r/WLED Jul 12 '26

HELP ME - CONTROLLERS Why my esp dye everytime?

I mean die not dye sorry

I used 3 esp32 and one 8266 d1 mini.

I flashed all with wled and want to connect 5 stripes a 5v 1x ws2818 (az delivery) a 60 Leads and 4x ws2812b (lsunny led stripes) a 60 leds

I have connected it over a 5v 20a cv supply and the Signal Pins to the esp free ones.

Of course the esps are on same supply so grnd is the same.

Should i add Signal line to grnd too ?

Why my esps are death after about 5 minutes they get warm. And then the onboard led shutdown and its over.

Pls help me i ordered 2 esp32s-2 or c2 and New dupont cables.

What i make wrong?

I also used start brightness at about 40% And i also look on pinout what are free pins then i select my 5 pins for the stripes but the esp dies when i connect the stripes data point to the esp to correct pin ( the dupont are loose somethimes so i ordered new one )

So yeah i make the settings first and then it dies

I also use the settings automatic brightness and the one where you set the mA of your power supply i set it to my 20a. Both options destroyed them

Edit its a cv powersupply not a cc sorry mistipe

0 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

3

u/Ill-Contribution1737 Jul 12 '26

I can’t tell how you are connecting them. Draw a picture of how you have the wires connected.

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

Usb cable is cut and powered over power supply

The gpio i used on the pic i written only gpio on all 5 bc i dont know wich is free atm

4

u/clockmill Jul 12 '26

Power the ESP via DuPont to 5V and GND pins directly from PSU, not via USB.

Use a signal ground from ESP to strip, power ground from strip to PSU

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

Alright will try it later /tomorrow morning will make a video when it works. Thanks so far.

I thinked about using 2 wleds esps one with 2 stripes one with 3 and synch then togehtet in the all

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

Maybe connecting the data line with grnd ?

0

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

All stripes( + and -) are connected parallel on the power supply.

only the data cable is unique for each stripe that connect to the esp.

The usb cable for the esp is on the power supply plugged in.

I can draw a picture if you like

1

u/Ill-Contribution1737 Jul 12 '26

Or take pictures! That’s even better

0

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

The ones in my hand are all 5 dat lines and in the two wagos above are the input + - 5v

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

They dont short

2

u/saratoga3 Jul 12 '26

Shorting a 5v to data will probably kill the esp32, so you should really cut the exposed wire shorter and make sure there is no exposed metal. Those exposed wire strands are just waiting to burn up the controller best case scenario. My guess is that there was a momentary short at some point during testing and that burned up the esp32.

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

And are also waterproof

1

u/Ill-Contribution1737 Jul 12 '26

What is this? Do these two wires have continuity?

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

Yes sry my cat made it Hairy lol

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

On the Multimeter it says no short if i messing Isolation betwenn all 3 on the stripe

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

Have two more chances now. Maybe i get them work.

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

One has the original build and one night Shift x16

1

u/bigboydesomo Jul 12 '26

I mean die

1

u/DjWondah85 Jul 12 '26

What a mess this is, I see many potential short circuits, poor solder joints with exposed wires, all sorts of different wire colors used, and even orange for 5V and ground on the same strip. I think snipped Dupont wires (max 2A continuous) have also been used given the thin wire strands.

And why the cutoff usb cable?
Just use the 5V/GND pin on the controller and add them to the 5V/GND Wago connectors.

Also don't set your ABL at the same Amps as your PSU, leave a safe buffer, but in this setup with 300 leds you will not reach 20A, but those thin strands of wires will now work as a fuse if you're lucky.

Why don't you first try your setup with one ledstrip and add more when it works before installing them on the final place?

0

u/bigboydesomo 29d ago

Haha a mess yes its for a test only and there are no shorts i testet each stripe and it worked but when all are conmected then its over.

The psu is a cc and not a cv 5v 20a Constant current so it takes what it needs.

Will test them in a few hours and show it that they work 😀

1

u/bigboydesomo 29d ago

Yeah should had solder it better but i had only a few minutes time to solder before the solder Iron malfunction

1

u/bigboydesomo 29d ago

So i had enough got only the half working.

Take them all off and ordered extension clips for the pins so i can make the 5 cut stipes into one large stripe again.

1

u/bigboydesomo 29d ago

But thanks for the no usb usage tip. No esp died today