Tl;dr: I’m running 4x 12v 10W WS8211 floodlights. They power on no problem with the PSU on a relay, but can’t control beyond that and have intermittent flickering when on. I’m guessing I need a level shifter, but any other possible causes?
Longer, I have two separate PSUs, a 5v that drives the ESP32 and relay and the 12v that drives the lights. AC lines go to the 5v PSU first and those terminals are connected to the 12v with the relay on the hot wire; DC lines from the 5v go to the relay and the ESP32 (on VIN and GND); DC lines from 12v go to a fuse block; pigtails for the lines to the lights come from the terminal block and a GPIO pin.
Level shifter seems like the most likely issue, but wanted to make sure I’m not missing anything else while I wait for it to come in.
That said, though, right now I just have pigtails connected to pigtails. I assume I may yet need a level shifter for the final run which will be in the 3-6 feet between lights, and probably 1-2 feet between controller and first light range?
Definitely get a proper levelshifter from the ESP to the start of the lights.
You don’t have to worry after the the 1st pixel gets proper data as the output of that pixel is proper 5V level sent to the next and is regenerated by every later pixel.
You should be fine with those kinds of distances for data lines.
Proper wiring is a must, pay attention to your power requirements and the required wiring size to prevent voltage drops. Use a small dedicated line to supply data and a ground from the ESP to the start of the strip.