Its a 24v WS2811 5m strip with 70 (counted) sections, 620 leds/m …
I have tried both ESP32 and ES8266, the strip lights up, so I have power, but changing colour or effect just makes all the lights change and flicker…
I have the LED strips connected to a 24V supply, the ESP8266 running on a 5v USB supply, the ground and data pins are connected to GND and GPIO2 on the ESP.
There isn’t an option to choose WS2811 24v, I sort of assumed these strips would work, but it looks like they may not be compatible, should I just return and look for something else ?
They should just work w/281x protocol.
If your PS’s are good and you have a common ground between the ESP and the strip, your next step will be to add a proper Levelshifter (not I2C).
So a 24V 200W 8A power supply connected to Red (+ve), White (-ve) then connected to the two (extra) power injection wires (red and white on led strip) …
This then leaves three wires on LED Strip, Red, Green and White, I have :
White (GND) connected to ESP GND
Greens (data) connected to GPIO4
I assume this means I have a common ground as the ESP is connected to white on the LED strip, which in turn connects to the -ve on the 24v side of the power supply ?
I’d recommend the 74AHCT125 based devices, make sure to wire all the unused inputs per the diagram and include the 100nF bypass capacitor. Don’t worry about the output resistor for your setup. As per the diagram, the levelshifter sits inline with the data from GPIO to the strip. It raises the output of the GPIO from a max of 3.3V to a max of 5V as required by the LEDs. You can think of It needs 5V power to operate properly
Ok parts ordered from amazon, soldering fun tomorrow !!
Two questions if I may ?
When you say inline, essentially the level shifter sits between the data line out of the ESP32 and the LED Strip, we are raising the data sent from 3.3V to 5V which is what the LED Strip expects ?
In effect this is a workaround for the fact the ESP32 works at 3.3V ? If there was such a thing as a ESP32 that output Data at 5V this wouldn’t be necessary.
Second question, at the moment the ESP32 is powered via a 5V USB connection, where do I get the 5V needed for this ? Do I need to buy a separate power supply that breaks out the 5V +ve & -ve, providing a 5V supply and GND ?
Yes, the need for a levelshifter is because the entire line of ESP devices is limited to a max supply of 3.3V.
As far as 5V power, the ESP board and levelshifter typically need only 1.5A at absolute worst so almost any 5V 2A supply is adequate. Some people have used a USB 2A charger or a 5V2A “wallwart” style device. Just remember to connect the data and ground wire to your strip when using a separate PS.
The other option would be to get a 24V->5V 3A buck converter and use that to drop the main supply for the ESP.
Ok I think I’m nearly there, I’m using a 5V 2A Apple plug to USB in on the ESP32, that works and powers the ESP32 fine.
The bit I’m confused on is : In the levelshifter diagram for SN74AHCT125 it shows 5V going to pin 4, 10, 12, 13 and 14, where do I get that 5V from ? I’m using an ESP32 powered from a standard USB power supply…
To give things a little perspective:
Pin 14 on the 74AHCT125 is the power (Vcc) pin that supplies the device.
All other connections to 5V are logic inputs that correspond to Hi level.
Similarly pin 7 is the power supply Gnd for the chip and all other connections are logic Lo inputs.
The 5V you use is the same that powers the ESP32. Depending on the board, you usually can get 5V at the Vin pin when powered from the USB connector (check with a multimeter to be sure). If you use a separate “wall wart” or other plug in supply, just add wiring from that supply to the levelshifter.
I couldn’t figure it out, I abandoned the idea of DIY and bought a quinled quad instead. The good news is this works flawlessly. Some fiddling in wled to get the right led version, order for RGB and number of segments. But once setup everything works with the advantage of a single power supply. Rather than one 24v for the lights and a second smaller 5v for USB power.
hey y’all. created this account tonight after three full weeks of bashing my head on this. enjoyed the ups and downs of mosfets and PWM to get two 24v CCT strips working on my EESP32 D1 mini.
but.
dear god. I have tried everything for the WS2811, same one as the link from OP. I have tried resistors and mosfets and first a low power bi directional level shifter and latest a more purpose built unidirectional level shifter (74AHCT125N). I have tried with the chip connected to a 24v → 5V usb plug, I have tried controlled directly with an adjustable power supply.
I have seen every kind of crazy behavior except the right behavior. Last night with jacked into the USBs 5v pin to my 74AHCT125N and got the closest to finished but only when my multimeter’s ground pin was connected to the ground power distribution block (V+ not connected to anything) but as soon as I pulled it off, back to light spasms
tonight i tried with the adjustable power supply so everything except the strip ran on 5V. broke out my last new ESP32 and tested three different 74AHCT125N in case of a dud. and behavior was honestly worse, no movement in the lights at all, just sitting in the wrong random mix of colors. When I unplugged the data from the level shifter, back to spasms, spasms stop when plugged back in but no control, couldnt even get them to change with flicker like I could in all the other setups.
so. for the sake of my sanity. I would deeply appreciate any and all feedback. for the first few weeks this steep curve from “never soldered” to “ahh yea check line 67 for the VGS(th) on the MOSFET datasheet” was fun and challenging. but now i am broken.
Yep, which is what I tried after one of the low power bi-directional level shifters. Still no luck. Created this post to see if anyone has any feedback!
