Hello,
I have a Govee H619C and the controller isn’t the best.
I would like to use it with WLED, however it has 4 pins instead of 3:
Can I use it with WLED, and if yes, how?
Best regards
Aaron
Can I use it with WLED, and if yes, how?
That’s an WS2811 strip.
Just make a Wled control board and set the led type.
Eazypezy.
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@akriss
The pins I have are GND, 24V, DI, NC.
Is that NC a clock signal of some kind?
Where does that pin go on the ESP32?
How do I configure that?
Also, when I googled WS2811, I only saw 3-pin stripes, no 4-pin variants like I have
The pad NC=not connected.
Yes just one data pin.
Pretty much any pin on a esp32. However there are a few incompatible pins.
Check the Wiki. Wled folk’s have compiled a very comprehensive Wiki. It’s a great source of knowledge.
here’s a good Led id reference page: Pixel Wiring Colors - doityourselfchristmas.com
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But why is it connected on the original Govee controller then, and why is it even there?
That’s a question for a engineer at Govee.
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But would it work if I only connect 24v and GND from the strip to the original PSU, DI to my GPIO on the ESP32 and the GND on the PSU to GND on the ESP?
Yes. shared ground wires and separate positive’s from each power supply. 24v to the strip and 5v to the esp32.
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Id guess it may was planned for a second Ground.
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@akriss
OK, so I took the original PSU that the strip came with, wired its + to + on the LED strip, its - to - on the LED strip and GND on the ESP32, the data for the strip to a GPIO on the ESP32, connected the ESP32 via USB to a phone charger.
I got the strip to light up at least, but it is strange:
- Only the first few LEDs have the color defined in WLED
- The LEDs only take a different value if I power cycle the 24v PSU
This is how it looks like with the color set to magenta…
UPDATE 15:13: It doesn’t even light up anymore, just briefly flashes blue/red for some milliseconds and then turns off.
How can I make it work correctly?
Best regards
Aaron
I noticed that when the GND of the ESP32 is connected to the negative wire of the PSU, it somehow can’t control the strips and the colors “freeze” in place.
If I disconnect the GND, the strip lights up, but it isn’t consistent across the length and it randomly cycles color although I set a solid green in the WLED App.
You’re going to have to draw up a basic schematic for how you’ve wired this.
It sounds like you’ve got something basic missing, but it’s just a bunch of guesses until you can do this methodically. That will start with a diagram so we can all talk from the same page.
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@divsys
Ok, here’s my schematic:
I am not that experienced in drawing those, so please correct me if you see any errors in there
Your data and ground connections from the ESP32 look correct, but how are you powering the ESP32?
Most boards need a 5V power input and can’t handle a 24V power supply.
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I am powering it via a 5V USB PSU connected to the USB-C port on the ESP
What ESP32 board are you using?
Do you have a levelshifter inline with your data?
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I’m using a M5Atom lite.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a level shifter.
Could I somehow use a BC547 transistor as a replacement for this, as I have plenty of these laying around?
The data line needs some pretty fast switching to handle the 150ns pulse times.
The KB has the recommended devices to use as levelshifters: KB: Compatible Hardware
You could try putting the ESP32 very close to your strip so the data line is 5cm as a short term test, but there’s no guarantee this will work at all.
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The data line is only 3cm.
Could the BC547 be used as replacement for a levelshifter as I don’t have one?
Or is it too slow for the LED data?
Any of the circuits I have seen using the BC547 are good for 400Khz signals at best, that translates to 2500ns switching times.
As I mentioned, the WS281x LED protocols require switching times more than 10x as fast.
You need something fast enough.
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