Hey, guys. I have my first WS2811 pixel lights using WLED up this year running on a Digquad v2 and am having issues with my upper roofline (Pixels 181-339). There is an extension from the lower to the upper roofline of about 20ft. There has been inconsistent behavior around pixel 240 - it stops abruptly there but occasionally will have random pixels further down the line. Both rooflines are on one channel.
Initially, I added a Quinled data booster to try to resolve this between the end of the lower roofline (pixel 180) and the extension to the upper and it initially fixed my issues. All 339 lit and were working perfectly. However, I’ve noticed it doesn’t make a difference now and it is back to not working through the entire upper pixels. I’ve confirmed the data booster on both resister settings with no luck. I’ve also swapped out the data booster with no luck.
I have attempted to power inject 14AWG from the digquad to data booster and separately via a T and the pixels consistently do not light prior (around pixel 165-170) to the injection point (at 180) or after when connected. When disconnected 1-180 light perfectly.
I am at a loss for what to do. I’ve second guessed so many things at this point and am not sure. Is there something incorrect about my power injection? Thanks for any suggestions.
You likely need injection about every 10’ if they are 5v. You could test this by setting them to 100% RGB and see if the color shifts towards red at the end.
I’m about to do basically the same layout, and am worrying I might see the same type of power issues.
Questions:
Are you’re pixels regulated. or resistor?
Have you measured the voltage at the end after the problem appears?
Have you tried using different outputs on the Digquad for the power injection?
I know, this last will require more wire, but it is what I plan to do.
BTW: Nice enclosure. I was looking for one like that but realized it is a bad idea from a heat disappation point of view.
Oh, and one more thing to try is putting data in a separate cable. If I understand correctly from what I’ve read this whole resister thing can be avoided that way.
I have thousands of LEDs on one run. Had all sorts of problems at first. The issues turned out to be (1) power injection, (2) a kink / short in the data wire after a certain LED. On your setup I’d guess aroud 159 or 160?
Might also consider replacing that string… ?
As for power injection, I take that to mean run AC out to the area where you plan to inject power and plug in another 12V brick. AC travels further than DC. Not sure why we do not use AC for this and do a basic AC/DC rectifier diodes at every pixel. :facepalm:
