Hi - LED Patio lighting

Hi all,

I am an absolute novice when it comes to this stuff but trying my best to understand it all. The more i research the more confused i get.

Im looking at installing some led strips to my patio. The main function will be for general lighting so wanting something with an ok warm white colour but also like the idea of rgb option for parties. The plan is to install a 1/4 round diffuser on the beam between the sheets to allow the light to reflect up onto the gloss white sheets.

From my research it appears the FCOB SPI RGBW WS2814 IC 896LEDs/M seems to be the best option in terms of warm white with rgb capabilties. I understand each LED isnt addressable but rather it has zones which is fine for what i am wanting it for. I was going to use a QuinLED-Dig-Uno to control the lights and in terms of power supply i think i need a 24v - 160w+ (21w/m x 7.5m = 157.5w).

Photos attached of the patio. Each side is 7.5m and was going to run them seperatly and sync via WLED.

Am i on the right path?
Am i missing anything?
Will this work?

Any other suggestions are welcome.

TIA
Matt

I'm not sure an FCOB strip with 896 LEDS/m really needs a diffuser.

I'll note that it's not an outdoor strip -- But you do have it fully undercover there - so it's perhaps not a concern.

The cob 2814 strip is decently bright, you've got it reasonably close too, I've installed it at 3m+ elevations and it's decently bright at that height.

Hi Bono - sorry if I'm telling you how to suck eggs. But just for your info...the BTF store is in USD. Your strip will be ~$61AUD.
The same strip (from BTF) can be had on AliExpress for $50AUD. Ali Express Link
10 bucks in your pocket is better than nothing.

Notenoughlights said:

The cob 2814 strip is decently bright, you've got it reasonably close too, I've installed it at 3m+ elevations and it's decently bright at that height.

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Is it overkill for what i am wanting? Im just trying to avoid power injection if possible and thought 24v is the best way to do this?

thewanderingpine said:

I'm not sure an FCOB strip with 896 LEDS/m really needs a diffuser.

I'll note that it's not an outdoor strip -- But you do have it fully undercover there - so it's perhaps not a concern.

Click to expand...

yeh the diffuser is more for asthetics and to angle the light up

Dauphin3 said:

Hi Bono - sorry if I'm telling you how to suck eggs. But just for your info...the BTF store is in USD. Your strip will be ~$61AUD.
The same strip (from BTF) can be had on AliExpress for $50AUD. Ali Express Link
10 bucks in your pocket is better than nothing.

Click to expand...

Thanks the plan was to get it from aliexpress. I just linked the actual website as it had more info on the strip itself.

LED strip
Power Supply
Controller

Original plan was to run 2 seperate power supplys and controllers but wondering if its possible to run both strips off the same controller and power supply if i get a big enough one. Link above for the products i was looking at.

Will this work running together or best to go seperate?

bono said:

Is it overkill for what i am wanting? Im just trying to avoid power injection if possible and thought 24v is the best way to do this?

Click to expand...

I would say 10m without power injection is just achievable, but would power inject the 10m mark if possible.

Notenoughlights said:

I would say 10m without power injection is just achievable, but would power inject the 10m mark if possible.

Click to expand...

Thanks.

I’ve drawn up a plan based on no power injection. Thoughts on this? Am I missing anything ?

Will that ESP32 just be a barebones ESP32 with the data lines coming straight from the GPIO outputs? If so, you may want to check this quote from the WLED discord out first. If you have a dedicated controller with all the goodies built in, skip this bit (Unless it's branded GLEDOPTO, throw that junk out).

The mystery of the data level
Datasheet WS2812B
https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/WS2812B.pdf
Needed data level of LED
Looking at the datasheet page 3 we see that the minimal voltage for a high level input is 0.7*Vdd.Vdd is the supply voltage of the LED, so 5V in this case. 0.7 * 5V = 3.5V
Data level output of ESP
The ESP can only output 3.3V.
Conclusion
The output of the ESP is in theory not high enough to drive the WS2812B LEDs.A levelshifter does fix that issue by changing the datalevel from 3.3V to 5V.
But it works without one in Video XY
As said above: " ...in theory...". Values from the Datasheet and the reality are two different things.The values in the datasheet mean that it can garantee a good read of a HIGH level at 3.5V or more. It can work below 3.5V, but there is a chance does not get a good read.
And now?
If you want a reliable setup, then integrate a recommended levelshifter. Check the /shifter command for those.

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This link is useful for finding a level shifter for your setup https://kno.wled.ge/basics/compatible-hardware/#levelshifters

The 10A fuses, semi redundant on a power supply only capable of delivering 10A, you want to fuse to the size of wire you are using, if your wire can not handle 10A, and a short occurs causing 10A to be drawn, the wire will melt before the fuse does its job. A 10A fuse at 24v is 240W. Ideally you will only need a 7A fuse max, the chance of you drawing the full 21 watts per meter, will mean you've got perfect power injection, and you are using R+G+B+W all at the same time.

Notenoughlights said:

Will that ESP32 just be a barebones ESP32 with the data lines coming straight from the GPIO outputs? If so, you may want to check this quote from the WLED discord out first. If you have a dedicated controller with all the goodies built in, skip this bit (Unless it's branded GLEDOPTO, throw that junk out).



This link is useful for finding a level shifter for your setup https://kno.wled.ge/basics/compatible-hardware/#levelshifters

The 10A fuses, semi redundant on a power supply only capable of delivering 10A, you want to fuse to the size of wire you are using, if your wire can not handle 10A, and a short occurs causing 10A to be drawn, the wire will melt before the fuse does its job. A 10A fuse at 24v is 240W. Ideally you will only need a 7A fuse max, the chance of you drawing the full 21 watts per meter, will mean you've got perfect power injection, and you are using R+G+B+W all at the same time.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the info. I had seen the term used before but didn’t understand it.

I haven’t bought any components yet. Is there any pre-made controller that has the level shifter built in ?

Thanks for the inform about fuses. I didn’t really understand that part of it but had seen multiple mentions of people suggesting fuses be installed.

Ps. Your lights display is unbelievable never seen anything like it before

bono said:

Thank you so much for the info. I had seen the term used before but didn’t understand it.

I haven’t bought any components yet. Is there any pre-made controller that has the level shifter built in ?

Thanks for the inform about fuses. I didn’t really understand that part of it but had seen multiple mentions of people suggesting fuses be installed.

Ps. Your lights display is unbelievable never seen anything like it before

Click to expand...

Check out the Quinled or Athom range of boards, they're cost-effective, run WLED that has built in effects, can take external inputs to switch lights on/off, select preset effects/colours etc. The Quinled boards have the option of Ethernet, where as the Athom ones do not, so if you plan to use this in a light show, I would suggest the Quin + Ethernet option.

Short of using an entire show type controller that requires live data to run, a controller with wled will do fine.