Glitchy behavior on existing deployment

Issues
1

Greetings all!

I have a QuinLED-Dig-Uno deployed with an Alitove AC 110V/220V to DC 12V 30A 360W power supply, powering a string of 7, 50 module Alitove WS2811s

It has been working perfectly for months.

Last week, it began exhibiting odd behavior. The WLED software does not appear to detect or at least be aware of an issue, but the behavior is as follows:

Lets say I’ve chosen the C9 New color scheme and the “Blends” action.

It would work for a random amount of time: some times minutes, sometimes hours.

Then all of the sudden the effect will only work on the first 20 or so LEDs and the rest go into random colors and become static as if they’re locked up. Also, right around where the breakpoint is where it is working/not working, the LEDs will glitch/blink randomly. Not every time, but most times.

If I power off the unit and power it back on, it will work again for an unspecified amount of time, and then glitch once again.

When it gets into that state, anything I do in the WLED app only affects the first 20 or so LEDs. The rest remain “frozen” or locked up. The WLED app continues to believe that all LEDs are available (at least as much as I can see).

I tried factory resetting the unit.

Now, if I set the number of LEDs somewhere between say 10-100, it appears to work “better”, but still glitchy. If I set it to anything more than, say 110, it immediately goes into that “first 20 works, everything else is locked up” state and stays there.

It is behaving like it is possibly a power issue, but I’m at a loss as to why something would have changed. It has been working perfectly since August of last year.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what I might try, or has anyone possibly seen this behavior before?

Thanks for any info. I’m somewhat of a novice in this area. :slight_smile:

Jarrod

2

What version of WLEd are you running?
Is NTP time set?

Probably worth taking a backup and do a full reload from scratch usb-> Install WLED and do a full erase.

3

It appears that I’m using 0.12.0 “Hikari”

Build 2104150

It also appears that the time server is set.

4

Definitely move up to 0.13-b6.
Use the install link in the last message and connect via USB.
Lots of good stuff in 0.13 not worth chasing old bugs in V0.12.

5

Sounds like a solid plan!

I have the meta text “backup” that it offered on the other side of the factory reset. e.g. the presets I had configured, etc. How do you restore that data after the new reload?

6

Once you get V0.13 up, there’s an option under Config->Security & Updates->Restore Presets that will let you browse to your save .json file and restore it.

Like I said, lots of new goodies in V0.13-b6.

7

Excellent suggestions!

I was able to re-flash the unit using the web installer you specified above (I had no idea that thing even existed! MUCH easier than when I did these last time)

I was also able to restore my presets!

Here is a critical clue as to the behavior in the first place. Everything was working brilliantly UNTIL I unchecked the “Enable automatic brightness limiter”. It IMMEDIATELY began behaving as I did before, with the flickering/glitchy LEDs in the same location… Everything before that location fine… everything after frozen. After playing with it for a bit, it looks like if I leave that box checked, I can go up to 1500 mA. Anything after that causes it to glitch.

That, to me, would point to a problem with the actual LEDs in the string itself… maybe?

8

Is your power supply actually good enough to drive all LED’s full bright white? I would have guessed it’s ok from your specs, but it might be worth a measure of the actual supply voltages at full power on the entire string.

After re-reading your last post, I’d do the power check first.
Look for excess drop around the spot where things freeze.
Might be a wiring issue (suddenly).

9

Okay good deal. Something definitely has changed, because I was able to run them much brighter than I can now.

I’m not as confident doing the electrical measurements. Should I measure the voltage coming out of the power supply first and then measure it around the area where it appears to be impacted when the brightness is raised?

10

Exactly, the measurement at the supply tells you what your output voltage is at max current output.
The measurement at the injection point(s) tells you what voltage is actually getting to your strip.

You can even measure further if you check the strip itself furthest from the/an injection point.
That’ll tell you the worst case scenario(s) for your wiring setup.
When you have an obvious problem point, where things go bad/odd after the “point” it’s not a bad plan to measure voltage on either side near the spot to see if you’ve developed a wiring problem.

11

I really appreciate your help! I’ll do some troubleshooting and come back with findings.