Roll your eyes over my plan...

R

Rani

New elf
Joined
Aug 17, 2018
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Hey peeps,

New here, I've seen some very helpful threads

Planning to run LED strips under my decking step and retaining wall using WS2812B's
Here's my rough diagram
qBEWMgA.png



Will be power injecting power every 2-3m, let me know if that's overkill. Also, should I be injecting positive and neutral or just positive?
Don't know if this will be successful but hoping to use shielded coax cable for data to jump the 2m gap between strips

Parts list..

WS2812B's from Ray Wu? I came across his store from this forum, still a reliable store?
5V 70W Power Supply - my calculations tell me that I'll be needing 45A based on 25m @ 30LED/m
1000uF Capacitor to place between power supply and strip
4.7k Resistor on data line between controller and strip
NodeMCU running either FastLED or McLighting (not sure yet but heard McLighting is better)
10A inline fuse between mains power to power supply (just in case)
Finally some of these to easily connect all the strips etc

Cables
2.5mm Electrical cable
Coaxial shielded cable to bridge DATA 2m gap

Let me know if I'm missing something or you think I should change anything
Thanks in advance
 
Last edited:
Your current should be about 35A max so you'll need at least about a 180W supply.
If it's under deck lighting and the resolution isn't really needed then 12V 10 pixel/30 led per metre may be easier to work with. The power is still about the same but the current is about 1/3rd. Both use 5V data so that's not an issue.
It's not necessary to break strips to power inject. Inject at the ends/joins.
It's not really necessary to put in the capacitor.
Putting in a 4.7k resistor will almost guarantee you'll have issues. Something more like 22R to 47R will ensure you're not killing the signal via RC rounding of the signals. Pixels are designed to have this 22-47R series resistance.
The 2 metre gap is within the usual pixel data distance. Using a heavier cable like 3 core 7.5A mains flex will allow both decent current capacity as well as still allowing the data to get through okay. Coax would be necessary if you were looking at 20m or more.
 
AAH said:
....
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response mate,

The strips won't actually be under the deck but under the step dressing board of the deck (the face of the step to the deck) which is prob the same as what you're saying as the resolution won't be needed. Though because the light will be projected onto the pavers which are only 30mm below, I'm thinking the resolution is needed.
I even considered buying these diffuser strips but I'm waiting to see how they look without first before investing another $100 or so.

With power injecting, if I splice at ends/joins, that would make it every 5m, you don't think that's a bit long?
Is there an easy way to inject without soldering? I'm a little confused if the clips that I linked above would work in joining the strips as well as injecting power in them?

Ok forget about the 4.7k resistor, so instead get the 22Ω or 47Ω resistor? I'm asking to confirm that 47R means 47Ω? :)

It's good to see that coax will definitely work for my purpose (wire is already routed)

By the way, do you use an arduino board at all? Which library?
 
Rani said:
Thanks for the quick response mate,

The strips won't actually be under the deck but under the step dressing board of the deck (the face of the step to the deck) which is prob the same as what you're saying as the resolution won't be needed. Though because the light will be projected onto the pavers which are only 30mm below, I'm thinking the resolution is needed.
I even considered buying these diffuser strips but I'm waiting to see how they look without first before investing another $100 or so.

With power injecting, if I splice at ends/joins, that would make it every 5m, you don't think that's a bit long?
Is there an easy way to inject without soldering? I'm a little confused if the clips that I linked above would work in joining the strips as well as injecting power in them?

Ok forget about the 4.7k resistor, so instead get the 22Ω or 47Ω resistor? I'm asking to confirm that 47R means 47Ω? :)

It's good to see that coax will definitely work for my purpose (wire is already routed)

By the way, do you use an arduino board at all? Which library?
Click to expand...
Strips are designed to have enough copper in them to not need power injection part length. For this reason some of the higher leds per metre strip only comes in 4m lengths.
47R is the common terminology to indicate 47 ohms. It's used like 4R7, 47R, 470R then 4k7, 4M7 etc to indicate where the decimal point is and I use it especially as I have no idea how to type in the ohms symbol (omega).
I wouldn't use those joiners for lots of reasons. 1. @ryanschristmaslights has used similar and had lots of issues, 2. they have no water protection, 3 to use them you need to remove the water protection that's already on the strips. 4. the strips will come wires (and JST plugs) out each end. Included in the wires at each end there will typically be 2 power wires in addition the power/data/gnd for the signal.
I've never used an Arduino. Depending on what light effects you're wanting to do the 2811 pixel testers on my site may do what you want.
 
New here! Really liking this forum guys. I don't know why people don't use forums more often..
 
292F2C88-0918-4750-8B3B-B94EE0ADD3D1.jpeg Hey mate,

You plan looks good.. if you are running 12v then 3/4 points of power injection would be fine with a decent enough cable..

Last year I did similar around my deck with 30 odd metres of 30/10 12v strip in silicon tube, in 2 runs, 1 is 13.5m and the other is 16m, both fed data (yes i split the data as I wanted both strips to do the same and move the same) and power at one end, and just a single power injection at the end..

I also put mine in an aluminium channel that came with diffuser and plan to put the diffuser over the top one day..

Sorry dont really have any better pic but can get some easily enough if you want more or videos..

Cheers..
 
Hey guys.
Apologies for disappearing. Lots was happening and this project got put on hold.
I'm revisiting now and about to order the strips though Ray Wu based on the great feedback there is about him here.
Could someone confirm this is the right Ray Wu store? :)

He's a bit pricey though, especially with the shipping
 
Roosta said:
View attachment 12780 Hey mate,

You plan looks good.. if you are running 12v then 3/4 points of power injection would be fine with a decent enough cable..

Last year I did similar around my deck with 30 odd metres of 30/10 12v strip in silicon tube, in 2 runs, 1 is 13.5m and the other is 16m, both fed data (yes i split the data as I wanted both strips to do the same and move the same) and power at one end, and just a single power injection at the end..

I also put mine in an aluminium channel that came with diffuser and plan to put the diffuser over the top one day..

Sorry dont really have any better pic but can get some easily enough if you want more or videos..

Cheers..
Click to expand...

That looks good mate, did you use aluminium channels?
How did you fit it in? Is it between the boards or on top?
I thought of routing a groove for the strip between the boards, but my routing skills aren't the best
 
Hey mate.. thats the right ray wu store.. freight does add up, but depending on size of order he does do a discount for freight.. the strip i used is https://www.aliexpress.com/item/pro...pm=a2g0s.13010208.99999999.259.17c13c008EFabo

Aluminium channel is between the top board and the side board, and is this channel. https://www.sal.net.au/products/int...p-lights/slt-series-led-strip-channel-slt3000

I am in the process of another job at the moment using this channel, which is similar to the one u linked to.. its being routed into the timber.. https://havit.com.au/collections/re...ducts/shallow-square-winged-aluminium-profile
 
Roosta said:
Hey mate..
Click to expand...

I came across a YouTube video recently that did the same as you mentioned, by splitting the data cables and connecting them to different gpio pins so that the animation of the 2 strips is easier and can animate independently. That's exactly what I'd like to do.

Great idea
 
Contact Ray directly via email and give him a list of what you're after with links to the products too.
This way he can send you a quote with reduced shipping rates compared to ordering via Aliexpress site.
 
Thanks peeps, I've been in touch with Ray via alibaba and he's offered $102USD or $144AUD for 5strips @30led/m in silicone coating (ip65) WS2812B/M
Good deal?

I don't know if I'm chatting to him directly because he/she didn't seem to acknowledge auschristmaslighting.com when I mentioned it...

By the way, what's the M stand for?
 
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