Hi all.
I am attempting to build a wled setup using five 1.7m segments of 5V, 60leds/m SK6812 strips (102 leds per segment) connected to a 5V, 30amps psu. (See image 1 for a diagram of the setup)
This setup is part of a custom desk space I’m building (see image 2 for a picture of this space). I suspect some of the cabling under the plywood to be just over 3m long, to reach the farthest-reaching strips.
I tried powering up the whole system, but it would not work properly. Then, I tried powering up each strip individually for diagnostic purposes.
The visible issue I noticed when powering up each individual strip is that just the strip located more closely to the psu and ESP32 would properly receive commands. All other SK6812 strips will power up, but will not obey the ESP32 instructions. The first led will power up in red, while the rest will be green (See image 3 for the working strip and image 4 for the faulty strips’ behavior).
I began to suspect an issue with the strength of the signal in the data cable as the only strip that’d light up correctly was the closest to the ESP32, which has the shortest wiring.
I hooked up a spare, 5m SK6812 strip close to the ESP32 and psu, which worked fine. I then introduced several meters of data cable between the strip and the ESP32, and sure enough, the issue resurfaced. I am not completely sure about the cross-sectional area of cables I used. I bought them several weeks ago. But I am fairly sure I used 1.5mm2 wires for voltage, ground and data, just as the diagrams I made suggest. (See image 5 for a picture of the data cable).
I would like to resolve the issue without having to rewire the entire setup, since the plywood is all screwed in place. For that purpose, is there any way I could boost the signal coming out of the ESP32 board? Even if it is a slight boost, it may greatly help.
Thank you for you time.
