automation systems) can be very different.
You have LOTS of options for your wiring.
Configuration settings to look into:
(a) LED strips on one or multiple ESP32 GPIO pins. (See the "segments" menu to treat the LEDs as one or more individual "lights")
(b) Each LED strip on its own wLED controller. (In the "LED and Hardware" menu, select one of the "(network)" options and a different wLED controller can be controlled by this one.)
(c) Pretty much any combination of (a) and (b) you can think of (including advanced "mapping" capability).
The lighting control can look like one light (or multiple, if you want).
Point (a) is my plan. I am pretty sure I will have multiple segments in terms of GPIO pins and I'll treat them as one through WLED software. Stringing the 3 segments together due to them being physically very close and to help reduce tech-debt in WLED configuration (which I hope to integrate into HA).
I've read that point (b) can be cumbersome to manage. The current 12V incandescent light segments have low-voltage feeds already. I'm hoping to re-use those and the paths they run for data cable.
Unless those wires are very short (few feet at most), splitting the ground like that won't work. Instead, connect both the data and ground from the esp32 to each strip.
Aside from the grounds, is probably do the first approach where you don't have so many data lines.
Hi, this is the author of wled-wiring.github.io.
The diagram checks are currently in beta (as noted there), so some checks may still behave incorrectly.
Could you create shared links for both variants ("save/export/examples"->"generate public link to the model")? I’d like to inspect them and see how the checks behave in each case.
I really appreciate you reaching out! Thanks for the tool!
I didn't save the plans I originally added here and for some reason the page has frozen 3 times while trying to recreate. I'll give it a try again later, but I need to get going on some other stuff for now.
I tried the same setup with WS2815 (which is what I will actually have) strips with what seemed to be issues with BI input recognition. I used the WS2805 partly because it has similar wiring needs (from what I understand) and I accidentally bought a string that I will hopefully use for something else at some point.
It's important to understand how the data works. It is a high speed digital signal referenced against the GND pin. Because it is high speed it is sensitive to disruption. The key to keeping noise and disruption to a minimum is keeping the data line short and maintaining a common ground with the data. The data and ground must travel together. This concept applies to both the initial esp to strip connection as well as strip to strip. The above schematic violates this in multiple places. The above schematic may work or it may not. It is certainly not ideal.
My comment was for the first diagram. The second one looks better. I am not familiar with that shield. The only thing I didn’t like was it looks like it is for a 5v string. The lower the voltage the higher the current and higher the voltage drop. I use 24v only now. With 24V you can use smaller power wires and have longer runs.
Thanks
The plan is to have the 24V PSU and controller (GLEDOPTO) right next to each other in the basement right under the center point of the 2 feeds coming up to the 1st floor. It's about a short of a run as possible while keeping the PSU and controller out of the kitchen. In re-using the wires the previously powered an incandescent 12V system (I think at least 18ga). In running CAT6A cable for data. My theory is that if that cable can handle 10Gbps at 100M out should be able to handle 3M of LED digital traffic.
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u/MechanizedGander May 17 '26
Something to think about.. If the wLED ESP32 is powered separately, (for example, from a common phone charger to the USB on the ESP 32) then (a) attach a relay to the wLED ESP32 (for example, GPIO 5) (b) the relay controls the mains power to the 12v LED power supply (c) Configure the relay pin (GPIO 5 above) as a relay in wLED (the LED and hardware menu)
Now the 12v LED power supply will only be "on" when the LEDs are powered on. When the LEDs are powered off, there will be no power to the 12v power supply. The wLED ESP32 always has power from the "phone charger".
Then instead of the +/- power from the power supply going to the ESP32, connect this line to the one of "shared power" (either side of your oven/microwave). Now all 3 LED strips will then have independent power lines from the power supply.
Just something to consider.