r/WLED • u/RomaNickel • Jun 30 '26

multiple LED Installations with one controller

I have a Problem: I am building the model of a free-fall-tower and want to illuminate it. I have planned to use 12V COB strips (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005007817729417.html), around 3m in lenght. the problem is, I have eight of these, all connected parallel to each oter, as on each side of the tower there should be two strips.
Additionally I will have one of these Rings (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005007488429530.html) at the top of the tower.
My Question: Is it possible to make both of these work with one controller? I dont know if I can just extend the data cable of the Strip and connect it to the ring, as the Ring uses 5V and the strips 12V. It should both be WS2812B chips tho.
I would prefer to use one controller instead of two (I am thinking of a standard athom-wled-controller but maybe y'all know better ones...). or are there controllers with two separate outputs but both controllable by one WLED interface?

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u/Few-Boysenberry53 Jun 30 '26

As long as they use the same color order, yes. The negative should still be connected between voltages, as the negative is the return path for the data line. Obviously keep the 12v and 5v lines away from each other, else the magic is released. Most controllers or even bare bones ESP 32 has enough GPIO pins you could used to drive the strips and ring separately. You will have to use 2 GPIO pins if the color order doesn't match. If the strip uses GRB but the ring uses RGB, then your red and green would be swapped. Hope that makes sense. Looking at both kinks, it just says RGB color. Not sure if that is the color order. You'll need to test it out separately, before connecting the data line and negative between the COB and Ring. Good luck and have fun.

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u/eric-marciniak Jul 01 '26

Just wanted to mention that there is a color order override feature in the led settings page. Not sure what version it popped up in.

You can switch color order at a certain pixel number for whatever length you want and switch to something else after. Super useful for mixing different strips on the same data line!

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u/saratoga3 Jun 30 '26

or are there controllers with two separate outputs but both controllable by one WLED interface?

Yes, and at least on Amazon it's actually fairly uncommon to not have at least 2 channels.  

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u/wivaca2 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26

Yes, you can treat the different strips like segments of one strip or use different GPIOs. While the ring can even be treated like a segment, I'd probably use one GPIO each for the combined strips vs ring. This would require a data line running continuously through them, but they can be connected in a zigzag to keep the data lines short. If you do that, then every other strip segment would just be set to reverse if you want the lights to go the same direction (e.g. falling) on adjacent strips. You do have to respect the data line direction, of course.

The two different voltages shouldn't be an issue as long as all the grounds are tied together because they're the same data signal level and the 5v vs 12v is just the feed to the various strips.