So i am new to all this and i have some questions about the chips from what i have seen the esp32 boards require 5v step down from a 12v power supply my question , is there a similar board that can do the same job but is 12v , I am doing my first project using WS2815 LEDs since i was given about 30 5m strips and i have ordered everything including the step down but i then got curious since if i can avoid having to order the step down everytime it would save me money in the long run.
ordered for this project 12v 10a powersupply , esp32 , 5v step down (to connect the esp32) 1 of the ws2815 led strips 5m 60led per m and a silicon defuser . is that all i need (will never be running full white on the led strips so will 12v 10a be enough) any advice
All the ESP chips are 3.3V devices so many of the boards have 5V->3.3V converters (although not all).
Most people find it simple enough to add a small buck converter to go from 12V to 5V for the ESP supply.
They’re simple and cheap, a 1A capable device is typically all you need to run the ESP.
The other thing to consider is a levelshifter, depending on how far your ESP will be from the start of the strip.
The 3.3V output of the ESP provides only a marginal signal for the LEDs. The levelshifter, moves the maximum of Hi data up to the 5V value the LEDs require. I’m partial to the 74AHCTXXX devices as they require only a 5V supply and are pretty simple to wire up. Checkout levelshifters in the KB
You’ll have to get the specs or (better) measure the actual current draw of a few of the LEDs to know what’s the real draw of these LEDs. That will tell you what PS you need for your usage. You don’t mention how many LEDs/m are in your strips?
yeah 300 led in the strip, i am excited for this project but feel very out of my depth and throwing out some questions get anything that will help it all go well
Perfect timing for this question.
A couple years ago I designed a board that plugs directly into a standard ESP32 board and would have a simple jumper to use for 12V lights or 5V lights. Either way would pass through to the string so you could use a standard 1.5A wall wart if you wanted.
Problem is, right before I was going to have a boatload of boards made, my computer crashed and I lost my design. I lost that and a few hundred other boards, 3d designs, Arduino projects (including one that took over 200 hours to make), graphics, etc. I thought I had recovered all of the data but, for the life of me, I can’t find a drive that will open any data so it’s readable.
Back to the point. After a really rough last few years I seem to be in a place where I was going to remake the design. I actually woke up this morning intending to start working on it today since I ordered 10 strips of WS2815’s last night.
It would take a few weeks to get the boards in my hands for a reasonable price so, nobody should hold their breath on me having them in the next couple weeks.
In the meantime, there are lots of dual voltage power supplies out there. The old PC cases always had one. They all were 12v/5v power supplies. They aren’t even remotely water resistant but there easily found for free in any large city when people are giving away old computers.
Update on my post above.
I couldn’t remember the board I was using. It’s NodeMCU. There’s two sizes (that I know of).
And, as luck would have it, I actually made the add on board for splitting voltage AFTER I lost all my data. It appears it was the first thing I worked on. So, I have the design and might get boards made soon, after a couple tweaks to the design.
If memory serves, I made the add on design for both sizes but I haven’t checked that far yet.
Changes, I want to add a plug for the LED connector so there won’t be stray wire connections which cause weak points.
Sounds like you’re new to all this. I’d suggest you take a look at the compatible controllers in our knowledge base. Many of the controllers work with 5-12v or 5-24v. Get a simple installation working and then as you learn more, take on a more DIY project where you are assembling a dev board, level shifter, buck converter, resistors on your data lines, buttons, microphones, etc.
I’m really new to all of this, both discourse and WLED. Where would I find the Knowledge base of equipment. I’ve been going this alone and have had so many hardware and firmware loads problems that I want to scream. BTW: this is my first post ever.
Do you know if Domestic Automation LLC has any support for their Vegas Lights LED Chauffeuse boards? I have four of them and the first two failed in exactly the same way. They will only control about 31 LEDs. I have set the LED Configuration to many other values and the work up to 31 only If I set it to 199 or 200, which is how many LED’s I have in this string, it only controls 32. If I set it to something less than 31 then it controls the correct amount. It worked the first time I set to 200, but when I disconnected it from power and reapplied power they have never controlled more than 31 LED’s. Any suggestions? Should I be on another sub-reddit?
As @Jinx mentioned, there are potentially 2 spots where LED lengths come into play:
Config->LED Preferences
This is where you tell WLED about the total # of LEDs you’ve attached to your ESP (and how you’ve attached them)
Segments (see the KB: Segments for details and other features)
Segments let you split up the total # of physical LEDs into sections that you can control independently.
You normally will have 1 segment that starts at “0” and has a Stop value equal to all your LEDs.
If you’ve been working with the total # of LEDs in Config, you may end up with a segment that doesn’t match the total LEDs you have.
That’s the Config section, you’ve told WLED you have 2 strips:
35 LEDs attached to GPIO2
15 LEDs attached to GPIO4
In the main WLED GUI you’ll get a single strip of 50 LEDs.
Depending on how you’re connecting to the GUI (Phone, Tablet, PC) you can either chooses the Segment display section or it will be in the upper center right section of the screen.
There’s a drop-down arrow that will give you details about the segment(s). That’s where you’ll see the Start, Stop, Spacing, and Grouping info.
