Power LED Lights + Injection. Complete Walkthrough
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UvIn this video I will do a complete walkthrough of the 3 most common ways to power LED Strips as well as how to inject power into your longer led runs. I am definitely not an expert when it comes to powering led strips but the goal of this video is to hopefully show you that its not as hard or complex as you might think. In all my projects where I have powered things the way shown in the video, I generally have the maximum current on the WLED limiter set anywhere from 850 mA - 2000 mA which has always been bright enough to achieve the desired results. I also don't leave my led lights on overnight and will generally be in the room when they are turned on. Even though I have never had any issues, make sure to consult a trained professional if you are worried about safety.
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10 Amp Power Supply: amzn.to/3HrFcdW
2 Amp phone charger: amzn.to/3t6WhGj
ESP8266 Board: amzn.to/3FThzdS
ESP32 Board: amzn.to/3JFO549
18 AWG Silicone Wire: amzn.to/32GfJP2
20 AWG Extension Wire: amzn.to/3EPgliz
Wire Stripper: amzn.to/3eHFFMT
Breadboard Jumper Wires: amzn.to/3znjPaL
Link to my WLED/ESP8266 setup video: ⢠How to install WLED on...
Link to my WLED/ESP32 setup video: ⢠How To Install WLED on...
Setup: 0:00 - 5:28
Testing: 5:29 - 10:34
Power Injection: 10:35 - 15:14
Other Projects I have done: 15:15 - 16:15
Link to some of my full DIY LED how-to project videos:
LED Board and Batten Accent Wall: ⢠DIY LED Board and Batt...
LED Baseboard Trim: ⢠DIY RGB BASEBOARD TRIM...
RGB Lamp Hack: ⢠Easy RGB Lamp Hack - A...
Corner LED Light using Pex pipes: ⢠Crazy DIY Light - Comp...
DIY Govee Glide using only paper: ⢠DIY GOVEE GLIDE / LIFX...
Simple Corner LED Project: ⢠Easy DIY Corner Lights...
DIY Customizable Light Up Images: ⢠DIY LED Lightbox - Ful...
LED Strip Diffuser Ideas: ⢠DIY LED STRIP DIFFUSER...
DIY Hexagon Project: ⢠Making My Own Version ...
DIY Edge Lit Designs: ⢠DIY LED Gaming Room Li...
DIY Black Acrylic Floating Shelves: ⢠DIY Nanoleaf - Black L...
LED Tutorials:
Soldering Tutorial: ⢠THE BEST Soldering Tut...
Installing WLED on esp8266: ⢠How to install WLED on...
Power Options for LED Strips: ⢠Power LED Lights + Inj...
Use WLED with Govee Lights: ⢠Control Govee Strip Li...
Re-Use Leftover LED Strips: ⢠Power Leftover LED Str...
Unboxing Videos:
Best Diffuser Channels (same ones used in this video): ⢠NO HOTSPOTS - Best Dif...
Lytmi Neo 2.0: ⢠Amazing TV LED Syncbox...
Govee Lyra Floor Lamp: ⢠Govee Lyra Floor Lamp ...
Govee Glide Hexa Panels: ⢠Govee Glide Hexagon Li...
Govee Glide Light Bars: ⢠Govee Glide Wall Light...
The best way to help support my channel is to like, comment, make sure your subscribed and share my videos with as many people as you can. The other way is to use my links above as I get a small % at no extra cost to you if you buy something. Thank you all for the support!
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In this video I will do a complete walkthrough of the 3 most common ways to power LED Strips as well as how to inject power into your longer led runs. I am definitely not an expert when it comes to powering led strips but the goal of this video is to hopefully show you that its not as hard or complex as you might think. In all my projects where I have powered things the way shown in the video, I generally have the maximum current on the WLED limiter set anywhere from 850 mA - 2000 mA which has always been bright enough to achieve the desired results. I also don't leave my led lights on overnight and will generally be in the room when they are turned on. Even though I have never had any issues, make sure to consult a trained professional if you are worried about safety.
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Spotless Regular LED Diffuser Channel 2m Amazon: amzn.to/3QoHeDb
5% Discount Code: CHRISMAHER Spotless Regular LED Diffuser Channel 1m or 2m Company Site bit.ly/3NHG5Uw
Spotless Corner Diffuser 1m Amazon: amzn.to/3DFhRpf
Spotless Corner Diffuser 2m Amazon: amzn.to/3Krqw2q
5% Off Discount Code: CHRISMAHER Spotless Corner Diffuser 1m or 2m Company Site: bit.ly/3D3yI4R
LED Strips Amazon: amzn.to/3pMBg1l
LED Strips AliExpress: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DdU9Nfl
60 Amp Power Supply: amzn.to/3qHd93x
Wall plug for 60 Amp Power Supply: amzn.to/3pNM27G
10 Amp Power Supply: amzn.to/3HrFcdW
2 Amp phone charger: amzn.to/3t6WhGj
ESP8266 Board: amzn.to/3FThzdS
ESP32 Board: amzn.to/3JFO549
18 AWG Silicone Wire: amzn.to/32GfJP2
20 AWG Extension Wire: amzn.to/3EPgliz
Wire Stripper: amzn.to/3eHFFMT
Breadboard Jumper Wires: amzn.to/3znjPaL
Link to my WLED/ESP8266 setup video: czcams.com/video/l8OMi7SMpqs/video.html
Link to my WLED/ESP32 setup video:czcams.com/video/TOEnFKLm9Sw/video.html
Setup: 0:00 - 5:28
Testing: 5:29 - 10:34
Power Injection: 10:35 - 15:14
Other Projects I have done: 15:15 - 16:15
Link to some of my full DIY LED how-to project videos:
LED Board and Batten Accent Wall: czcams.com/video/b13VLiK7AOU/video.html
LED Baseboard Trim: czcams.com/video/Ik8HnGxfQq0/video.html
RGB Lamp Hack: czcams.com/video/UNPR_98xLQY/video.html
Corner LED Light using Pex pipes: czcams.com/video/rIbTzUD2E4k/video.html
DIY Govee Glide using only paper: czcams.com/video/n9LsiQARFas/video.html
Simple Corner LED Project: czcams.com/video/ZB5HqWhMXNo/video.html
DIY Customizable Light Up Images: czcams.com/video/2q_zrEcbXHE/video.html
LED Strip Diffuser Ideas: czcams.com/video/09-fiWjP42Y/video.html
DIY Hexagon Project: czcams.com/video/t9xGyB4ahyY/video.html
DIY Edge Lit Designs: czcams.com/video/0_TtHkBB3vA/video.html
DIY Black Acrylic Floating Shelves: czcams.com/video/6csSMtV_op0/video.html
LED Tutorials:
Soldering Tutorial: czcams.com/video/apSz3NXYlx8/video.html
Installing WLED on esp8266: czcams.com/video/l8OMi7SMpqs/video.html
Power Options for LED Strips: czcams.com/video/KFtjf5mD6tA/video.html
Use WLED with Govee Lights: czcams.com/video/l0sRG1WAbq0/video.html
Re-Use Leftover LED Strips: czcams.com/video/ASnuk-XDVbI/video.html
Unboxing Videos:
Best Diffuser Channels (same ones used in this video): czcams.com/video/1SKo_HdKVYA/video.html
Lytmi Neo 2.0: czcams.com/video/sth-EdEfSis/video.html
Govee Lyra Floor Lamp: czcams.com/video/NFDYz37ZoXU/video.html
Govee Glide Hexa Panels: czcams.com/video/UDYUvfce4tM/video.html
Govee Glide Light Bars: czcams.com/video/e3jJye-fYoM/video.html
The best way to help support my channel is to like, comment, make sure your subscribed and share my videos with as many people as you can. The other way is to use my links above as I get a small % at no extra cost to you if you buy something. Thank you all for the support!
Hey Chris, I am trying to make a parts list for everything I would need to power 4 5m 60 2812BECO light strips. So far I have the strips, 18 gauge wire, ESP32 Development boards, 2 of the 60 amp power supply's and the necessary 3 wire power cables, and Wago connectors. Is it necessary to have the 20 gauge extension wire or can the power injection be done with the 18 gauge? Did I leave anything else out? Thanks
Love the video, but I do have some serious concerns about the methods you explain...... now I don't want to be mean or degrading so please take this as constructive criticism, nothing else meant with it, we're all here to learn! I'm also fully open to discussion or questions, etc!
Overall assumed values:
300LEDs of ws2812b when properly injected can use up to 13Amps (65w) real-world, I've done extensive power measurements and publish a real-world power sheet for lots of types of LEDs to know what to expect and calculate with. For general usage I normally use the 50% white value which would be 6,5Amps or 32,5w to run single colors and effects at 100% brightness.
A single injection point cannot take in more then ~4Amps before voltage drop becomes too high and it basically won't do much anymore. If you want to power a 300LED strip of ws2812b for 100% RGB white you will need proper sized wires and front + middle + end injections, anything less then that and they won't be running at their full potential.
So in all scenarios shown you where running limited. Although that can be fine, this will also in part limit smoothness and such. Each LED has a Red, Green and Blue diode which have 256 steps of brightness. Limiting them also limits the range they can use and thus will things more "choppy". Basically 50% power means it now only has 128 steps, not 256. Now the WLED limiter is good and doesn't do this per LED but overall and in real-time, but still, using 850mA will for sure show this for instance.
Setup 1 - 2000mA phone charger
A. Make sure to test this charger can deliver a sustained 2000mA and won't overheat
B. The ESP board (circuit traces) and USB socket are not rated for anything close to 2000mA
C. The included USB cable probably already has quite a bit of resistance and will start to drop voltage over 1000mA
D. Dupont wires, please please don't use over 500mA on these
Running addressable LEDs like this can be done, but please don't exceed 850mA, even that is stressing it already in my opinion. Now this can be fine in some situations where you don't have a lot of LEDs or don't mind running them at low brightness, still, it can be dangerous (fire!) running more power through this setup, the hardware is NOT designed for it (dupont really shouldn't exceed 500mA). Most likely the resistance on the USB cable is already lowering voltage coming into the ESP board (and with it Amps) and then the dupont wires will lower it even more, but still. This is not the correct way to run any decent amount of LEDs...
Setup 2 - 5v 10Amp power supply
Already much better! But still I have issues....
A. Those barrel plug adapters, please please don't use them for 5v, it's stupid they come with them, they are not to be used over 3Amps continuous or will melt. But just snip off the barrel plug on the PSU wire and use those wires directly. :)
B. 18AWG wire is nice, but since you are only using it to power the ESP using dupont wires here would have been fine actually. :)
But as said, this setup is much better but won't draw more then 4Amps to maybe 5Amps before voltage drop becomes too much of an issue again. Still that can be fine for running single colors and some effects. It would however be better to use a 6 or 7.5Amp power supply since then if it has OCP that could provide a little bit of protection against shorts or other issues. A fuse here might be a good idea but the PSU not being giant also gives a bit of protection already (f it's good quality).
Setup 3 - 5v 60Amp power supply
Better but also somewhat worse. When using such big power supplies their internal protection mechanisms will not work for you anymore so you need to add protection yourself in the form of a fuse per injection line, etc.
A. Fuses!
B. Using a 20AWG 5m/16ft wire for 5v really doesn't work. In what you showed with front + end, it will equalize voltage a little bit, but really doesn't do enough. Voltage drop calculator says 16ft/5m of 20AWG doing 4Amps will have 1.3v of drop just on the wire alone which then becomes heat....
C. Adding the second strip make this problem worse since it's now not an edge connection but a middle injection capable of delivering up to ~8Amps into the strip effectively but as shown in the video, it already has 2.6v drop on just the wire alone. Now because it's 5v and the resistance makes the voltage drop it probably won't burn up, but it's not a good situation either as is kind of shown by the result in the video too.
So basically, all scenarios are seriously under powering the LEDs, this is also why at some point you won't see a difference when moving the sliders around in WLED for instance. This can be ok if that's a choice, but still. All scenarios also only work because you are attaching the very short wires on the LED strip directly to the power source, using the same type of wires even just a little bit longer will make all of the scenarios fail basically.
Now you mention in the video you aren't an expert in this and learning yourself, that's good! I kind of partly then think maybe not make "advice" videos like this on the subject but I also get you need to start somewhere. Maybe next time do a bit more analysis of your setups, include voltage measurements using a multi-meter at the start and end of the wire when set to a single color or 100% RGB white, do the same at the start middle and end of the strip, etc.. That would make it a bit more scientific and you'll start figuring out more why some of the stuff you are seeing is happening and what is a good situation and what isn't and can potentially be dangerous. :)
Thanks so much for taking the time to respond with such great information! I'm all about learning and it sounds like you would be a great person to learn from! Do you do this for fun or is it part of your career? Thanks for all the advice and for watching! Also, i'm a huge fan of your work. What video of yours goes into this type of detail? I'd love to link it in the description of my video so people can watch.
Thank you for this very detailed technical answer and carring about our safety.
Can you please let us know what is the best simple power supply and wires to Buy for powering a WS2812B led strip of 5 meter and 2 x 5 meter with 300 to 600 leds.
Thank you
@@MrTubertub The reason why you will probably not find a video that clearly states the wire sizes and power supplies is because they will all end up with the same answer "It depends". Every setup is unique in regards of lengths and power requirements, some use more or less lights, straight wires instead of moving around obstacles, those kinds of things..
There are some resources that explain each step more in detail, but I do not want to hijack this video to promote others. The most important steps are explained here, keeping those in mind should improve the safety of any installation you create.
The very dirty short answer would be to first calculate (roughly) the maximum amount of power your strip will need. As Quindor stated that would be about 65W for WS2818b strip with 100% RGB white. with the recommendation to calculate mostly for 50% RGB white, that then translates in to about 33W for a 5 meter strip (1 roll of 60 LED/m or 16,4ft) and to 65W for a 10 meter strip (2 rolls of 60LED/m or about 33ft).
Now that you know the power, you can base the rest of the calculations on those numbers. First of all, the power supply. Generally best practice is to have a PSU can can supply more power than the maximum you want from it. Good rule of thumb would be to have about 10-15% more power than required. Following that rule you'd look at buying a PSU capable of doing about 40W for a single strip, and about 75W for 2 strips.
That's the easy part. Moving on to the wires themselves.. Since power always tries to balance things out in a perfect world, you can start looking at the number of injection points you require to transfer all those amps to the LED's safely. For the 65W example, that would be (65W divided by 5V) 13A. Knowing that a front/end injection can transfer about 4A in to the strip, and a middle injection about 8A, this would be possible by injecting power in the front (start of the first strip), middle (between the 2 strips) and end (end of the second strip). If you'd go to for example full brightness, you'd require 26A (or 130W). In that case you will need to inject front (4A), middle of the first strip (8A), middle of the 2 strips (8A), middle of the second strip (8A) and end of the second strip (4A). Than you will be able to get (4+8+8+8+4) 32A max in to the strip, with room to spare on the 26A the strip will take.
For each of these injection points you can then calculate the wire size required to safely transfer the power over the distance.
Start here by measuring the distance from the power supply (or even better a fuse box) to the LED strip and note all those distances. Then pair that distance with the expected maximum power on that wire. We'll take the example of the 5m long injection wire. So that wire would be 5m long, carry 5V 8A, and needs to stay within 10% voltage drop. The 10% voltage drop is the standard tolerance of most electric equipment, unless specified otherwise. You can use a voltage drop calculator for that, and that will tell you, you would need a 12AWG wire to transfer that power, with about 8.8% voltage drop.
Now I know for many people this will seem crazy and they won't believe you need such a large wire for this.. But the truth is, if you want to transfer low voltage over a large distance with a few amps, the wire almost needs to be perfect to not drop more than 10% voltage. Higher voltages have a better tolerance since there is more room to play with. For example 5V 10% is only 0.5V while if you use 12V 10%, that's already 1,2V tolerance. Go to mains voltage and the drop allowed is even bigger in terms of voltage.
Hope this helps!
Heyyyy thankyou for such an in detail review I don't even knw wht videos u upload on ur channel but jst this review and inisder u gave I subed ur channel, thnx for giving such in detail info about this topic I would really love to check out ur channel and actually as a beginner in RGB stop lightning u actually cleared my confusion should I go for 12v or 5v one after you, I m cleared out tht I'm going for the 12v ws2811 strip thankyou so much for this ⤠mahn !! Keep up the grt work
It's great that you mention not just how much power these led strips use, but that not all the power can make it from one end to the other. A while back, I put up a bunch of warm white led strips and noticed that one side of the room was brighter than the other. Voltage drop from one end to the other was enormous.
Yeah it would be nice if voltage drop did not happen lol. It would make working with LED lights so much easier! Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!
I was about to give up on WLED, but your walkthrough was the best and answered questions I had on the other ones I watched. Thank you for making this!
Thanks so much for the kind words and for watching! Glad I was able to answer some questions. Thanks for taking the time to comment buddy!
This is exactly what I was imagining Iâd have to do. Iâve got a 48â run and plan on going 90% brightness with these same LEDs from Amazon. I donât want to run any cables down the wall, so I plan on starting it from a closet. Iâll have to run 4 pairs of wires down to the third strip to have 0 degradation of power.
Youâre the only person I see who actually explains and demonstrates it all step by step thank you so much!
That sounds like a great project! Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment and I'm glad you liked the video!
what a great tutorial and very different from others I have seen. Your practical approach and using the limiter to help maintain colors is great. This has shown me that there are many solutions beyond injecting power every X amount of pixels. Thank you and keep them coming.
Thanks again buddy!! Glad you liked the video! Appreciate the support my friend!
Well done. Exactly what we all need to know and were wondering about. Thank you. I'm impressed by how well the phone charger works. So much cheaper than the big boy option and we all have those chargers lying around.
I'm just getting into WLED and this has been useful explaining runs and the concepts of injecting additional power
Great videos and great work. As someone who watches tons of DIY YT videos I always skip and X2 the playback in order to sum up the videos. The style you have in delivering your information as well your video cuts and side bar walk-through leave me immersed and following along at normal speed. Great job keep up the great work. Very inspirational đ đ
Well done! Very good demo! I am gathering a few things to build my diy wled strip and I was wondering about the power supply, wether I should get a more powerful than my 5V/2A usb charger. Your video cleared a lot the things up. Kudos!
Thanks Chris! Ill use your videos as cuide for my first led addressable project. I was planning to conect 8 10m strips on a big roof. And now I think I will make it. Thanks to your videos, I will start with 1 line and see how it works đ
Thanks so much for watching and glad you liked the video! For any really big projects like that I always recommend people watching this video from Dr. Zzz. Really good stuff. He is a lot smarter than I am: czcams.com/video/S0g02o85fGY/video.html
Bro for real you are the man, I have been looking everywhere for these information, nobody explained it this good, you helped big time, love
Exactly what I was looking for! In my case I'll need about 13 Meter long led strip and I was pretty sure I wouldn't get away with connecting from one side only, but as I never ever touched any led strips had to make sure and I still got time in the home project! Thank you!
You are very welcome! Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment!
I am always inspired with each of your projects. Thank you very much.
Pretty sweet, I'm going to start messing with this stuff. I ordered some lights and a controller from your links below. Hopefully over time I can make something nice for my room. I appreciate the time you take to create these videos. I really like your content. Subbed.
Thanks so much! Its a fun hobby for sure and the most fun part is coming up with something in your mind and then trying to make it. I'm still very new myself but if you have any questions along the way I always try to respond to every comment or question.Thanks for the sub!
This was the exact video I was looking for. Thanks so much for the in-depth details.
Awesome! Glad you liked it! Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment.
Dude this is the best walk thru for this type of thing that i have every since thanks so much for sharing this info. This was exactly what ive been needing to know.
Thanks so much buddy!! Appreciate the support and glad you found the video helpful!
Great walk through. This is the only video I've seen that clearly shows an injection wire running all the way from the power source, along side the LED strip to the far end. Thanks for clearing that up!
13:09 - There's an obvious color change for both the un-injected and single injected wiring for the two parallel LED strips.
14:25 - *I* see very little color change when only the beginning and middle injection points are enabled. Shouldn't this look exactly like 13:09?
Thanks so much for watching and I'm glad you liked the video. I went back and watched the sections and you are right. My only guess as to what the difference might have been at the 14:25 point was even though I know I had the limiter turned off, I might have fogot to turn the brightness all the way up on the WLED brightness slider and therefore it was not as obvious as a difference. Good catch!
Ok so I gave this a go .. and how fun is this! I'm gonna invite my mates over with their sons so we can have a LED workshop and make some lights for church. Thanks again :)
Dude you are the LED king. Thanks for making these videos so well
Thanks buddy!! Glad you like the videos and appreciate the kind words!
Thank you for the tutorial! Iâm new to diy led stuff but want to make kinda advanced stuff in my room⌠this video helped me perfectly!
You are very welcome! Glad the video was helpful! I know when I first started 1 year ago I had no idea what I was doing (and still dont most of the time lol) but i'm slowly learning things as I go! Let me know if you ever have any questions!
@@ChrisMaherDIY not sure if you have done so but it would be really helpful to have a video about how to tie in the WLED lights with alexa or siri or something and how to set the custom lights up for home automation. Maybe you ought make a tutorial for this as well?
Absolutely incredible tutorial, definitely subscribing for more and I can't wait to try this out!
Thanks so much for watching and glad you liked the video! Appreciate the support buddy!
I bought the exact same RGB strips and I had no idea what to do since I didn't realize not everything was included. Thank you!
Thanks so much for watching! That's a bummer! Yeah with these type of leds you need to have more than just the led strips. In the description I do leave links to everything that I used in the video including the led strips, power supply options, esp devices and wires. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the super informative video, exactly the info I was looking for and struggling to find.
Great video sir! For a newbie like me, I was looking for a video to show how to connect to an ESP32 board. Thanks for doing that!
Super helpful. Thank you!
I used an old surface tablet adapter with usb and rated at 5v 2.5A. It was perfect for powering my small controller and about 3 strands of 50 bullet nodes. Once I plugged in 2 more strands I saw some drop off but when my sequence hit the all white segement, anything beyond the 2nd strand turned pinkish orange instead of white. These are a great way to see where your drop off will happen. I have purchased a 350w 70A big boy power supply to wire up my tree with (and a few other models) I'm here to confirm my understanding of wiring the injection points and you confirmed I understood it correctly. Red to VCC+ and white to VCC-
Thank you sooo much!! this is exactly what I was looking for!
You are very welcome! Glad you liked the vidoe!
This had everything I was searching for! Thanks you are the best đ
Thanks so much for watching and glad you liked the video!! Appreciate the kind words!
Very clean and analytical , good job
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Lovely comparison among 3 different types of power sources and their affect on the LED lighting and power injection - love it
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Obrigado, era isso que eu estava procurando e vocĂŞ me ajudou!
Thanks so much for watching!
Thank you for all of this high quality information. Very unfortunate that I will need such a big power supply every 10m
Excellent tutorial! Thanks!
You are very welcome! I'm glad you liked it and thank you so much for watching!
DUDE. Thank you soooo much. You just answered sooo May questions. Definitely subbed. Thank you!
You are very welcome! Glad you liked the vidoe and thanks for watching!
Solid video and much appreciated for the demonstration.
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment!
Great video. Really helped me with a closet lighting project I want to do.
Thanks so much and glad you liked the video! Thanks for watching buddy!
I was very confused about my 5m wa2812b 300led/m power supply. solved my problem.. thanks đ
Just an FYI, you could look into 6 amp "mini-amplifiers" instead of that bulky one with the protruding pins you use, the "mini-amplifiers" are no bigger than a usb flash drive but half as thick, so much easier to hide when you hang your lights, and they do the same function, keeping the remote controls in-sync and are a buck or 2. They also help with injection just being wired into the sequence
Thanks so much for the great suggestion! I've never heard of mini amplifies so I'm very intrigued! Hiding big stuff is sometimes a nightmare so anything to help on that front would be amazing! Thanks so much!
I'm also curious with this if there is a link or the like to these?
Link?
Iâm curious too.
@@ChrisMaherDIY Hey Chris, I was wondering, will the animations only work with "Govee" light strips or is it the control unit that drives the animations?. My lights are good quality, but only have the cheesy remote that has like 12 colors and just a few animations (fade, flash etc)
Thanks. very interesting video. It answers some of my questions regarding power injection, power supply to use...
You are very welcome. Thanks for watching and i'm glad you liked it! Appreciate the support!
Hi, thanks for this. Now i know more. Great video, simple !!
Super super interesting, thank you for that break down!
You are very welcome and thanks so much for watching!
Excellent video, explanations, and examples! I found exactly what I was looking for, if it was possible to use a phone charger to run a small run of LED's for my display cases! Thanks!!! I am only using a basic 2835smd strip as well. Although after watching this video I am interested in the RGB strips and the WiFi board.
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! I'm glad you liked the video. Appreciate the support my friend!
I wish CZcams had more videos like yours. Clear even for dumdum like me, straight to the point but with explanations and practical example for vicarious experimenting. I've had the stupid idea of making one of those "old-telephone lamp" but with an rgb led strip inside, instead of the bulb coming out from the handset. Using an esp32 (that just came today after weeks, and I've never used a microcontroller nor led strip nor made a lamp out of this stuff. So this videos are fresh air for my noob brains. Thanks
very underrated channel! loved this video..Precise and explanatory! Subbed
Thanks so much buddy!! Appreciate the support!
unfortunately my brain wasn't wired correctly to learn stuff. you came close though
lol I hear ya! Some of this stuff the only way to learn is to just do it and troubleshoot it as you go. Glad I was close though!
You can understand it. I did a bit and i am dumb as a rock. Believe in yourself!
But there ain't no explainin'! Just showin'.
This is a great video. Thanks for making. If you use the big power supply could you use the +/- terminals for all power and the injection points? Or do you need to use the other 2 +/- terminals on the power supply for the injection points?
And here I was trying to solder the wires together straight, where twisting them like that gives a much better connection. Thanks!
Thanks so much for watching! yeah the longer i've been doing this the more I realize there are a lot of different ways to go about doing something. I've recently started using Wago connectors for things like this and they are amazing. If you are just trying to connect 2 wires together, these in line ones work great: amzn.to/3XrpXdS
Awesome video! Super clear informations!
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching!
Great Informative video, loved it!
Thanks for another awesome video. Happy new year!
Thanks as alwasy buddy! Happy new years as well. Here's to a great 2022!
Hey Chris, thanks for your videos! They have helped me a lot getting started with wled. When using the 2A phone charger, you are powering the leds through the esp32, have you ever experienced any issues, since wled says to not go above 850 mA, otherwise risking frying the esp?
Would love to run mine on the full 2A, does it matter how long the lights are on? Sorry for those basic questions, my understanding of electricity is fairly limited.
Very helpful video! Thank you!
You are very welcome and thanks so much for watching! Glad you liked the video!
Howâs it going, great in depth video! Iâm new to all of this, would there be any drawback to using jumpers instead of soldering for the 5v 10amp power supply?
thanks for sharing - very helpful
Thanks so much for watching and you are very welcome!
I like where this channel is headed man. Totally forgot to sub, rectified that now. Cheers brethren.
Thanks so much buddy and thanks for the support! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Great video thank you so much!
You are very welcome! thanks so much for watching!!
Muchas gracias exelente explicaciĂłn
You are very welcome! Thanks for watching!!
This is VERY USEFUL.
It shows how to properly power long strips of LEDs, instead of just powering from one end, then wondering why the strip or matrix burned out!
The wires connecting them together aren't heavy enough to conduct all that amperage through, so you have to "inject" more power through the leads provided.
Great video! Hopefully this will help some of the no-brain Gen-Zers out there, trying to get though life without EVER learning anything except what they call "hacks" that allow then to meander along without ever becoming knowledgeable about anything. Heaven forbid they might accidentally learn something.
And, this was appropriately titled, for a change.
You could've just titled this "Comparison of Power Supplies and Methods of Powering LED strips."
That way, it's easier to find in s search.
I hate it when ppl mis-title their videos, just to get lots of views.
YT should encourage PROPER TITLING, instead of encouraging MIS-titling the way they do now!
It just makes sense. After awhile, there's trillions of videos online, but nobody knows what any of them are about without having to watch each one until you find what you're looking for. That's just crap, and a massive waste of time.
But, hey, does YT care?!
Of course not. They just want VIEWS.
Dude You are just awesome. Much Love!
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Appreciate the support buddy!
Great Job . Thank you
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Glad you enjoyed the video!
Love the video, btw why do you soldered on the esp32 for 60amp and 10amp and not on the 2amp, just a jumper wire?
Chris, first off let me say I love your videos! ! am planning on hooking 3 ESP8266 using the ws2812B 5v so I can control each individually. My question is how big of a power supply will I need and will 1 run them all? I am putting each in opposite corners and ceiling of same wall roughly 10x8. Thanks and look forward to your future videos!
This is really helpful!
Question:
I am doing a really complex installation in my office and every LED strip run is attached to the previous in sequence. I've done the math and found one of these "big guy" transformer power supplies that will power the whole room, but there will be 9 or 10 injection points and the transformer only has 3 + & - terminals. Can I attach more than one injection run to a terminal? Or is there anything I could buy or make to expand the terminals?
Did a good job explaining it.thx
You are very welcome and thanks so much for watching! Glad you enjoyed the video!
For my project I have 12 x 1m segments (2 walls with wooden beams every meter) and I was told to only connect power on one end of each segment and ground on the other end, to help keep brightness consistent. Any concerns about heat, also with your 3 strips?
fantastic video. Thank you.
What is the equation I need to perform in order to make sure I order enough power? Example, I am looking to run a 100ft run. I don't want to have 10 of those boxes.
quick question to connect 20 meters of strip ( 5 meters sets x4 ) do you recommend 12v or 24v? i will like an option i can use a single power supply to power all 20 meters from the beginning - i assume at the end of each strip i will connect the data cable to the data cable of the other strip ? also a single controller can run all 20 meters correct .. thank you so much for all your time and videos.
Hey man, I know it's a bit of an older video but i was trying to get your opinion on something. I want to run those EXACT same LED strips along the top of my room through diffuser channels, and i was planning on using the big power supply and power injection run through the channels. The main issue for me is the fact i'm using 3 5 meter strips (60led/meter) in total to wrap around my whole room. I am unsure if this power supply can fully power all 3 strips connected together, and if the controller would be able to be used for the whole thing? Would I need more than one controller? Thanks!
Great Video. Really informative. Question about there being power injection wires on both ends: Have you tried connecting the 'front end' extra wires directly to the power? If so, did it end up sending power to the back end? And furthermore, would that then be able to create the daisy chain from extra wires to extra wires down the line?
Thanks so much for watching! That is for sure something you could do and would work just the same and you could also connect them together using the extra wires but you would still need to connect the data cable from one to the next otherwise the signal will not make the jump. Hope that makes sense!
Iâm late to the party and just now diving into LED strips (I have a firm background in electronics in general though). Really enjoy your videos, thank you SO much.
My question is routing injection wires. To minimize the number of wires or channels visible outside the LED strip, are you running the extra power wires inside the LED channel? Or do you actually leave them external and break into the strip where the wires need to connect?
Thanks for this detailed comparison!
I was wondering if you've tested or seen documentation on how much air the 60A metal power supply needs?
Where do you usually hide the supply and the microcontrollers? Do you need to have some kind of false wall so that there's like a 6 inch gap?
You are very welcome! Thanks again for watching! I have not tested that out yet. I really don't take a scientific approach to any of this. I generally just hook things up and see if it works and go from there. As for hiding things, i mostly just put them behind furniture or drawers or electric fireplaces. Its for sure not fancy but as long as I cant see it, it does not bother me.
exactly what I was looking for Chris, thanks. As Ive purchased two (5m) SK6812 RGBW strips, I was concerned about power - so I'll get the 5v 60 amp PSU - as its my office, work mode will be white and gaming/movies will be RGB. btw, the two strips have two diff IP rating (30 & 65) - will this make a diff with color in the diffuser channel? Otherwise I'll need to send the IP65 back for the 30 - I dont need waterproofing!
good video thanks
Hey Chris, thanks for making great videos. I learnt a lot from you, mate. Thanks again.
I have a noob question, if you don't mind - what would you recommend as the best way to hide/manage the power supply and esp32 board, especially all those soldering and small wires connections?
I am planning to install the LED in my kitchen and hallway (I probably need to go with the 10Amp and 60Amp power supply options)... wondering how you would keep the power supply and ESP board secure.
Are there any cases you can recommend? or any other ideas?
Cheers!
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Glad you are liking the videos! So for the most part, I just find something to hide all the wires behind. If its out of sight then i'm not to worried. However if you are installing something and hiding the power/wires/esp board behind something is not an option and you dont want to mess with putting it behind your drywall, this is a video I just made going over what I do in that situation. Its not a perfect solution but it looks better than just a bunch of messy wires sitting there. czcams.com/video/ibRp6eeUwBA/video.html
awesome!!
Great info đ
Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching!
great video.....if your strips are in a straight line, wouldn't injecting more power say at the end of 2 five metre strips require a ten metre run from the power supply thus having voltage drop?
this is really helpful, love u
Thanks so much!
Thanks a ton, this was really helpful for a house exterior lighting project I'm doing. 22 meters of 30 led/meter to illuminate a white house with seasonal colours.
Thanks so much for watching! Sounds like an awesome project!!
Are you running this with more than 1 Node MCU? I was wanting to do similar, wasnt sure how many strips could be run from one NodeMCU, and was not sure if I was going to need 2 60 amp power supplies as well. I havent seen a video of 3-4 strips hooked together.
@@mattglandorf9600 nope, just one and I've had no issues with processing power or anything like that.
@@mattglandorf9600 FWIW, I initially picked up a 60A psu because I did the math incorrectly. A 10A would have worked but it turns out a 60A was cheaper so I stuck with it. How many LEDs are you trying to power?
hello! love this video - really helpful to see .. I wanted to join a whole bunch (8x) 5m led strips powered by 1 deep cycle battery on a 12v system- do you. have any advice/ or a video working on 12 v? and how to connect this up? thank youuuu
Hi Chris, my Leds doesnt turn on at all. do you know why? i followed your instruction.
great video, i'm running a similar set up with 3 x 5m LED strips and a similar PSU, 200w 40amp. do the three outputs of the PSU count as one power supply, at the moment with my set up I'm only injecting the start of the next strip rather than the end of the first line and start of another, as I read not to mix power inputs?
What about if you want to add two 5V sensors, let's say for the top floor of the house and the lower floor (so the sensors enable and/or disable the lights); would you still be able to connect both sensors with the second option (10Amps) with one 300 led strips and your led controller, or would it require a bigger power supply?
I have the 5v 60amp power supply on one end and the 5v 10amp in the emd witch made a huge difference but i notice with the power supply in the end some of the led's stay on or be acting weird, is because the power supplies need to be the same or?
Also can i just add the red and black from led's directly to the power supply and just add the green to the controller device?
Thanks for this video! I'm wondering a bit about the big power supply. If you had e.g. 6 strips, I assume you could connect them using a 3x2 pattern, i.e. 2 red/white on each connector on the power supply? Pretty much all power supplies I see only have 3 positive and 3 negative, even if they allow for higher Amps, but it seems rather overkill to only connect at most 3 strips to these.
Hi Chris, this is such detailed explanation.
Is there a way to wire this up via dmx so it can be controlled from a lighting console?
And be able to access each individual pixel to achieve the same animations?
Thanks.
Hey Chris ,
Great video thanks for this.
My question is - what is the distance limit you can run 18awg between strips , reason I ask is that my plan is to run LEDs all around the ceiling . This would mean having some long runs from power supply and LEDs.
Thanks and great video itâs been very helpful.
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! I have yet to do a bid install like that so I'm not entirely sure. I would probably lay everything out on the floor and see how things look after the long run for the power injection. If enough power is not getting to the leds I would either see if you could use another power source closer to the injection point or I would look at maybe using 12v led strips instead. Here is a quick walkthrough I did on some 12v led strips from btf lighting: czcams.com/video/zbhdH-qSANc/video.html&lc=UgwRyKQC3r1Lrr1nnvN4AaABAg
Great Video!!
Thanks as always!!
Hey Chris, I STAND CORRECTED! Although my mini-amp idea does work keeping 3 strands in-sequence, your wifi board is vastly, ridiculously BETTER for it's functionality, and is so worth it's larger size. You can easily hide the wifi board by simply using longer wires and having it end in anyplace you wish. If you're lighting a bedroom for example, the obvious place is a closet, you'll want to do this with the 60 amp supply unit for sure as it's the size of cigar box. PAY ATTENTION TO CHRIS, I've watched dozens of videos and tried many configurations, power supplies and Chris's video is the only one that is both accurate and user-friendly
Thanks so much for the follow up! I'm certainly no expert so I'm always looking for better/different ways to do things so i'm always glad when people bring up new ideas! But I'm glad that the way I did it seems to be working for you! I appreciate all the kind words my friend! Hope you have a great day!
Hey Chris, I have been super inspired by your channel to install some LED lighting in my space! Iâm trying to create 4 diffused vertical bars on my wall (very loosely borrowing from your board and batten project). Would it would work if I were to cut a 16.4 foot Btf ws2812b strip into four 4 foot long strips and solder them together with about 2.5 feet of wire in between each strip? If so, what power option would you recommend I use? Might I be able to get away with just using a 5V~2A phone charger to power it all? Would it be smarter to split the idea in half and run two sets of two 4 foot strips with two separate power sources and wifi boards?
Thank you for any and all advice and input!
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! That sounds like a fun project and great idea! That should for sure work to cut in 4 foot sections and connect with 2.5 feet of wire. You can certainly try it with the phone charger but I would probably recommend the middle power option for the project especially if your using the 60/leds per meter. But I'm all about trial and error. Try the phone charger, see how it looks and then go from there!
Great! I just bought 4 - 5 meter strips , a 60A 300w ps and you proved that I'm going to have to run alot of injection wire to get even white from pixel 1 to pixel 1200.
Thanks so much for watching! I always just test things and start off with no power injection and then go from there based on how things look! Good luck and hope everything turns out great!
@@ChrisMaherDIY Thanks with that thought. I have set up the whole 1200 LEDs in the garage in a test situation while I am mounting the tracks on the roofline so that is ready once I get the power figured out to a bare minimum of wires, injection points etc. PS really love the lighting ideas you bring forward in your vids.
@@graphguy thanks so much! What a fun project your doing! Feel free to send me a video when you have it set up! I'd love to see how it turned out! My email is in my CZcams info
@@ChrisMaherDIY ok . I'm a tad confused. I have 1500 (60/m) 5v leds up in 5 strips. I have power at the start and I added one home run at the very end and that is it. Every single WLED effect works just fine and looks great!
So how come every person says that in that situation I would many injections?
@@graphguy You are confused just like I was and still am to some extent. So when people ask how much power will they need, there is the theoretical amount you will need if you wish to run the lights at full brightness and on white, and then there is the power (much less power required) that is needed if you are only planning on running animations and colors. Thats why I generally say, it will depend on what you are wanting to do with the lights. As you have noticed, you dont need a lot of power to run most animations and if things look good and your happy, then your done! But my guess (and I could be wrong) but if you turn the lights to white and at full brightness, you might see some color/voltage drop and would maybe do some more injection. Hope that makes sense!
Hey Chris. I'm just trying to set up a simple white 6 ft cob LED strip within a diffuser, with a USB power supply would be efficient enough to get full brightness and are they dimmable compatible?
Very nice video! Iâm planing on getting 3 strips of SK6812 (60LEDs/M) and connecting them together. Iâm pretty sure Iâm going to need a big power supply. Do I need around 60a?
I would go with the big power supply and do the biggest one which I think was the one I used in this video! I love those SK6812 strips! Great choice! Those are the onese I used in this video and they are perfect! czcams.com/video/b13VLiK7AOU/video.html
Love the video, glad I found it. I was thinking about using these same strips but been seeing a lot of warnings about using RGB and not RGB+W but the RGB+W options seem very limited. Have you noticed any issue with this on your side?
So I would say if you want to use the lights and plan on running just plain white a lot of the time I would recommend these: amzn.to/3PxYUJo They have all the functionality of the ws2812b lights but have a separate white channel. I used these lights in my board and batten video and absolutely love them!
@@ChrisMaherDIY Thanks! Couple more Qs if you don't mind since you seem familiar with this. This is for a future build when I move in ~3 weeks so planning.
A) Assuming I go dedicated adaptive DC5V60A PSU for this build, and for cable hiding would you recommend I run a few feet excess wiring from:
A) PSU to the device ( meaning 3 (or 6) 3-pin 20 AWG, AND 18 gauge electrical wire {This seems the worst idea]
B) Device to the lights [Meaning just 3 or 6 (for 2 sets)]
C) 'Trying' to hide everything behind the TV and just mounting a power cable.
Honestly I like C just have to figure out how to mount the PSU+Uno to the back of the TV.
B) I am buying a 83" C1. I'm thinking a single 16' won't be enough; 'Math wise' I need ~19.5 feet if I recall. If I end up going that and cutting off, do you think I just need to inject power ones? Should I injst it mid-way and at the end and the adaptive PSU will handle any overvolt concerns?
I am planning on connecting ten 16.4 ft together. Do you know if the large power supply in the video will work?
First. Great video. I have been looking for this breakdown to better understand the process. Second, what happens if you use the same terminal to eject power vs a separate terminal?
You can use the same terminal to run power to different locations. I'm not sure it if significantly drops the output if your splitting it between different wires but it would be a good experiment to run!
Id like to run x2 5m 300 leds on a duel controller box. So the box would have in total 10m 600leds. The leds are 5v each strip. So would i use a 5v power supply into the box? Or would these lights look really dim? Thanks
Really great video - I was wondering if you have ever taken the time to explain how led amps/voltage is calculated. I have a background in electrical and I would like to integrate LEDs into the crown molding of my trim and connect it directly to a light switch and then control color through the app. I just dont want to connect that power converter directly to a 20 amp circuit with 120v on 12ga wire and have a fire hazard.
Thanks so much for watching! I still have not done a deep dive into that aspect of LEDs. I know there are some other great creators our there that are a lot smarter than I am that have some great videos out there. Check out @IntermitTech @@DrZzs or @TheHookUp I do hope to at some point make a video on this!
Hey Chris thank you so much for this! Quick question..
Besides the 2 injections you made, what if there are more? Do you add them to the same slot on the power supply?
Because you're running 600 leds but I have a 1200 led project (will need multiple injections) but the power supply is enough (45 watt per strip so about 180 watts total )
@stevewachira7334 Were you able to find a solution to this. I am sorta in the same situation with 900 LEDs (might need to add more later). I have a 40A power supply, but I think I need to change it to get the 60A at least. Thanks