Ok, so I just tried hooking the 10 foot run directly to D2 on my ESP32 and at first there was an issue because I had a 470Ohm resistor close to the ESP on that wire, but after removing the resistor, everything works fine: D2 on the ESP32 directly to the 10 foot run of wire before the first pixel works like a charm.
This has been a journey.
Yes, a 470ohm resistor on the output of the ESP device will definitely decrease the signal too much and affect performance to the point where it likely wonât work at all. As per the recommendations in the wiki the output resistor is a good idea on the output of a proper logic shifter.
Ok, I was hopeful because the setup with no level shifter and no resistor made but with a 10 foot lead worked well on my work bench controlling a strand of 50 lights, so I took the setup outside to hook up to my lights. Outside the first 50 light strand worked just great, but nothing beyond that was controlled, all random flickers. Outside Iâm injecting 12v at 100 LEDs (so after 2 strands). I should note that I have a 15â run of wire between each strand (theyâre mounted on some pillars on my front porch). Could it be that the control signal coming from the end of one strand of lights and then having to traverse 15 feet of 18 gauge wire just isnât possible?
If your first strand worked fine then it must be an issue between your strands. Have you confirmed the grounds are all actually connected together? The data signal is recreated after every pixel so it isnât an issue coming out of your controller. Can you test this on a bench? I know how frustrating it can be when you have it all installed and something doesnât work.
Also set to controller to a lower pixel count and gradually up the amount until to get the flickering. This may then point you to a dodgy pixel or poor solder joint.
If you lower the brightness by 50% and the flickering stops, more power injection is needed.
Yeah, I hope to pull it off the house and test it indoors where I can control stuff a bit better. My current hypothesis is that since the first strand seems to work well I wonder if itâs an issue with the intermediary run from the end of the first strand to the beginning of the next strand. Since theyâre mounted on pillars, thereâs a 15 foot length of 18/3 wire from one strand to the next, I wonder if thereâs something about that causing it to not work. I inject power at the beginning of the second strand, so after the 15 foot run of wire.
If this is a 12V strand, then I think ~5m (15â) should be fine. However, if you wanted to test the theory, you can insert another strand between the 2 strands in place of the 15â 18/3 wire and see if the second strange works.
If it is a 5V strand, the 15â extension is likely the cause of the problem.
Thanks for the help, this just fixed my issue LMAO. I forgot to ground my ESP. 