Is there any reason that GPIO21, GPIO18, GPIO12 and GPIO10 are used in particular for WS2812B LED Strips? Is there anything stopping me from using any other GPIO pin?
I believe it’s due to how the strip accepts its data signal - as it’s a high speed, fixed rate, continuous stream of bits - and how the Pi can achieve that while also doing all the other things it needs to do (such as run the operating system). The libraries cleverly use the PWM of the GPIO along with DMA to be able to stream all of the data without getting interrupted. I’m only just starting on my journey of understanding these ARGB strips and how they communicate, but I think that’s the reason.
1:39 "General Rule of Thumb: A 5V 4A power supply can comfortably handle 150 LED nodes, at full brightness" 150 white LEDs at full brightness would take 9 amps. I haven't done any projects with LEDs yet, but I don't understand how this (5v 4a) would be the recommended power supply. Is it likely that someone is going to go full bright white with their LEDs? Nope. But if they did, bad things would happen, wouldn't it?
No . If your supply limits current then the strip will use only 4 amps but if its not then it depends on the metal in the strips . It might heat up or melt ! 😅
Hello! Thank you so so so much for this video, I am a complete beginner to this and found it super helpful to understand the basics. I do have a question that may seem a bit simple, but I am planning on using WS2811 LEDS that are still addressable and come in strands of 50, and I wanted to double check that I do not need to use specifically WS2812B with any of the python scripts? Apologies if the terminology is a bit off, thanks so much again!!
Pro-Tip: if powering the LED strip through a power brick, use a step down buck converter or a resistor to bring the 5 volts down to 3.6 volts. 3.6 volts INSTEAD OF the actual voltage usage from the data sheet for these LEDs.
While it's always good to match the voltage, what is the actual benefit of doing this? Considering it's more material and setup, I don't see much point unless I'm getting a real benefit out of it. Would it use less power long term? Would it help the LED's last longer? Thanks in advance by the way =)
@@turbocharged213 You'd be pulling more amps the bigger your LED strips is, so it depends on the size of your LED strip. I've managed to have good results with a power supply rated for at least 2 amps for a 120 LED strip, with room to spare.
WS2812B supply voltage is 3.5V to 5.3V. WS2812B-mini voltage is 3.7V go 5.3V. That is right from Worldsemi. I am curious to where you found 3.6V is the ACTUAL voltage usage from the datasheet.
Awesome video. Super easy to follow and very informative. I am a Software Engineer but not the best at wiring and/or electrical so I have a question. Is there any way that you can control more than 4 strips with a raspberry Pi despite only having 4 GPIO pins? Thanks in advance!
I have lost a raspberry pi... By not doing this 😂😂😂 mentioning how things could go wrong, what to avoid and how it affects the project is helpful and entertaining 😊
I'll look into it mate, come check our comment section of the bottom of the written up guide. That might help you too. Also the GPIO pins are numbered different with the original Raspberry Pis If I remember correctly. core-electronics.com.au/guides/fully-addressable-rgb-raspberry-pi/
Thank you for this great tutorial! Question: what would be a good solution to power both the raspberri pi and about 150 led nodes together off the same power supply, to have a single wall plug solution? Ive been looking around for dc to female barrel jack and micro usb splitters but cant find many reliable parts that seem to do this job. Any suggestions on parts and what amperage I should go for in terms of power supply? Thank you!
you can try DC 5A Step-down Power Supply like this 9-36V to 5V Power Converter XY-3606, and it gives you one power cable and connecton 5V to rPI and 12v for leds ;)
Ok. So next question. Controlling the strip by using a 4x4 Matrix keypad? I see tutorials for using buttons, or using the Keypad and one LED, but nothing to use the keypad to pick an animation or a certain segment. This video got my LEDs up and running perfectly AND explained the reasoning behind some of the code, which the notes were fantastic, BTW.
I totally understand what your looking for. Now this linked guide isn't exactly what your looking for but it does teach you how to use Curses Library which is a great Python to use to make keyboard inputs cause an effect to hardware. In the example of this link the arrow keys on the keyboard move a Pan-Tilt HAT. core-electronics.com.au/guides/pan-tilt-hat-raspberry-pi/#Keeb You can then create a custom light loop show in the script which then get activated when you press a keystroke. Come pop by our Forum if you would like some more help, ask for Tim and Ill be right there 😊 forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Hi there I have a 30x30 10mm ws2812 fan with four wires which are "red,black,blue,green" for the raspberry pi I can hook the red and black fan to get power but the green "ws2812 leds" and blue "pwm". How can I get my LEDs to work it has four LEDs on it. Any help will really be appreciated.
Hey, nice video. Tough I'm facing the following Problem: Everything works for roughly 20 seconds and then the gpio pin stops sending any data. And the LED are just stuck at where they are. This stays like this until I restart the script. Do you have any solutions for this?
Very weird indeed! Come make a forum post here at our forum and post some images of your set up. That way we will best be able to help you - forum.core-electronics.com.au/
@@Core-Electronics Thanks for the fast reply, I will have another look tomorrow, maybe it's some stupid little mistake on my side. Then I'll try to ask in the forum :)
I'm trying to do this with 12v WS2815 addressable LEDs and a Pi Pico is it possible with an external 12v source? I've done this already with a neo pixel ring that only required 5v I have 3 x IRFZ44n hooked up to GND, RGB(strip) and also to GPIO on the Pico but I don't know how make the code work / ;
Did the female ends of the LED strip come with the strip itself? Or did you add some kind of short 3 male to female jumper? The strips I bought have have standard wires with no connector. I'm finding it hard to find a jumper that looks as convenient as that.
Voltages are higher for those WS2811 Strings, which isn't a big problem you just need to be careful not to accidentally fry your Raspberry Pi as 12V will burn it out. Hit up our forum if you need a wiring guide 😊 forum.core-electronics.com.au/
I see whats happened here and its such an easy mistake. On the table with me is the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and the official Raspberry Pi Mouse and Keyboard. The Raspberry Pi 400 looks almost exactly the same as the Keyboard, you can see them both being used in our guide here - ruclips.net/video/uaWC0GzvZSI/видео.html. So to be clear, only one Raspberry Pi Single Board computer is used in this guide here 😊.
Thanks to your tutorial I was able to control a 16x16 matrix on Raspberry pi 4. I created animations on it. Thanks a lot my friend!!! Greetings from Medellín-Colombia
Cheers for bringing this up. The provided code for the long strip drive the system at a quarter brightness. So we have 50mA Per Node * 144 Nodes * 1/4 = 1.8 Amps. That keeps us in a safe range for the power supply even if they get driven full white all done the line (a rare situation best suited to high power LEDs like these - ruclips.net/video/rDkP97-BHXI/видео.html)
Hey! I didn't make the video, but I am currently using a Raspberry Pi Zero W with 120 LEDs and it's working. I don't know if the Pico would work because it cannot run Raspberry Pi OS.
Edit: fixed it, broken gpio pin! Really intuitive video with great explanations but I’ve been having an issue where the 3 first leds will come at varying brightnesses, with seemingly random colours. (this is when running the downloaded script.) after a bit of flashing they turn off. im running a 5v 10A power supply and a 150 led strip with a raspberry pi 3b+. im wondering if this is to do with the gpio output of the pi being 3.3v rather than 5v. It could also be as they are RGBW. Any ideas? Thanks
Absolutely! If you need a hand setting it up to run like that come give our forum a bop, we'll best be able to help there 😊 forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Would it be possible to do this on something other than a "real" Pi? Such as the Libre PC S905X. I'd have to probably mess with the setup of GPIO pins, but I have some individual LEDs that I believe are the same chip as used in the video, I'm just trying to see where I can get started.
If you are running bookworm os, they now require you to use a virtual environment. Here is a guide on how to do that: core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/using-virtual-environments-in-thonny-on-a-raspberry-pi/
Hey Taran, that is a bit of a unique hat you are looking for. If you chuck us that question over at the forums as we have staff checking it multiple times a day and if it exists, someone will be able to find it for you: coreelec.io/forum Best of luck!
i think this would be perfect to build a led controller for the pc. you could use the raspberry-pi directly as a host for your own resource monitor. That brings me back to a point that I would be very interested in: the smartest way to realize that the raspberry ->starts
I managed driving such a strip of WS2812B LED this with an Arduino Uno (ATmega328, 8 bit AVR uC). Firmware ~1kB, 420 Bytes of SRAM used... No need for such an heavyweight platform...
That was i video i was looking for👍🏼 i had problems connecting 48 LED to an SKR Mini E3 V3 that can only provide 3W and i had issue with Data sending that mixed the colors and now its working perfectly thank you 👍🏼
"1 Amp per 50 LEDs" is my general rule for 5V 12V strips/supply roughly doubles that to 1A per 100 LEDs (really more like 120 but it's easier to go with 100 for a rule of thumb)
It's really cool approach connecting through the raspberry. I have a question: Is it possible to connect 10meters of ws2812 LED via external power supply of 3A but to reduce the LED count. I have 10meters (5 meters * 2) of 60 LED/m LED stripe. So due to the power consumption I want to reduce the LED count from total of 600 to 50. So 50 LED per 10meters. so instead of 60 LED in 1m I want to use only 5. Or to reduce power consumption in half. Because I don't have a 36A power supply
I want to use a 144 pixel LED strip with a battery pack. Can anyone recommend a battery pack? Also, will this work with Raspberry Pi 3 or 3B? Or Pi Zero v1.3?
Latest Bullseye Pi OS does not have adafruit-blinka in resp.. is it still needed for it to work properly? what will I miss if I don't have it installed? I may have to roll back to Buster.
On my terminal when I enter the pip command it tells me that I can't use it and advises me to use sudo apt, but if I use this other one I can't find the library. how can I solve it?
Where and how do I even find this thing to screw down two cables and connect it to this power? And also where do I find cable to connect it to the wall?
With the new bookworm OS, you need to create and work in a virtual environment, its a bit of a pain but its easy to setup: core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/using-virtual-environments-in-thonny-on-a-raspberry-pi/
Whenever i try to install the packages i get an error for externally managed environment and when i run it with apt install i get the error that it cant find the package. Any ideas?
Hello I am struggling and am not sure who to ask or where to look for info. When i get to installing my packet were you copy and past into the terminal I get an error telling me that tells me I should use a pip install or something but I cant get the packets to download.
You can actually do this all on the same Pi! There is a little setup required though. The data terminals of all 6 strips can be connected together to form one long "chain" of LEDs. The issue is powering them as you can't power too many LEDs in a row. You will need to do something called "power injecting", which is basically where you just power the strips individually, but have the data lines connected. Then your Pi will see all of these strips as one long led strip it can control. I hope this helps, if you need any additional guidance, feel free to chuck us a post on your forums: forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Hello. I found this video very helpful for my project. But I have one question. I have an WS2812b led strip of 5 meter. What power supply do I need if there are 60 leds/m? There would be a total of 300 leds on the strips
Depends on how many LED nodes your powering + the type. But if your powering ~150 WS2812B LEDs then your absolutely going to be able to power them all 😊
Each RGB LED draws approximately 50mA when it is set to full brightness and powered at 5V. So your not going to get full brightness but truthfully they will be very bright anyhows. Come check this guide on powering heaps of LEDs from Adafruit - learn.adafruit.com/1500-neopixel-led-curtain-with-raspberry-pi-fadecandy/power-topology
The video is very useful and I have one question, at 11:13 do I need to connect the last red pin to the 5v raspberry board or 5v from the power brick 5v-4A is enough ?
Heyya mate, excellent question 😊. You only need one power connection to the LED Strip, so the power brick will be enough. Check this image if you need - core-electronics.com.au/media/wysiwyg/tutorials/Tim/ws2812B-RASPI/GPIO_Set_up_Hardware_for_Loong_strip.png - Note that they share the same ground (and as such have a ground wire going to both the power-supply and the Raspberry Pi)
@@Core-Electronics Thanks for the detail, that helps me a lot. I just have one more curious question. Since I'm going to put the pi and the led strip all into a computer case. I wonder if possible to use my 5v-18A from my PSU for the pi400 and the led strip too ? If yes then it would be great, I won't have to use another power supply.
Absolutely mate, your Raspberry Pi runs at 5volts which is perfect for your PSU. It will only pull the current it needs from your PSU and 18 Amps is more than enough for the Raspberry Pi and your LEDs 😊. Come check here to learn some golden rules when it comes to selecting a power supply, read through that and you'll feel confident forever more - core-electronics.com.au/guides/power-supply-which-to-choose/
That would depend heavily on what fairy lights you are using. But if I had to do it, I would use some MOSFETs to control them. ruclips.net/video/t1WRxmG3h3I/видео.html
Very nice, followable and understandable Tutorial! But I have the problem that I cant install the first package. I get the Error Message that this is an external enviroment. Do i need some kind of driver or previous package? Greetings from Germany
Bookworm OS now forces us to use virtual environment to install virtuall managed environments, its a bit of a hassle but its not too hard to work around. Here is a great guide on that: www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/os.html#python-on-raspberry-pi
@@Core-Electronics thank you for your comment I actually got it running a couple of hours ago with an virtual environment, but I'm stuck at the problem that it can't find/ can't Import the "Board" library so the GP18 can't be addressed. Is there a workaround for that too?
Do you know anything to make it reactable with midi and piano do when I click a piano button the led blinks up? Would be nice and thanks for thst nice tutorial!
Hey, quick question I've been trying to figure it out. Would it be possible to use two different controller inputs into the same strip? Would one signal just override the previous signal or will it be a whole jumbled mess? I've been using these strips on my car and want everything to match
Alas doesn't seem to work with my led strip. also, kind of vague... since this is the only 'tutorial' i see on the internet. everyone seems to be using the same exact code. When I plug my roll of leds into it, none of the code seems to work right. oddly enough also having a hard time deciphering the docs for the adafruit code. =\
We can definitely help you over at our forum - forum.core-electronics.com.au/ Write up a post over there with some pictures and well get your system running as it should 😊
A BIG thanks to you indeed! I was having no end of troubles getting these working, and you have solved that very problem, so much appreciated. THANK YOU!!! x
Totally 😊 but note here - The longer a wire is, the more resistance it has. The more resistance, the more voltage drops along its length. Lower Voltage = Dimmer LED Nodes. So if you notice the Nodes at the end of your Huge LED strip are dim know that you can always provide power at both ends or at multiple parts along it to fix it. WS2812B do not mind what end/direction they receive power from. The data line moves in only one direction, but powering electricity can go either way.
They're the same physical size as the two pin, power-only configurations. The third pin is used as the clock/data pin in the individually addressable versions. The non-addressible strips use R, G, B, Ground for 4 pins.
@@RobertLipe It's not about the pins. It's the fact that in the US nobody sells a Male 3-pin connector as the data input wire. Instead I can only find Female 3-pin connectors.
When it comes to two wire LED strips you only need to provide it with power (5Volts and Ground Normally). You wont be able to get a single node to switch on with all the others off. It will be either completely on or off. Use any 5V power supply with a DC barrel jack adapter wired in and you'll be off to the races 😊 Hit us up at the forum if you need any more help - forum.core-electronics.com.au/latest
Come hit up our Python Workshop 😊 That'll teach you about loops and how to dim lights by using them in your code - core-electronics.com.au/courses/python-workshop/
Can you power 1 m of LED pixels straight from the raspberry pie with out external power supply and also do you guys sell that external power supply in the video?
All depends on how many nodes of LEDS are on the 1 Metre of strip. You will be able/okay to power around ~30 LED Nodes without an external power supply. And we definitely have that external power supply in stock, check it here - core-electronics.com.au/catalog/product/view/sku/AM8911B
Thank you for answering my question I just had one more question these longer LED strips used in the video are they 5 m long and the power supply you linked is that perfect for them?
Very comprehensive tutorial. I've been looking for something exactly like this. Great job guys!
Is there any reason that GPIO21, GPIO18, GPIO12 and GPIO10 are used in particular for WS2812B LED Strips? Is there anything stopping me from using any other GPIO pin?
I believe it’s due to how the strip accepts its data signal - as it’s a high speed, fixed rate, continuous stream of bits - and how the Pi can achieve that while also doing all the other things it needs to do (such as run the operating system). The libraries cleverly use the PWM of the GPIO along with DMA to be able to stream all of the data without getting interrupted.
I’m only just starting on my journey of understanding these ARGB strips and how they communicate, but I think that’s the reason.
Fantastic video that approaches some real "but how do I do *this*" questions that I have yet to see acknowledged.
Good lookin' out.
1:39 "General Rule of Thumb: A 5V 4A power supply can comfortably handle 150 LED nodes, at full brightness"
150 white LEDs at full brightness would take 9 amps. I haven't done any projects with LEDs yet, but I don't understand how this (5v 4a) would be the recommended power supply. Is it likely that someone is going to go full bright white with their LEDs? Nope. But if they did, bad things would happen, wouldn't it?
No . If your supply limits current then the strip will use only 4 amps but if its not then it depends on the metal in the strips . It might heat up or melt ! 😅
Hello! Thank you so so so much for this video, I am a complete beginner to this and found it super helpful to understand the basics. I do have a question that may seem a bit simple, but I am planning on using WS2811 LEDS that are still addressable and come in strands of 50, and I wanted to double check that I do not need to use specifically WS2812B with any of the python scripts? Apologies if the terminology is a bit off, thanks so much again!!
The Python scripts will still work mate 😊 Also come check out this guide too - ruclips.net/video/GYxctjukehY/видео.html
Pro-Tip: if powering the LED strip through a power brick, use a step down buck converter or a resistor to bring the 5 volts down to 3.6 volts. 3.6 volts INSTEAD OF the actual voltage usage from the data sheet for these LEDs.
While it's always good to match the voltage, what is the actual benefit of doing this? Considering it's more material and setup, I don't see much point unless I'm getting a real benefit out of it. Would it use less power long term? Would it help the LED's last longer? Thanks in advance by the way =)
@@nickcocca2210 The color accuracy is better and it will help your LEDs from burn out. Power consumption in my opinion is negligible.
How many amps?
@@turbocharged213 You'd be pulling more amps the bigger your LED strips is, so it depends on the size of your LED strip. I've managed to have good results with a power supply rated for at least 2 amps for a 120 LED strip, with room to spare.
WS2812B supply voltage is 3.5V to 5.3V. WS2812B-mini voltage is 3.7V go 5.3V. That is right from Worldsemi. I am curious to where you found 3.6V is the ACTUAL voltage usage from the datasheet.
Awesome video. Super easy to follow and very informative. I am a Software Engineer but not the best at wiring and/or electrical so I have a question. Is there any way that you can control more than 4 strips with a raspberry Pi despite only having 4 GPIO pins? Thanks in advance!
Noob question , 4:12
Any of these that I try to install get an error message “This Environment is externally managed”, any way to fix?
I'm having the same issue, were you able to figure it out?
hey guys i have this problem too, did you find a solution?
Thank you, at no point did I get lost with your explanation. As others have said this was very comprehensible.
I have lost a raspberry pi... By not doing this 😂😂😂
mentioning how things could go wrong, what to avoid and how it affects the project is helpful and entertaining 😊
Can I get the code to work on older rpi Model B+ v1.2? The code and libraries can load, but I don't get proper output on GPIO.
I'll look into it mate, come check our comment section of the bottom of the written up guide. That might help you too. Also the GPIO pins are numbered different with the original Raspberry Pis If I remember correctly. core-electronics.com.au/guides/fully-addressable-rgb-raspberry-pi/
I was trying with the same raspberry pi version, same problem. Everything runs without problem, but no action on the led strip.
Have written the fix in the written up article, you can see it at the bottom of | Flashy Demonstration | chapter.
Thank you for this great tutorial! Question: what would be a good solution to power both the raspberri pi and about 150 led nodes together off the same power supply, to have a single wall plug solution? Ive been looking around for dc to female barrel jack and micro usb splitters but cant find many reliable parts that seem to do this job. Any suggestions on parts and what amperage I should go for in terms of power supply? Thank you!
you can try DC 5A Step-down Power Supply like this 9-36V to 5V Power Converter XY-3606, and it gives you one power cable and connecton 5V to rPI and 12v for leds ;)
Ok. So next question. Controlling the strip by using a 4x4 Matrix keypad? I see tutorials for using buttons, or using the Keypad and one LED, but nothing to use the keypad to pick an animation or a certain segment.
This video got my LEDs up and running perfectly AND explained the reasoning behind some of the code, which the notes were fantastic, BTW.
I totally understand what your looking for.
Now this linked guide isn't exactly what your looking for but it does teach you how to use Curses Library which is a great Python to use to make keyboard inputs cause an effect to hardware. In the example of this link the arrow keys on the keyboard move a Pan-Tilt HAT. core-electronics.com.au/guides/pan-tilt-hat-raspberry-pi/#Keeb
You can then create a custom light loop show in the script which then get activated when you press a keystroke. Come pop by our Forum if you would like some more help, ask for Tim and Ill be right there 😊 forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Hi there
I have a 30x30 10mm ws2812 fan with four wires which are "red,black,blue,green" for the raspberry pi I can hook the red and black fan to get power but the green "ws2812 leds" and blue "pwm". How can I get my LEDs to work it has four LEDs on it.
Any help will really be appreciated.
Hey, nice video. Tough I'm facing the following Problem:
Everything works for roughly 20 seconds and then the gpio pin stops sending any data. And the LED are just stuck at where they are. This stays like this until I restart the script. Do you have any solutions for this?
Very weird indeed! Come make a forum post here at our forum and post some images of your set up. That way we will best be able to help you - forum.core-electronics.com.au/
@@Core-Electronics Thanks for the fast reply, I will have another look tomorrow, maybe it's some stupid little mistake on my side. Then I'll try to ask in the forum :)
I'm trying to do this with 12v WS2815 addressable LEDs and a Pi Pico is it possible with an external 12v source?
I've done this already with a neo pixel ring that only required 5v
I have 3 x IRFZ44n hooked up to GND, RGB(strip) and also to GPIO on the Pico but I don't know how make the code work / ;
Im getting an error: /dev/mem permission denied on the strandtest.py. Why is this happening?
same
Got it: Use "sudo thonny" in terminal to open thonny, this way it has all the neccessary rights to use the GPIO pins. BBOOOOOOM it lights up!!!!
Did the female ends of the LED strip come with the strip itself? Or did you add some kind of short 3 male to female jumper? The strips I bought have have standard wires with no connector. I'm finding it hard to find a jumper that looks as convenient as that.
Is there any way to select multiple leds like this [1,4,6,8] = blabla
So there’s no led strips that just do that you have to make them do it yourself??
Love Tim's Explaining Computers impression 😂
is raspberry pi OS Mandatory or can use another linux OS ?
Does this work for WS2811 strings?
Voltages are higher for those WS2811 Strings, which isn't a big problem you just need to be careful not to accidentally fry your Raspberry Pi as 12V will burn it out. Hit up our forum if you need a wiring guide 😊 forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Can't use just directly use the p400 instead of connecting the 4b to the p400?
I see whats happened here and its such an easy mistake. On the table with me is the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and the official Raspberry Pi Mouse and Keyboard.
The Raspberry Pi 400 looks almost exactly the same as the Keyboard, you can see them both being used in our guide here - ruclips.net/video/uaWC0GzvZSI/видео.html.
So to be clear, only one Raspberry Pi Single Board computer is used in this guide here 😊.
Can you make a tutorial on how to make Home assistant led strips with a raspberry pi?
Anyone success with a RPi5? I get all sorts of errors.
Are fully addressable LEDs essentially useless if you can’t use raspberry pi? If I only wanted to use an IOS app for color changing
Come take a look at this video here, great App Control (IOS or Android) for fully addressable LEDs - ruclips.net/video/GYxctjukehY/видео.html
Thanks to your tutorial I was able to control a 16x16 matrix on Raspberry pi 4. I created animations on it.
Thanks a lot my friend!!!
Greetings from Medellín-Colombia
Nice work!
Any videos of the end result? That sounds pretty interesting!
mmm are you sure about the power needed. Taking 144 in a 1 meter led strip will take 8.6 amps to run those leds at full brightness "white"
Cheers for bringing this up. The provided code for the long strip drive the system at a quarter brightness. So we have 50mA Per Node * 144 Nodes * 1/4 = 1.8 Amps. That keeps us in a safe range for the power supply even if they get driven full white all done the line (a rare situation best suited to high power LEDs like these - ruclips.net/video/rDkP97-BHXI/видео.html)
Can this still work on a raspberry pi pico or pi pico W? The smaller form factor is a high priority for my planned project.
Hey! I didn't make the video, but I am currently using a Raspberry Pi Zero W with 120 LEDs and it's working. I don't know if the Pico would work because it cannot run Raspberry Pi OS.
can a fuel gauge / % countdown effect be programmed?
Edit: fixed it, broken gpio pin!
Really intuitive video with great explanations but I’ve been having an issue where the 3 first leds will come at varying brightnesses, with seemingly random colours. (this is when running the downloaded script.) after a bit of flashing they turn off. im running a 5v 10A power supply and a 150 led strip with a raspberry pi 3b+. im wondering if this is to do with the gpio output of the pi being 3.3v rather than 5v. It could also be as they are RGBW. Any ideas? Thanks
Glad you fixed your issue! Thanks for commenting too 😊
how did you find out that your gpio pin is broken?
My thonny give me some errors.
OneStripNeopixel.py Line 34 in >Module<
Adafruit_pixelbuf.py. Line 309 & 273 in _set_item
I have no idea 😢
With the script can you do times events? Such as a certain light flashing every 10 seconds?
Absolutely! If you need a hand setting it up to run like that come give our forum a bop, we'll best be able to help there 😊 forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Would it be possible to do this on something other than a "real" Pi? Such as the Libre PC S905X. I'd have to probably mess with the setup of GPIO pins, but I have some individual LEDs that I believe are the same chip as used in the video, I'm just trying to see where I can get started.
Running pip3 commands results in an error now: "error: externally-managed-environment". What is your recommendation for working around this?
If you are running bookworm os, they now require you to use a virtual environment.
Here is a guide on how to do that: core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/using-virtual-environments-in-thonny-on-a-raspberry-pi/
Finally got mine working!!! It came alive like magic 😍😍 thank youuu!!
Thanks for the video ! This was exactly what I was looking for !
is there a hat (with power injection and smt connector)?
Hey Taran, that is a bit of a unique hat you are looking for.
If you chuck us that question over at the forums as we have staff checking it multiple times a day and if it exists, someone will be able to find it for you: coreelec.io/forum
Best of luck!
i think this would be perfect to build a led controller for the pc. you could use the raspberry-pi directly as a host for your own resource monitor. That brings me back to a point that I would be very interested in: the smartest way to realize that the raspberry ->starts
First thanks for the video! I got mine working, but only when I realized that when you said GPIO18 it wasn’t pin 18! 😂
thank you so much!
Great job, just what I have been looking for!
I managed driving such a strip of WS2812B LED this with an Arduino Uno (ATmega328, 8 bit AVR uC). Firmware ~1kB, 420 Bytes of SRAM used... No need for such an heavyweight platform...
That was i video i was looking for👍🏼 i had problems connecting 48 LED to an SKR Mini E3 V3 that can only provide 3W and i had issue with Data sending that mixed the colors and now its working perfectly thank you 👍🏼
"1 Amp per 50 LEDs" is my general rule for 5V
12V strips/supply roughly doubles that to 1A per 100 LEDs (really more like 120 but it's easier to go with 100 for a rule of thumb)
It's really cool approach connecting through the raspberry. I have a question: Is it possible to connect 10meters of ws2812 LED via external power supply of 3A but to reduce the LED count. I have 10meters (5 meters * 2) of 60 LED/m LED stripe. So due to the power consumption I want to reduce the LED count from total of 600 to 50. So 50 LED per 10meters. so instead of 60 LED in 1m I want to use only 5. Or to reduce power consumption in half. Because I don't have a 36A power supply
I want to use a 144 pixel LED strip with a battery pack. Can anyone recommend a battery pack? Also, will this work with Raspberry Pi 3 or 3B? Or Pi Zero v1.3?
How do i do this with a screen
I got really cheap strip thats like 12 feet and only uses 5v but they are RGB SMD 5050 not addressable. any ideas if i could get them working?
Hi, thanks for the tutorial. How many individual LED strips can be controlled with raspberry pi?
Hello, I just want to ask if I can use the SMD 5050 strip instead but without adjusting the color, thanks!
Latest Bullseye Pi OS does not have adafruit-blinka in resp.. is it still needed for it to work properly? what will I miss if I don't have it installed? I may have to roll back to Buster.
11:06, the green arrow in the picture is pointing to Ground not GPIO 18. Almost blew mine up!
I have a question, my LED strips have 4 channels and a blue channel. Which ports can I connect it to?
On my terminal when I enter the pip command it tells me that I can't use it and advises me to use sudo apt, but if I use this other one I can't find the library. how can I solve it?
Where and how do I even find this thing to screw down two cables and connect it to this power? And also where do I find cable to connect it to the wall?
Hey 8ball, all the parts are listed in our written article here: core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/fully-addressable-rgb-raspberry-pi/
i keep getting an error that i have to create a virtual environment to download the libraries. what can i do to get around this?
With the new bookworm OS, you need to create and work in a virtual environment, its a bit of a pain but its easy to setup: core-electronics.com.au/guides/raspberry-pi/using-virtual-environments-in-thonny-on-a-raspberry-pi/
So how would I then connect this to home assistant? Which I believe has native support for wled
Whenever i try to install the packages i get an error for externally managed environment and when i run it with apt install i get the error that it cant find the package. Any ideas?
Hello I am struggling and am not sure who to ask or where to look for info. When i get to installing my packet were you copy and past into the terminal I get an error telling me that tells me I should use a pip install or something but I cant get the packets to download.
Excellent
I need handle 6 leds strip. Exists a Raspeberry version able to do that?
You can actually do this all on the same Pi! There is a little setup required though.
The data terminals of all 6 strips can be connected together to form one long "chain" of LEDs. The issue is powering them as you can't power too many LEDs in a row. You will need to do something called "power injecting", which is basically where you just power the strips individually, but have the data lines connected. Then your Pi will see all of these strips as one long led strip it can control.
I hope this helps, if you need any additional guidance, feel free to chuck us a post on your forums: forum.core-electronics.com.au/
On other tutorials I've seen, sound is disabled when using these. Do I have to disable sound when using this tutorial?
Hello. I found this video very helpful for my project. But I have one question.
I have an WS2812b led strip of 5 meter. What power supply do I need if there are 60 leds/m? There would be a total of 300 leds on the strips
i have a 5V and 3 Amp power supply for the LED strip. Is that enough?
Depends on how many LED nodes your powering + the type. But if your powering ~150 WS2812B LEDs then your absolutely going to be able to power them all 😊
@@Core-Electronics im running one with 300
Each RGB LED draws approximately 50mA when it is set to full brightness and powered at 5V. So your not going to get full brightness but truthfully they will be very bright anyhows. Come check this guide on powering heaps of LEDs from Adafruit - learn.adafruit.com/1500-neopixel-led-curtain-with-raspberry-pi-fadecandy/power-topology
@@Core-Electronics So a 5v 3a battery pack should be sufficient for a 144 LED Strip?
The video is very useful and I have one question, at 11:13 do I need to connect the last red pin to the 5v raspberry board or 5v from the power brick 5v-4A is enough ?
Heyya mate, excellent question 😊. You only need one power connection to the LED Strip, so the power brick will be enough. Check this image if you need - core-electronics.com.au/media/wysiwyg/tutorials/Tim/ws2812B-RASPI/GPIO_Set_up_Hardware_for_Loong_strip.png - Note that they share the same ground (and as such have a ground wire going to both the power-supply and the Raspberry Pi)
@@Core-Electronics Thanks for the detail, that helps me a lot. I just have one more curious question.
Since I'm going to put the pi and the led strip all into a computer case. I wonder if possible to use my 5v-18A from my PSU for the pi400 and the led strip too ? If yes then it would be great, I won't have to use another power supply.
Absolutely mate, your Raspberry Pi runs at 5volts which is perfect for your PSU. It will only pull the current it needs from your PSU and 18 Amps is more than enough for the Raspberry Pi and your LEDs 😊. Come check here to learn some golden rules when it comes to selecting a power supply, read through that and you'll feel confident forever more - core-electronics.com.au/guides/power-supply-which-to-choose/
@@Core-Electronics Thank you very much, it solves a lot of my problems and now I can simply use my PSU for my project :D
I love this! We can actually have a Raspberry Pi, inside our computer, running off the power supply, powering some custom LED lighting. I'm on it!
Fantastic video.
very helpful video, thank you
Cheers for kind words 😊
Why 30 nodes?
it would be so much easier with way more options to use wled on a esp32
We have a guide on WLED for the ESP32 as well, it's a fantastic system
Has anyone connected fairy lights to a pi?
That would depend heavily on what fairy lights you are using. But if I had to do it, I would use some MOSFETs to control them.
ruclips.net/video/t1WRxmG3h3I/видео.html
Excellent video! I'm going to try and controll 2 externally powered LED strips!
Very nice, followable and understandable Tutorial! But I have the problem that I cant install the first package. I get the Error Message that this is an external enviroment. Do i need some kind of driver or previous package? Greetings from Germany
Bookworm OS now forces us to use virtual environment to install virtuall managed environments, its a bit of a hassle but its not too hard to work around. Here is a great guide on that:
www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/os.html#python-on-raspberry-pi
@@Core-Electronics thank you for your comment I actually got it running a couple of hours ago with an virtual environment, but I'm stuck at the problem that it can't find/ can't Import the "Board" library so the GP18 can't be addressed. Is there a workaround for that too?
@@Core-Electronics thx its really nice how you answer every comment
RUclips served me this video and I bought 5 m led strip from you next day! The code looks easy too.
Aww sweet! Hope you have fun and if you need any extra help come hit up our forum 😊 forum.core-electronics.com.au/latest
@@Core-Electronics daughter wants led strip with remote, this looks more fun.
Nothing stopping you from adding a remote to your system to control the lights 😊
@@Core-Electronics Even better. Part two is remote. Part three could be small screen...
Thank you! Can I use the WLED to control these LEDs with raspberry pi?
can you control wifi addressable led sets?
I need a C++ tutorial, what do you recomend?
I have a 3 wire 5v LED strip... what do i do?
Do you know anything to make it reactable with midi and piano do when I click a piano button the led blinks up? Would be nice and thanks for thst nice tutorial!
Can you power multiple LONG strips with this method?
Yes you can! The only issue will be powering all the LEDs.
@@Core-Electronics so if I were to use your method of powering them and copy that twice on the board, I’d be able to get two long strips powered?
this guy is great ... ty ...
:)
😊 Cheers mate!
How to check which BCM GPIO PIN support the WS2812B LED strip? where is the document?
GPIO 21
GPIO 18
GPIO 10
GPIO 12
Hey, quick question I've been trying to figure it out. Would it be possible to use two different controller inputs into the same strip? Would one signal just override the previous signal or will it be a whole jumbled mess? I've been using these strips on my car and want everything to match
sounds like a pretty niche application. Head over to the forums for some more in-depth help forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Great tutorial 😀 Thanks for making it.
Patrick from Bethesda, Maryland, USA 😀😀😀
Glad it was helpful! Happy Making :D
I was able to use your One Strand program, modify it (with help from ChatGPT), and now use a Pi Zero W to light up my CPU fan. Thanks!
Tell us more please.
Alas doesn't seem to work with my led strip. also, kind of vague... since this is the only 'tutorial' i see on the internet. everyone seems to be using the same exact code. When I plug my roll of leds into it, none of the code seems to work right. oddly enough also having a hard time deciphering the docs for the adafruit code. =\
We can definitely help you over at our forum - forum.core-electronics.com.au/
Write up a post over there with some pictures and well get your system running as it should 😊
Thanks for this!
No worries 😊
Strange choice of wire colors.
A BIG thanks to you indeed! I was having no end of troubles getting these working, and you have solved that very problem, so much appreciated. THANK YOU!!! x
I COULD WRITE A PROGRAM FOR THIS!!!!!
I AM SOOO EXCITED NOW 😁😁😁
Enjoy your colourful journey, share your results we'd love to see what you come up with.
Keep up the good work. Is it possible to turn on led strip to a particular colour using joy buttons? Thanks
Of course! you'll just need to write the code to do so. Hit us up on the forums if you need technical help forum.core-electronics.com.au/
nice :)
Cheers for popping by mate 😊
What about a PI5?
This should work on a Pi 5 as well!
Will this work if you connect multiple long strips together?
Totally 😊 but note here - The longer a wire is, the more resistance it has. The more resistance, the more voltage drops along its length. Lower Voltage = Dimmer LED Nodes. So if you notice the Nodes at the end of your Huge LED strip are dim know that you can always provide power at both ends or at multiple parts along it to fix it. WS2812B do not mind what end/direction they receive power from. The data line moves in only one direction, but powering electricity can go either way.
Where did you find a LED strip with a Male 3-pin connector as the data input wire? I am in the US and I can't find a single one.
They're the same physical size as the two pin, power-only configurations. The third pin is used as the clock/data pin in the individually addressable versions. The non-addressible strips use R, G, B, Ground for 4 pins.
@@RobertLipe It's not about the pins. It's the fact that in the US nobody sells a Male 3-pin connector as the data input wire. Instead I can only find Female 3-pin connectors.
this led is 12V?
How about managing simple white led strip which only use 2 wires?
Thank's in advance for feedback
When it comes to two wire LED strips you only need to provide it with power (5Volts and Ground Normally). You wont be able to get a single node to switch on with all the others off. It will be either completely on or off. Use any 5V power supply with a DC barrel jack adapter wired in and you'll be off to the races 😊
Hit us up at the forum if you need any more help - forum.core-electronics.com.au/latest
@@Core-Electronics thank's for your replay.
And what about code to turn on/off led or dimmering them?
Come hit up our Python Workshop 😊 That'll teach you about loops and how to dim lights by using them in your code - core-electronics.com.au/courses/python-workshop/
Good video 👍🏻
has anyone gotten pi 5 to work?!! Nothing works on the latest PI 5
Can you power 1 m of LED pixels straight from the raspberry pie with out external power supply and also do you guys sell that external power supply in the video?
All depends on how many nodes of LEDS are on the 1 Metre of strip. You will be able/okay to power around ~30 LED Nodes without an external power supply. And we definitely have that external power supply in stock, check it here - core-electronics.com.au/catalog/product/view/sku/AM8911B
Thank you for answering my question I just had one more question these longer LED strips used in the video are they 5 m long and the power supply you linked is that perfect for them?
Absolutely 😊 the density of that long LED strip is 30 per metre, making a total of 150 LED nodes.