How to connect WS2811 5050 RGB LED Strip to Arduino/Genuino Uno?

Not really sure if there's an adapter for that specific connector or not. You can cut the connector off and splice the bare wires together, just be sure to tape (electrical tape preferred....) or heat shrink the connections to prevent a short. you could try folding the wire back on itself, this way your putting the jacketed portion and the bare portion into the plug at the same time. This will at least fill more of the gap.

If you don't have a meter, how are you sure you have the positive and negative hooked up properly?

Reburg99:
Not really sure if there's an adapter for that specific connector or not. You can cut the connector off and splice the bare wires together, just be sure to tape (electrical tape preferred....) or heat shrink the connections to prevent a short. you could try folding the wire back on itself, this way your putting the jacketed portion and the bare portion into the plug at the same time. This will at least fill more of the gap.

OK, thanks for the advice. I will try something once the other parts arrive.

Reburg99:
If you don't have a meter, how are you sure you have the positive and negative hooked up properly?

The power supply has logos on it showing which is positive and which is negative.

Profwombat:
the power supply should be trustworthy.

Yes but what is its spec? What is its max current output. It can be the best make in the world but it still won't be able to maintain 12V if you try to pull double the max current it is rated for.

Hi all,

I'm looking for a library for controlling WS2811 led strip. I tried with FastLED but it seems to be too complex. My purpose is just change of color and making some effects. Anyone knows other library which is suitable for my purpose. Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Hi vwy5. Start your own topic for your question. Thanks

PaulRB:
Yes but what is its spec? What is its max current output. It can be the best make in the world but it still won't be able to maintain 12V if you try to pull double the max current it is rated for.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003Z6ZUJ2/

It says max 500mA. Is that good enough?

I suspect that will be woefully inadequate. It may be the cause of your failure to get the strip working. 500mA @ 12V is enough for around 25 rgb leds.

But referring back to your original post, I realise there are two pieces of information you didn't tell us. How many leds per metre (30, 48 or 60)? How many metres long is the strip? (That eBay page does not seem to tell you how long the strip is that you are buying. That would have rung alarm bells for me and I would not have purchased from that seller).

For a 5m strip with 60 leds per metre, you would need a 12V PSU with at least 6A capacity, ideally 7.5A for safety.

PaulRB:
How many leds per metre (30, 48 or 60)? How many metres long is the strip?

There are 60 LEDs on the strip, and the strip is one metre long, so 60 LEDs per meter.

PaulRB:
(That eBay page does not seem to tell you how long the strip is that you are buying.

It lets you select which version you want, although I can't remember exactly which one I selected.

That seller is being dishonest. The picture shows a 5m of strip on a reel. Nowhere on the page does it say you will receive only 1m!

OK, so your strip has 60 leds. On 12V strips the leds are grouped in threes (you should be able to see one ws2811 chip after every third led). So that's 20 groups. Each group will need up to 20mA each for red, green & blue. So that's 1.2A in total. So get a 1.5A PSU.

I also have this one. 2A would be good right? But is there any way to connect the loose wires to this type of DC connector?

You could cut off the connector, strip the wire and use 3A screw terminal strips (the sort normally used for lighting etc). Or you could buy a matching in-line socket and solder that to the strip wires like this.

s-l300.jpg

The code I am using (the demo provided on the FastLED github page):
#include "FastLED.h"
#define NUM_LEDS 60
CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS];
void setup() { FastLED.addLeds<NEOPIXEL, 6>(leds, NUM_LEDS); }
void loop() {
leds[0] = CRGB::White; FastLED.show(); delay(30);
leds[0] = CRGB::Black; FastLED.show(); delay(30);
}

Please correct me if I'm wrong here.... but currently he's only trying to light the 1st 3 LEDs (leds[0]) in the strip. The current supply should be adequate for that, which leads me to believe there's another issue.

Reburg99:
Please correct me if I'm wrong here....

I am no longer confident that we have solved the problem either.

The OP's sketch does not set the colour of the remaining leds, so there is no guarantee they will be off, they could be defaulting to random colours. And I was under the impression that the strip was 5m long, as shown in the eBay seller's picture. So that could have been a lot of leds showing random colours, or trying to, and overloading an inadequate PSU.

Now we know the strip is only 1m long. The 0.5A psu is still inadequate because even a 1m strip could draw 1.2A of all 60 leds were set to full brightness white. But it no longer seems likely that this would prevent any leds from lighting at all.

I am hoping that a resistor in series with the data line will clean up the signal and it will start working. But I can't be sure.

I have ordered some resistors, which I believe should arrive in 3-5 days, so I will update when they are here.

@PualRB good point about the other LEDs not being set. He could try adding FastLED.clear(); before setting the led the other led color. Have you tried setting any color other then white?

PaulRB:
Hi vwy5. Start your own topic for your question. Thanks

Yep. There is no help here. Probably do as your suggestion.

Profwombat - did you ever manage to get this to work ?

pepefest:
Profwombat - did you ever manage to get this to work ?

No, sorry, I gave up.

Hi all, i am new here, can i know what is the full programming codes to control WS2811 12V RGB LED Strip for running light 3 by 3 ?

No one mentioned this; but, since you're discussing WS2811. That strip is 12VDC. The Arduino's Digital Outputs are only +5VDC. I'm thinking you would need to up convert the DIO's voltage to 12VDC, by using the 5VDC to drive an optocoupler, such as this: