Is my power suppy too soft? or?

Questions
1

Hello all,

I am just confirming as I think I may know but I am not 100% sure.

I have WS2812B 60/m strips 300 in total. I have a 40W 5V 8AMP power supply. Based on my research 6AMP per 150 LEDs but read it is normally more than enough… guess it was not good advice.

I connected the strips on both ends - and all bright colours the “Whites” “yellows” are faded towards the end of the wire. I was hoping connecting both ends would solve this - but has not.

IMG_20210306_150204
IMG_20210306_1502044608×2304 1.39 MB

I split the red wire into 3 - 1 for controller “currently using SP107E” waiting for the boards for WLED, 1 for the start of strip and 1 for the end of the strip.

maybe - I am using this wire supplied in a LED pack - it is pretty thin, could this be the issue?
dirty work but was testing before doing it nice:

IMG_20210306_150131
IMG_20210306_1501314608×2304 1.03 MB

Any help or recommendations would be gladly appreciated.

Thank you

Ben

2

I think the 40W rating is also far too low…
I have no idea how I got to this - but I am underpowered - need I think a 90W - 20AMP - 5V supply.

Hopefully can find one not too big and not too intrusive.

3

You want a >=12A supply. Make sure wire is 20 awg or heavier for the current, but you also need to consider the wire lengths.

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4

Thanks -

So i need to get 12AMP power supply, ok - what about wattage? seems I need at least 90W too?

Also the wire length for the end bit is less than 1m50cm.

5

You can use your power supply with limiter without problem. Color change on your strip is due to voltage drop. It’s happen when you power with small gauge wires too. Use proper gauge for power injection.

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6

Thanks - will change the wires first :slight_smile:

7

Power (watts) and current (Amps) are directly related. 12A * 5V = 60W

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8

Power down your strip immediately and verify the polarity. Don’t go by the cabling color - check polarity on the strip itself.

There should be no fading towards one side if you are powering it from both sides. There could be fading in the middle. If you see fading on one end of the strip it’s not connected or you polarity is wrong.

I had this issue on my strip where i went by the wire color and something was wrong - turns out while red was +5V and black was GND on one end of the strip it was reversed on the other end. The strip would light up partially and then heat up. I started to diagnose my software when I noticed the heat. Thankfully nothing was damaged.

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