How can I power my 5v 4 meter led strip

Hi everybody,

This is my first arduino project and I am planning on doing something with an 5v 4m led strip. I have to use a power source that is capible of giving my led strip enough current to light my leds up with white light at almost/maximum brightness. If I am correct than that shout use around 12a. The problem is that there are pretty much no power supply's available for this high current or they are very expansive. I have read something about dc-dc adapter that increase in current and and decrease tour voltage but I am not so familiar with that yet. Hopefully someone can explain this to me.

By the way my ledstrip uses 60 leds per meter

Of course you can. I don't know what you would describe as expensive, but how about this for example?

Go for 15A. Your strip could use more than 12A, I estimate 14.4A for max brightness white.

A DC to DC converter that can handle that sort of current is way more expensive that a power supply that will give you the current you need at the voltage you need.

Thanks for replying,

So I made a little circuit for powering my Arduino and my led strip at once. Can you guys please give me some feedback? : )

These are the parts I will probably use

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/power-supply-75w-5V-15A-power-suply-unit-mini-size-din-led-power-supply-ac-dc/2034851781.html?spm=2114.010208.3.28.k4ITVW&ws_ab_test=searchweb0_0,searchweb201602_1_10065_10068_433_434_10136_10137_10138_10060_10062_10056_10140_10055_10054_128_301_10059_10099_10103_10102_10096_10052_10053_10050_10107_10051_10106_10084_10083_10080_10082_10081_10110_10111_10112_10113_10114_10037_10078_10079_10077_10073_10070_10122_10123_10126_10124-10050_10112,searchweb201603_2,afswitch_1,ppcSwitch_7,single_sort_0_total_tranpro_desc&btsid=21dae76e-c7a2-4544-ba16-c8ab1423b861&algo_expid=05f59cec-b959-47d1-ba87-87e61d32bf9f-3&algo_pvid=05f59cec-b959-47d1-ba87-87e61d32bf9f

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/DC5V-0-5m-1m-4m-5m-Black-White-PCB-30-60-144-leds-m-WS2812IC-30/32242633143.html?spm=2114.13010208.99999999.264.tBHuqf

That is not how you post pictures here, see this image guide

What do I think of it, well not much.
You have no large capacitor on the 5V supply and no resistor in the data line. I also assume you are not going to plug the Arduino into a USB socket while you have the LEDs attached, because then you would have two 5V supplies connected together and that is not a good thing.

Is this how your supposed to do it?

No, you post an image like this


Its clear you did not read the link Mike posted for you.

Good to see you put in the resistor, but where's the big cap Mike suggested? If you don't understand anything, ask!

The original idea came for this video

So I was wondering if that was the good circuit for that.
But the thing is he did not use resistors and capacitor but it did work

So I don't really see the meaning of these resistors.
Sorry, I just said something stupid I'm just a beginner.
By the way, the installing begins at 4:45

So I was wondering if that was the good circuit for tha

Wonder no longer it is not.
Their is a lot of crap on line mainly from beginners who think they got something to function and so it is a good circuit.

The resistor is needed for two reasons

  1. impedance matching to dampen down standing waves because of the high frequency of the signal.
  2. protection of the first chip if the power supply sags and you over drive the input.

The capacitor is needed to smooth the voltage because the load is a large pulsed current.

I am not watching a long video where some idiot tells me rubbish.

Can you please advice me What resistor and capacitor to buy for my project?

A 470R resistor and a 1,000uF or larger cap.