WLED high current warning

Issues
1

Yesterday I flashed the most recent version of WLED to my NodeMCU v3 and decided to power it from my LED power supply as well.

I entered the settings for my power supply in WLED and got a warning which made me a little bit scared.

Your power supply provides high current. To improve the safety of your setup, please use thick cables, multiple power injection points and a fuse!

Will I be fine? I’m only using 75 LEDS and this meanwell AC to 5V DC power supply: Mean Well LPV-100-5 LED-transformator Constante spanning 60 W 0 - 12 A 5 V/DC Niet dimbaar, PFC-schakeling, Overbelasti kopen ? Conrad Electronic. LED strip is WS2812B 60led/m 18W/m (so 0.3 draw per LED?)

It’s wired up like this:

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2

Hi! Yes, you’ll be fine :slight_smile: The warning is just for letting users know who might not know a lot about electronics or precautions you need to take with high currents.
For extra safety you could add a 5 or 10 amp car fuse just in case anything shorts out.
Meanwell is a very reputable brand for PSUs though (I use them aswell, trust them more than the cheap noname PSUs), so I’d expect your setup to be fine as is!
For just 75 LEDs it is a bit overkill though, under no circumstance will they use more than 5A, in most cases less than 2A. But it will work well!
I wish you a lot of fun with WLED!

3

Thank you for the info! The firmware you wrote is truly the best out there for ESP + WS8212

I got the PSU because I might use it for other stuff later, prob is indeed overkill for the amount I’m powering

1 Like
4

I just cut another led strip at 44 LEDS and remembered your comment:

For just 75 LEDs it is a bit overkill though, under no circumstance will they use more than 5A, in most cases less than 2A

How would 75 LEDs use less then 2A? If my calculations are right, my 44 LED strip would consume more:

  • WS2812B spec’d with 60 LED / meter at 18W / meter draw
    • 18W / 60 LEDs = 0.3W per led
    • 13.2W / 44 LEDs
  • Converting W to A via A = W/V
    • A = 13.2W / 5V
    • 2.64A

So with this calculation I have 2.64A draw for 44 LEDs, 75 would be almost double that no?

I’m having difficulty powering this 44LED strip. Is there any good PSU recommended? I though I could power it from a USB charger but have no 5V 3A adapters around and that Meanwell PSU mentioned for my other 75 LED strip indeed sounds like overkill for just 44 LEDs

5

Are you blasting all RGB LEDs at 100% brightness constantly? Why use addressable LEDs if that’s what you are doing?
Typically, with the various animations, the average current usage will be about 1/3 max current usage.
That puts the average amps at well under 2A.
Most 2A power supplies will let you run 2.5A for a relatively long time (like a second – more if it’s a better quality supply).
If you intend on running full RGB white for longer than 1sec along the entire strip, then sure, 3A or bigger supply makes sense.

6

Yeah, the 75 led steip is only going to be used sometimes, and prob not full white or animated.

The 44 led strip is going to be mounted behind my TV and will mostly always be white when turned on (like when watching a movie), never animated, but def. dimmed.

7

Right now I’m reading only ~0.67 A powering both my WS2812 and NodeMCU from a 5V 2.4A max USB plug. Strip is running white solid on every LED at 100% brightness.

Seems like it might run after all!

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8

For your TV ambilight, might I suggest non-white coloring, perhaps in the blue hue area for female oriented TV watching, red hues for action and adventure, and green for something neither of you really wanted to watch, but settled on watching it for whatever reason :wink:

Experiment with the conversations evoked depending on the ambilight color. Just don’t tell anyone you are experimenting. At some point you will find which colors work best for your situations.

Personally, I installed a Govee Alexa-enabled TV Backlight solution and have been extremely happy (and WAF has been very high as well). It was less expensive than a lot of solutions, does not require a PC, nor a RPi, and works on anything displayed on the TV no matter the source. There’s also a few music modes which are big hits at parties (whenever we might have them again…), and other less used modes. I fully recommend that product - and have absolutely no affiliation with them - unfortunate because I’m sure I’ve sold a few people on them over the years!

They are probably using an ESP8266 with 4MB memory. The smartphone app is pretty good. Alexa integration is not fantastic though as it is similar to WLED and seems to emulate a Hue with On/Off and maybe simple color if simple color mode is selected.

However, 99% of the time it’s in TV ambilight mode, and On/Off is fine. Once I make the home automation system ever so slightly smarter so it knows the TV changes from OFF->ON and ON-> OFF, it will issue the Alexa command to turn the Govee backlight on/off as needed.

I know that is way more than you wanted to know, but thought it was a good time to suggest it - before you install something else without at least looking at how that Govee system works (available on Amazon - user reviews, videos, etc.).

I’d like to know your thoughts if you have time to look at that TV ambilight option. Much more expensive compared to something you already have. But, you can always use your setup to aim light at the ceiling above the TV, perhaps using the sound integrated usermod!