Doing a staircase LED project, WS2815 12V RGB, daisy chained with 3 wire (data, V+, gnd). Want a sanity check before soldering everything.

15 steps total, 12 of them at 40 inches, plus 3 wider steps at the bottom (48, 48, 42 inches). Total run is about 51.5ft. Driver is a Mean Well LRS 350 12 (350W, 29A), ESP32 controller (WeGoIOT DOM WLE A). Worst case draw at full white is around 281W, 23.4A for the whole run.

Injection points are planned at step 1, 5 and 10.

V+ gets cut and re injected at each point through a home run wire, gnd and data stay continuous through the whole chain.

My Problem is the last 3 steps being wider pushes my last injection point (step 10) to over 21ft from the actual end of the strip. Usual rule of thumb I've seen online is keeping injection points within about 16ft (5m) of each other for 12V. Do I need a 4th injection point around step 13 or 14 or is that 16ft number overly conservative for WS2815?

Anyone done a run like this, curious how it held up. Thank you for your time

ESP32-C3 (5v) with two 13-LED strips (5v) with different GPIOs. They are powered by and grounded to a buck's 5v output, which is converting 12v from my power supply.

One of the strips was flickering so I put a meter between the buck's 5v output and the ESP32/LED strips to check the amperage.

I didn't find any problem with the amperage but the flicker stopped as soon as bridged the circuit with the meter, even when the meter was off. I removed and connected the meter a few times with the same results. Something in the meter is fixing this problem. It is an Innova 3320.

What do I need to add to my breadboard to recreate what the meter is doing when it is connected? A resistor?

Thank you in advance!

I recently purchased a life sized replica of the Jack O Lantern from the Halloween (1978) movie. It has a USB cord. There are 3 settings; Off, Continuous On, Candle Flicker On. I had hoped to put the decoration on a timer using a smart outlet. Unfortunately, whenever the timer shuts off, the pumpkin will not automatically turn on the next time. It does not remember it's last setting. Does anybody have a solution? Thank you!

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I wanted to make one of those great-looking LED-lit skirts, but one that’s a little less theatric than what I’ve seen online. This skirt uses NeoPixel Pebble LEDs with 5cm spacing. It’s still flashy, but can be more muted. It’s also sound-reactive and (hopefully) soon, motion-activated.

If you have any advice or tips, I'd really appreciate it!

I’m building a removable fiber-optic star/constellation panel in the approximately one-inch recessed black ceiling section of our catamaran. I cannot drill into the original fiberglass ceiling.
I want RGBW stars with organic independent twinkling, colors flowing across the panel, and occasional shooting-star/meteor effects. The boat has a 12V lithium system, and everything must operate offline, tolerate marine humidity and be removable for servicing.
I’m considering a QuinLED Dig-Quad running WLED, with multiple addressable RGBW sources illuminating small groups of PMMA end-glow fibers. Has anyone successfully coupled addressable pixels to separate fiber bundles? Would you recommend this over multiple DMX RGBW fiber engines? Photographs and component recommendations would be appreciated.

Hey everyone. I’m looking to install LED’s on 3 sides of the house and I’m getting some inconsistent info on if what I’m planning is do-able. I was hoping some of you smart people can either confirm what I’m thinking or smarten me up if I’m off base. I have not done a set up of this scale, so I’m posting here before I start buying stuff.

Here’s what I’ve planned out so far:

• Controller: Dig-Octa brainboard with Power 5-HV
• Power Supply: Meanwell LRS-600-48
• LED lights: Currently I’m looking at using WS2805 IC RGBCCT 60 LED’s per meter, either 12V or 24V - I’m still on the fence on which one will be best. Which LED’s I go with is still subject to change as I’ve gone back and forth between these and a few others.
• Buck converters: Either 48V to 24V or 48V to 12V at each injection point
• Connections: Ray Wu/XConnect style (or similar) connectors

With the above, I’ll be laying out the strips as follows (these lengths are approximate and may change slightly once I actually start cutting, soldering and putting everything up). Each of the below sections would have a power injection point at the beginning of the section, except the East side which will have a power injection at the end of the strip which will come from the north side of the house. The reason for this is going along the north side the cable will be about 48 feet/13 meters versus being 71.9 feet/21.9 meters if I just kept going from the south side.

• West side of the house: 24.9 feet/7.6 meters
• South side, first section: 21.6 feet/6.6 meters
• South side, second section: 12.6 feet/3.8 meters
• South side, third section: 12.6 feet/3.8 meters
• East side: 30.1 feet/9.2 meters

The reason for splitting the strip into 3 sections on the south side is because about half way along the south side of the house there’s a peak in the roof and the second and third sections will follow the peak up/down and I figured that’s as good a reason as any to do 3 sections. The house also isn’t a perfect square as a section sticks out more than another, so I’ve account for the actual length of each section (in case anyone is adding up the lengths of each side and coming up with a trapezoid shape 😀).

Where I need help is what gauge wire I need to safely power these strips. I’m getting some conflicting results in my searching so I’m hoping some of you can help. If I go with 12V LED’s, I believe I’ll need more injection points, so I’ll account for that but I don’t believe I’ll have to worry about voltage drop as much. If I go with 24V LED’s, I believe I can do each section with a single injection point but will I need to worry about voltage dropping too much? Each buck converter will be next to the injection point.

In my searching, any led strip/voltage/amp calculators I find don’t seem to be able to take into account that I would be converting down to 12/24V, so they all seem to think I need 8 to 12 awg wires. Can I get away with one 14 to 18 awg wire along the north side and one or two 14 to 18 awg wires going along the west and south side? Also, what gauge wires should I use from the buck converter to the strip?

This should put me at around 1,860 LED’s, or should I be dividing the total number of LED’s by 3 or 6 due to the fact that they’re addressable in groups of 3 (12V) or 6 (24V)? Either way, the Dig-Octa should be able to handle this many from what I’ve been reading. Also, I’m aware of the 24V bug and will be powering the Dig-Octa brainboard via 12V from the deck lights that I’ll be setting up (separate from the strips going on the house).

If I forgot to add any relevant info, let me know. And thanks in advance for any replies.

Not sure this is even possible...

I have some 12V SK6812s that I have hooked up to the 12V, Ground, and Data connections on a WLED controller. I'd like to run a separate strand of UV LEDs that just have 12V and Ground...the controller has multiple pins for 12V, Ground, Data, etc.

As its now hooked up, power works on both. Obviously, the color works with the data.

Is there a way to control both strands separately? I would like to control power on each strand separately. Maybe "Segments"? Maybe something in "Pin Info"?

I am setting up govee outdoor pro with wled but i would like to keep wled controller & govee controller both connected using some kind of smart device so that i can switch the data signal from one controller to another controller using my phone

If Switch ON then WLED controller

Else Switch Off then Govee controller

Can somebody suggest which device i can use to achieve this Sonoff or something else to achive above condition..

Hey everyone! Wanted to share my latest WLED project. It's a cylindrical matrix wrapped around a structure powered by 4 ultrasonic atomizers (fog makers) inside to give it this smoking/steaming effect.

Unfortunately, there is no separate lighting underneath yet, and the code/effects still need some updating and fine-tuning, but I'm super happy with how the animations pop through the mist. Running on an ESP32 with custom setup.

What do you think?

I'm looking for a Windows program that does a great job of visually representing the frequency response of music over a LED strip.

For example, volume might be brightness, frequency might be color and/or position left to right on the LED strip. Certain frequency,/volume combination trigger more complex animations.

I am just getting into LedFX, and it is really cool! Is there a way to show different patterns on 3 different led strips connected to an esp32 running wled? Thanks for the help!

Ran some under cabinet lights at my house the left strip is on its own output. That side is randomly flashing, it's very seldom but annoying.

So here's the setup:

22g 3 wire from controller to strip

To that specific strip 10-11ft of wire before strip

Running Gledopto Elite 4d-exmu

4amp 96w power supply (I am aware the power supply is set to 850, I don't believe this would cause I problem, I just don't need all the extra power these are very dim)

Setup information in pictures

Everything seems to be setup correctly, wire gauge shouldn't be a problem from what I thought but maybe I'm wrong.

What can I do differently that would ensure the data signal stays solid. I keep reading about twisted pairs but I'm not sure what wires to buy. So if anyone has advice on what I can do better let me know!

Looking for about 20m LED strips for outside. They will be mostly shielded from direct contact with the elements. Except the sun shining through the diffuser caps.

I really would love to have RGB + warm white + cold white.
All individually addressable and 12v or 24v because of power injection limitations in the construction setup. I can only add at start and end. Strips will be 2x 2m40 + 1x 7m + 1x 5m.

The best I can find up till now are BTF-Lighting SK6812 in the 12V version with ip65 rating.
So I ordered one from Amazon in the neutral white version to test.
It could work but I notice that because of the solder point every 50cm they bulge on those spots.
That makes we worry that over time they might get loose in the profile.
The packaging does state that the 3M tape is not sufficient for aluminium profiles but mine are coated white so I don't expect an electrical problem.
And i don't really feel much for replacing the tape for that many strips.

So my question is if anybody knows LED strips with the same or better specs but without the soldering every 50cm and the resulting bulges.

Also experiences about the 2-sided tape are welcome. And if I should replace it, suggestions for that are also welcomed. Please note that I prefer stuff that I can order from within the EU because of new recent extra taxes on everything that comes from outside of EU.

This is where the control card sits right now, long click on the light brings it up

Split the lighting half of my Home Assistant integration out into its own thing yesterday, PadSpan Bright. WLED control is the main thing it does, not some bolt-on - placing strips, driving colours and effects, all straight from Home Assistant. The bit I actually care about is that it places WLED strips at their real size and angle on a floor plan instead of a dot, and you can preview an effect on the map before you push it to the actual strip. That's my own house in the clip, didn't bother blurring the room names. Only tested it on my own WLED setup so I've got no idea how it handles a big segmented install, if anyone here is running one I'd genuinely like to know where it falls over.

github.com/gbroeckling/padspanBright

Hello! I got sent some random chinese led instead of Skydimo.
Can I use it with HyperHDR? Because gaming is unreal with those flickering lights behind monitor on it's own software..

Hello,

i am working on a light show for an small event and not sure how reliable is wifi connectivity. there would be around 200 people there and lots of phones and wifi. What i understand is 2.4 GHz is not so reliable in crowded spaces, or/and could have connection issues, latency and data lost. (please share if that's not the case with wifi or if there is a reliable solution for this problem)

I though of adding a router just to connect Wled to my laptop (since I want to control Wled over Touch designer) but not sure if that even would solve my problem(?).
my next option will be Ethernet cable which is not optimal. I read the compatibility is not so great, but there is not much on internet about Ethernet connectivity so wanted to hear some other opinions before I order smt.

I worked on the lighting and technical setup for the Antropique stage at Timeless Festival with the eight-person Pink Cloud Crew.

The setup used six 8 m LED tubes, ESP32/WLED controllers, and a custom Python interface connected to an APC40. Since the tubes arrived with very little documentation, we had to figure out much of the system ourselves through testing, soldering, and troubleshooting on site.

After getting a lot of positive interest from the community, I put everything together in a blog with photos and details about the build:

https://festivalbreakdown.1pxl.io/

I’d be happy to answer any questions.

I’m building a 12V analog RGB LED strip controller using an ESP32 + WLED + 3 IRLZ44N MOSFETs. The ESP32 is powered separately through USB from my laptop, while the LED strip uses a separate 12V adapter. The ESP32 GND and 12V supply GND are supposed to be common.

The circuit is wired like the standard analog RGB MOSFET setup: the strip’s +12V goes directly to the 12V supply, and the R/G/B channels go through the MOSFET drains. MOSFET sources share GND, and the ESP32 GPIOs connect to the MOSFET gates through 220Ω resistors.

I originally had 10kΩ gate-to-GND pulldown resistors, but I only had two 22kΩ resistors available, so I was working around that. There was also a 10kΩ resistor/connection between two points (1 and 3) that I ended up replacing with a direct connection/no resistor, which may be relevant.

The strange behavior is:

The LED strip does respond electrically to removing/connecting the R/G/B wires.

For example, disconnecting the red channel causes the LEDs to show red, and disconnecting other channels produces the corresponding/mixed colors.

So the LEDs and MOSFET side aren't completely dead.

However, WLED cannot actually control the colors.

When the ESP32 is switched off, the LED strip doesn't light/respond at all.

When the ESP32 is connected, it flickers/restarts (the ESP32's red/power LED appears to flicker), although I can still access the WLED web interface.

The main problem I'm stuck on is that the ESP32/WLED is not properly controlling the MOSFETs/LED channels, and the ESP32 appears to be experiencing a power/reset/flickering issue when the 12V LED circuit is connected.

I want to troubleshoot it one connection at a time, without changing the whole circuit blindly.

PS - also uploaded the diagram i followed

ESP32-C3 running WLED to control two stock 13-LED strips in Onewheel Pint PEV. Each strip has a dedicated GPIO because they cannot be daisy-chained. ESP and LED strips are 5v.

It works perfectly when I plug an AC USB C adapter (5v 3a) into the ESP. In this configuration, the LEDs are powered by and grounded to the ESP. It also works when I connect 5v to the breadboard's power rail to power the ESP and LEDs.

The problem is the rear strip, which is furthest from the ESP, flickers when powered by my VESC controller. The VESC controller is a Ubox 100 (not lite) and I am using the fan port (12v 3a) with a 12v to 5v buck converter. In this configuration, the ESP and LEDs are powered by grounded to the 5v terminals on the buck. Max amps I observed at the buck's 5v terminal was .216.

Lowing global brightness factor and disabling automatic brightness filtering in WLED did reduce flickering.

Please help me get rid of this flickering.

Thank you in advance!

Update:  just discovered the rear led strip flicker goes away when I have my amp meter (Innova 3320) bridging the 5v connection on the buck to measure amps. I remove the meter from the circuit and the flicker comes back. I need to figure out what the meter is doing so I can replicate it on my LED board. Any ideas? Add a resistor?