So I have a WS2812B LED strip connected to my esp32. I currently have the led strip powered by a usb cable plugged into a phone charger brick. I also am powering my esp32 with a microusb cable plugged into another phone charger brick. I was wondering if I could splice the microusb cable with the usb power cable and send power to the LED's and the esp with the same cable. if possible, how would the wiring look?
Thanks.
Just check the current needed by the esp32, the WS2812B and what the USB can deliver.
The brick says 5v 1.6amps standard. I only have like 10 LEDS so that's like 600 milliamps (assuming 60 mA each) and the board most likely uses less than that even. I tried it while waiting for a response, and it doesn't seem to work. I may not have the wiring correct though.
This is my current wiring setup.
There are no connection labels on the boxes. That reduces the usefulness to nearly zero.
Sorry, here's a more in depth diagram. Hopefully it's more helpful.
I'm also not sure if it's possible to connect the 5v out of the usb cable straight into the vcc pin on the esp32. I haven't tried that yet, but because I only have 1 right now, I don't want to fry it.
Which ESP32 board do you have?
Wemos D1 mini bluetooth + wifi
Do you mean the Wemos ESP32 C3 mini?
https://www.wemos.cc/en/latest/c3/c3_mini.html
If so you can apply 5V to the VBUS pin. Not the 3V3 pin.
I have one, similar project with 5V peripheral. What I did, plugged a USB wall adapter into the mini, then fed the 5V device from the VBUS pin. It seems illogical to cut the wires to feed USB power to the board.
Yes, I have level translators on the logic pins.
so there is a VCC pin on the board, but I don't see a vbus pin on the board. I'm also not sure if the VCC pin would be able to take 5v.
Here's the pinout of the board
More info please. What is on the front of the board? Where did you get it? What ESP processor does it use (yes there are more than one...)?
Apparently you blew past my words. It doesn't matter because you can likely obtain 5V from the Vcc pin, instead of feeding 5V to it.
Do you have no documentation on the board?
Oh, my bad. I didn't realize that the board would be able to send 5v because it's supposedly only able to take 3.3v as input. Unfortunately, I'm new enough to the point where I wouldn't know exactly what is possible on a board.
I believe this is the exact amazon listing for the board. Amazon.com: ACEIRMC D1 Mini NodeMCU ESP32 ESP-WROOM-32 WLAN WiFi Bluetooth IoT Development Board 5V Compatible for Arduino (5pcs) : Electronics
EDIT: nvm i'm stupid it says on the listing that it's capable of 5v.
I wouldn't believe a single word of an Amazon listing... but also I don't see that claim there... unless you mean the Q+A reply of complete stranger "Stanely". Hardly an authoritative answer!
But, based on all the other Wemos D1 form factor boards, it's a good bet. Why not simply measure the voltage there?
I may be able to I guess if I reduce the number of LEDs. I think that I can only send max 500mA from the board. Unless I'm still mis understanding it.
Oh, then yes. I believe you should be able to apply 5V to Vcc. I thought maybe your "charging brick" was also only 500mA or so...
Actually, though, boards like this have no USB power regulation. So 1.6A into Vcc may be the same as 1.6A into the USB connector.
the brick was 1.6 amps at 5v
also, I am reading about 4.5v from vcc to gnd so that may be enough?
All these questions could be avoided by purchasing products from reputable suppliers like Wemos, who publish complete technical information.
Without that, it's hard to know exactly how power is distributed on board.
Having said that, I think it's safe to apply 5V to Vcc and test the board, at least.
This is true, I didn't realize when I initially bought it that there were so many "clones" either. But I think I will try it that way, and if it fries, it gives me a reason to get a legit board.
It could mean that the board power is dropped through a series Schottky diode, like on the Nano.
got it. I'm also assumiing this isn't very scalable. If I need for example, like 60 leds I'd need to power them separately. Would it be possible to power the esp from the same power supply that would power all those leds? or would I be forced to use 2 cables to power each separately?
