I have an ESP32 with wled SR installed on it and I can’t get it to work when I wire it with longer cables. I connected a 12V 200W poweruply directly to the 2 white and red cables of the WS2815(5m, 300leds) leds strip. These are about 1.5 meters. I have now made a longer data wire so I can place the esp near the power supply. That cable is about the same length and the cable works. If I connect the GND of the esp to the other white cable directly to the led strip it works, but if I connect the GND of the esp to the same cable on the connector on the power supply as the negative wire to the led strip it does not work. I also tried running the ground through another longer cable, but that didn’t work.
I don’t know how to fix this because I would like to have the esp a little further than directly to the led strip. I put another drawing here for clarification.
The issue is probably not the ground wire.
How long is the data line?
The lack of a levelshifter is likely making it tough for your data signal to make it over the longer wire.
The data wire is 1,8m. This longer data cable works with the short ground.
That’s getting long for reliable data, about where I’d personally move over to Long Data solutions.
You still need a levelshifter, but if you go with TxRx pairs, you get that builtin.
Or you add the discrete levelshifter and see how your wiring fares.
Okay I can still try that. Currently I do have an
ESP32S 38pin Extension Board with the jumper set to 5V isn’t that sufficient too?
Without a proper levelshifter, the ESP can only output 3.3V.
That’s not enough for reliable operation, which is why you need a levelshifter.
Did you connect your backup data to ground? Your pic does not show that. Because you need to do that.
oh yes, i also did it with the backup connected. How much do you think the data and gnd can be without a levelshifer?