WLED LED strip not lighting up...

[Avocheeseado]

Hi, I have setup an ESP32 board flashed with WLED and a 5m WS2812B led strip, however the led's do not appear to be lighting up. I am currently trying to run off USB.

I have tried using a 5v 10A psu connected to the two power injection wires from the LED which did nothing to solve the problem.

Here is a picture of my wiring:

VIN ----> 5V on led strip

GND ----> GND on led strip

D2 ----> Data on led strip

 

Any help would be really appreciated as I have been trying to get this up and running for weeks

 

[artuc]

Have you got the pinout for your ESP32 ?

 

Are you on the 5V pin or VIN on your ESP. Should be on 5V.

 

Also keep in mind how much you're trying to draw here for anything other than a very small strip.

 

Anything more should be an external power supply (or say a usb c setup of some kind)

 

From some very quick googling ESP32 are 3.3V logic level and I believe your strip is 5V, so could be problems there and may need a shifter.

 

Also could be an underlying issue like something outright faulty.

[Parguy007]

On 3/15/2023 at 12:41 PM, artuc said:

Have you got the pinout for your ESP32 ?

 

Are you on the 5V pin or VIN on your ESP. Should be on 5V.

 

Also keep in mind how much you're trying to draw here for anything other than a very small strip.

 

Anything more should be an external power supply (or say a usb c setup of some kind)

 

From some very quick googling ESP32 are 3.3V logic level and I believe your strip is 5V, so could be problems there and may need a shifter.

 

Also could be an underlying issue like something outright faulty.

Having worked with these type of LEDs on the ESP32 myself, i have to agree with everything @artuc is saying.

The ESP32 runs on 3.3v logic but has the ability to take 5v input via the VIN pin.
 

Fair warning though: using the VIN port while programming your ESP via USB can cause fatal damage to your computer (ask me how i know -_-). I recommend you flash the board with EVERYTHING disconnected except the USB port. Once flashed, reconnect your components and reboot.  I'm sure there's a proper way to do it but this works too.

Now for the wiring.
The last time I worked with LEDs, I connected the VIN and the LED 5V in parallel with my PSU. PSU ground is in parallel with ESP GRND and LED GRND.
For the data pin, I am not too sure if it would will work directly with the ESP32s 3.3v logic although, I dont see why it shouldn't. Give it a shot; if not, use a shifter to boost the voltage.

 

On the code side of things, if you're using the Arduino framework on your ESP, the code here https://randomnerdtutorials.com/guide-for-ws2812b-addressable-rgb-led-strip-with-arduino/ should work without any issues.

[ImorallySourcedElectrons]

As an important side note, these LEDs are ESD sensitive as hell. I went through a couple of reels of these WorldSemi LEDs at a previous job, and we noticed they're surprisingly ESD sensitive for a modern device. So do take some ESD precautions while working with that LED strip, or you might kill it outright.