Need help!

[Jkay83]

Hi All,

Complete newbie here!

Slowly buying bits and pieces to put together a very basic roof outline this year.

My problems/questions are this:

1. I accidentally purchased 5v ws2812b pixel strips instead of ws2811 12v which I already have sets of. Can I incorporate 5v strips with my existing 12v ones? I have a 12v 20a PSU.

2. I want to be able to connect the strips that outline my roof, with strips that will outline my windows and other sections of my house. What's the best controller to achieve this? And how do you go about linking them all together?

Thanks

 

[DarkwinX]

Welcome to the forums and this great hobby.

1. The simple answer is no, you would need a 5v PSU to run these lights.

2. Most controllers and/or smart receiver combinations could achieve this. Whether or not you need multiple seperate runs and/or power injections to your outlines and windows will depend on how many lights in total. In my outline I have seperate window runs vs my roof outline which is around 600pixels split into 4 controller ports of 150 pixels each.

 

[thewanderingpine]

What controller do you currently have @Jkay83 ?

 

[Jkay83]

Welcome to the forums and this great hobby.

1. The simple answer is no, you would need a 5v PSU to run these lights.

2. Most controllers and/or smart receiver combinations could achieve this. Whether or not you need multiple seperate runs and/or power injections to your outlines and windows will depend on how many lights in total. In my outline I have seperate window runs vs my roof outline which is around 600pixels split into 4 controller ports of 150 pixels each.

Thanks for the reply!

1. Ye thought so. If I was to get a 5v PSU, is there a way to use both strips?

2. That's similar to what I would be looking at. Do I need a controller with multiple outputs or can I just daisy chain off the one output? What about using an LED signal repeater?

Thanks

 

[Jkay83]

What controller do you currently have @Jkay83 ?

5V-24V WLED RGB RGBW Digital Strip Light Controller Over 100 Dynamic Lighting Modes DIY Pixel Lamp Controler WiFi APP Control

27.1AU $ 7% OFF|5V 24V WLED RGB RGBW Digital Strip Light Controller Over 100 Dynamic Lighting Modes DIY Pixel Lamp Controler WiFi APP Control| | - AliExpress

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[thewanderingpine]

OK - so that controller has two outputs.. (but they would both want to be 12V)

Are you planning to run XLights? It supports multiple controllers (I have a couple of WLED ones similar to yours for my rooflines - as well as a bigger onto run other stuff)

The easier answer might just be another controller like that one (plus a 5V PSU) (or if you plan to add lots of lights in future - something like a HE-123 or Falcon).


A. couple of other options: try and swap those with someone who has some spare 12v strips? There's an advanced option to use something like a buck converter to take 12V to 5V?

 

[Jkay83]

OK - so that controller has two outputs.. (but they would both want to be 12V)

Are you planning to run XLights? It supports multiple controllers (I have a couple of WLED ones similar to yours for my rooflines - as well as a bigger onto run other stuff)

The easier answer might just be another controller like that one (plus a 5V PSU) (or if you plan to add lots of lights in future - something like a HE-123 or Falcon).


A. couple of other options: try and swap those with someone who has some spare 12v strips? There's an advanced option to use something like a buck converter to take 12V to 5V?

So I could run say my roof outline using the 12v PSU with the 12v strips and buy a 5v PSU with another controller to power my 5v strips? But I won't be able to run them all together?

 

[thewanderingpine]

So Xlights/FPP/XSchedule are designed to run multiple controllers together. So the effects will seamlessly go from one to the other.

WLED also has a way to "link" controllers together. It doesn't have the spatial awareness of an XLights layout - but can still do some cool stuff.

So I would say that you can still run them together.

 

[Jkay83]

Ok cool.

And how do I go about connecting multiple controllers together? For the one I've got?

 

[thewanderingpine]

are you using xlights? If so -- add them both on the controllers tab - and then just set them up accordingly.

I haven't done the WLED->WLED sync - but I believe there's a sync menu in there.