Lights flicker if I increase brightness past 80

Issues
1

I searched around and didn’t see an answer so sorry if this is a duplicate question. Here is my setup:

esp32 running wled v14
IIC I2C logic level shift to boost to 5v
WS8211 LED strips
12v 12amp power supply

I bought some easyplug3 pigtails (2.5ft/ea) from holiday coro (18awg wire) and ran the wire right into the controller box I made. I am running 5 sets of leds (28 pixels long) and running just the data from the end of the strip to the beginning of the next strip, power is extended to the next set at the beginning of the strip.

Everything works fine until start to turn up the brightness. I have looked in the FAQ and made sure I changed my maximum current, selected 12v LED’s and double checked all the other settings. If I keep it below 80 then all the effects and everything works fine. If I increase it over that it stars flicking and at 255 I get a lot of flashing. It’s on all the strips except the first one. I have tried placing a node pixel after the first strip connecting it to the second and that doesn’t seem to help. I have never used thick wire like this and am wondering if it could be causing problems. I have been trying to fix this for days with no luck so any help would be appreciated.

LED Lights
LED Lights1920×2560 583 KB

2

The ones that look like this?

71kpLcRE5IL.AC_SX679
71kpLcRE5IL.AC_SX679679×706 74.2 KB

Those are too slow for addressable LEDs I would choose a recommended shifter from the KB like the SN74AHCT125N.

You may need to add another power line from your power supply to the strips. I would add it to the last strip’s connector.

What are you using for a power supply? Got a Pic of how it’s connected?

If you ever find yourself looking for more of those they are the same as ‘xConnect’ that all the other vendors sell.

3

That is EXACTLY the I2C chip I bought. I will start down that road and replace it with a recommended level shifter. I’ll check back in and let you know if it fixes the issue.

This is the power supply I bought for the setup:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CRQ45BD?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Learning a lot with this project, thanks for the reply!

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4

I would also calculate how much power your LEDs use to make sure you are not trying to over drive the power supply.

5

Definitely change over to a supported levelshifter.
A simple test for potential power issues, reconfigure for only 1/2 to 2/3 of your pixel total.
You can leave everything connected, just tell WLED you have less pixels than you do.
That way when you light up your strip, you can test with full brightness and not worry about drawing too much current for your power supply,

6

A single strip can input about max 4Amps from a single edge injection. So your whole setup is currently limited to 4Amps max. I’m willing to bet if you set the power limiter in WLED to 4000mA the flickering issue isn’t going to occur.

If so, connect a power injection at least at the end of the last strip too and see if the problem goes away. That way you can at least deliver around 8Amps into the setup (given the wires and diameter chosen support this for the distance they are).

You can calculate here what you’d actually need to run the pattern you’d like to do.

7

Hey just wanted to follow up here. I bought a F-amp w/ pigtails and a couple Quindor boosters as well for good measure. I started with the F-amp because it was easiest and inserting the F-amp booster in the beginning of my string fixed the issues. Now I have some extra for future projects. Thanks to everyone for your expertise and help.

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