I have connected the data pin to the SK6812 leds with a 0.5m wire. At the beginning I have added a 470Ohms resistance and I get a lot of sparkles and glitches. I bypassed the resistance and I get just a glitch every a couple of minutes. Does the length of the data wire affect the performance? Should I skip the resistance altogether and use a sorter wire to improve the performance?
You’d want a shielded wire for long lengths on a data wire. Also make sure it’s not twisted with any other wire as every wind introduces impedance.
Thanks! I did not know that twisting the cable would increase the impedance!
Hence the source of my problem could be mainly due to the noise I get in my data wire? If it’s that then should I leave the 470 Ohm resistance as is to protect the first led chip?
Skip the resistor and think about adding a level shifter.
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Sorry for the simple twisted wire cable question . If i used both twisted pair to send the same signal/power etc would you still add impedance? I’ve got lots of cattle cables around I was hoping to use up instead of having to buy new for various projects.
As far as power for your strip is concerned, you only need to worry about the resistance of the wire being used - that translates to wire gauge - due to the voltage drop caused by current through that wire.
As far the data line goes, twists and/or routing can have an affect on the data stream depending on how long the run is. Look at the KB: Long data lines for more info.
Remember - data wiring is not the same as power wiring, that have different requirements.