[fullstop]

I made lights using ws2812b leds and simulated sunrise, sunset, and a dim blue throughout the night.

I used ws2812b leds, wemos d1, and a level translator since the d1 has 3.3v gpios but ws2812b technically requires a 5v signal.

[tW4r]

I’ve been looking at something like this myself, did you use RGB, RGBW, RGBWW, RGBCCT or what to dynamically set the warmth of the light? I got really confused when I started looking into all these different types

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I used rgb but would like to try RGBW in the future because to get bright white on the current strip it consumes about 60 mA (@5v) per led. That's 20 mA for R, G, and B.

I have two rows of 32 lights, so a beefy supply was needed along with a few places where VIN was fed to the strip.

[scns]

That sounds awesome, can you do a write-up about it please?

[andruby]

For the software part, WLED [0] really does just about anything you’d want to do with those led strips.

I drive the wemos d1 and led’s from a 12V battery with a 12-5V stepdown converter. I attach the 5V to the esp and the led’s. The 3.3V logic level works on the first led and is repeated at 5V to all subsequent led’s.

[0] https://github.com/Aircoookie/WLED

[fullstop]

Apparently 3.3v doesn't always work with the strips, and newer ones are less likely to work, especially if you're working with a lot of lights.

[andruby]

My assumption was the each individual led chip will re-transmit the signal to the next led, which in effect will turn the 3.3v signal into a 5v signal between the 1st and subsequent leds.

The power lines do sustain voltage drop over longer sections, so you'll want to add extra power every few meters.

[fullstop]

Right, that is exactly how it works. If your signal to the first IC isn't perfect, and it isn't with a 3.3v signal, you can end up with incorrect colors or shifted patterns.

As you add more LEDs you have a greater chance of one at the end not lighting up or having incorrect colors throughout the string.

0.7 * 5v == 3.5v, and 3.3 < 3.5. You're out of spec for the part and can't expect it to work reliably.

[fullstop]

I'll see what I can do.