5V LED strip only works properly off of 3V

[Jinx]

BSS138 is not recommended as it may be too slow.

Do NOT use BSS138 for logic level shifting (too slow!)

On the level shifter: The basic data stream for WS281x series is less than 1Mhz, but with some fairly tight timing requirements for the Hi and low pulses - down in the 150ns range. That means the ~2Mhz speed of the BSS138 device might not deal well with all of the data waveform, especially the faster bits. Any of the 74AHCTxxx devices will do a better job ('08,'32,125,245), they’re cheap, fast and reliable. If the size of the package is too much, the 74lvc2t45 is a tiny package with 2 indepe…