Long distance between Floods

Issues
1

Need some help understanding what is going on. Running some flood lights from attic to front lawn. I know the problem has something to do with this distance between, but what is the actual problem and how do i fix?

10 Watt RGB 12v Flood Light

Current setup:

  • NodeMCU
  • 12v power supply - 30amps
  • ACDC conversion to 5v for NodeMCU
  • Level shifter chip for data wire

Setup A:

  1. 40 ft of 18awg wire to #1 Flood LED
  2. 18 ft to #2 Flood LED
  3. 25 ft to #3 Flood LED
  4. 25 ft to #4 Flood LED – power injection back to power supply

Problem: when i run this setup #1 & #2 LEDs light; #3 & #4 will blink or remain off when running Solid effect. Better results if run effect like Fireworks 1D.

Setup B:

  1. 40 ft of 18awg wire to #1 Flood LED
  2. 0 ft to #2 Flood LED
  3. 18 ft to #3 Flood LED
  4. 25 ft to #4 Flood LED – power injection back to power supply

Solution: Setup B work perfectly when moving #1 & #2 back to back. #3 & #4 led now have no problems with full brightness.

Why does this work and the other setup doesn’t?

2

What you describe is typical of attempting to send TTL data too far with your data wiring.

You may be able to make some scenario(s) work better with different cable type, and/or termination resistor, and/or a data booster - YMMV.

Or you could change the data connections to TxRx differential pairs and get a reliable setup.

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