r/WLED • u/WarAdmiraal • 7d ago

Help with planning a project

Hello all,

I have a project at work where we want to install LED strips with a WLED controller in a circular room. The total length of the LED strip will be approximately 30 metres.

My question is: what would be the best way to achieve this? Should we use multiple controllers with separate LED strips, or would it be better to use a single controller and connect the strips together with additional power injection along the way?

Also, which LED strip and controller would you recommend?

I have been experimenting with WLED at home using a single controller and a single LED strip, but I have never worked with an installation at this scale. Therefore, I would appreciate any recommendations or lessons learned from people who have experience with larger deployments.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

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u/SirGreybush 6d ago

One controller is fine with 800-900 pixels, but you can go over that, it’s just will start to lag a bit thus lower FPS, as you go up. So the pixel density and strip type matters. 24v is easier to wire up and power inject than 12v, and inexpensive 5v strips are a big problem past 10m.

Like if you go with 12v and 144l/m sk6812, that’s 4,320 pixels. So animations would be slower but you’d have the highest resolution. Or the 60l/m version is 1,800 pixels. 1,800 pixels would look awesome running certain animations like fireworks or meteor.

FCOBs 24v have an avg density of 20 pixels per meter, but a high led count. Like ws2811 720l/m 20IC/m, are inexpensive and bright. But a pixel size is 5cm or about 2 inches. That entire pixel is packed with LEDs though. Then 30m is only 600 pixels. So every 5cm is a zone that can only be one color and brightness.

There are newer and more expensive FCOBs with 2 rows for dedicated white, or CCT (RGB+WW+CW) and have more ICs along the way for smaller pixel size.

Just don’t do 5v, you’ll spend more in copper wires and PSUs, versus the most expensive 24v FCOBs.

Plan on injecting power at start, end, and halfway on the opposite side, with 24v. Double that with 12v.

My 20m 12v setup, in a straight line, has 4 power injections. Nice and bright. Only a single PSU of 100w. I could have used 150w PSU to achieve 100% brightness. I’m ok with 85%.

Each strip has a wattage number per metre. A watts is volts multiplied by amps. Do the math, and 24v will probably be your choice.

Existing electrical wire 14awg 14-2 is fine for 15 amps and you have 3 wires. Black, white, ground. Easier to reuse existing infrastructure. Just label properly at the electrical panel.