I’m a complete newb and trying to convert to using my own power supply and LED controller aka ESP32. My current issue is that the lights aren’t lighting even hooked directly up to the output from the power supply. Bypassing the step down & the ESP32. Simply hooking the positive output to the positive wire on the LED string and likewise with the negative. If I connect to the string using the controller and power supply that was included, the lights work fine. I can include pictures later. Any help would be welcomed.
If you bypass the controller than there is nothing to tell the LEDs to turn on. The minimum configuration that will work is power supply, controller and LEDs wires together.
Hi Saratoga, Thanks for your response and that’s very good to know! I’ll add them back into the mix. Part of the reason I bypassed them was because I’m not sure what to set the step down to, 3.3v or 5v. I think the ESP32 is actually 3.3v, but thought I’d read that it needs 5v. Also, once I have that, is there something special I need to do in the WLED app?
Thanks for your suggestions! Can’t wait to try to get them working after work. One other thing that I’ve read is that I should be using a “common ground”. Which I think, I’ve come to understand means that the grounds all need to be tied together? Am I on the right track with that?
Most of the examples for wiring that I see are for LED strips. I’m using “pixel” type lights. If that’s the correct term. They are 12v WS2811 lights that look like the image below.
Once I had the lights connected correctly, I also had to change the GPIO setting to indicate the proper pin being used. The WLED app defaulted to ‘16’ and I had to change it to ‘2’, There was no ‘D16’ pin, or I would have moved the connection to it. Not sure if it matters? Lights came on when I changed it to ‘2’.
Yes it matters. If the GPIO WLED is set to send data to does not match the one you are connecting your lights to, they are not going to work (It can’t tell the ws2811 chip what it’s supposed to do). Just like if you turn on/off a light switch in your house that is not wired to the light you intend to turn on/off.
The wiring diagrams apply to both strips and strings of pixels.
Those pixels you have are referred to as bullet pixels in case you are ever looking for more of them
