Connect all 500 of these LEDs together: 500pcs WS2811 Individually Addressable RGB LED Pixels Light 12mm Round Diffused Digital Color Changing LED Module Light for LED Screen Outdoor Advertising Board Signs DC 12V IP68 Waterproof- this isn't a strip, it's individual lights.
Control the Christmas lights with something that can handle a 12v input, and I know I need a 12v on one side and I need to pigtail in another 12v input on the opposite side to make sure I have enough power for a super long LED run.
Put it outside on my roof so I can have cool permanent Christmas lights that I can control with my phone if at all possible.
Some assumptions I'm kind of sure I'm right about based on my research and tinkering with an Arduino guide kit
I need to connect the ground of my 12v to the ground of whatever Arduino I'm using, and then I need to use another wire to connect the LED ground to the Arduino
I need to make sure the Arduino and power supply are waterproof and generally protected from the elements
Here's what I need to know
What Arduino CAN handle 12v? or.... how can I make an Arduino work with a 12v power supply? Or....can the Uno handle 12v without any finagling?
I know other forums tend to hate it when newbies come in and haven't done any research and expect help, so here's proof I've at least tried:
I've done a ton of research on this and I can only really find resources on 5v or just strip lights or a lot of really confusing resources around what to do to manage 12v connections (this: kno.wled.ge/basics/getting-started/ mentions a buck and I can't figure out what that means, others mention needing to adjust the 12v down with so I don't fry the chip, but this old post looks like they're using an uno, which a different post said the uno can't handle 12v: How can I connect my 12v ws2811 300 led strip, but then this guy is using just an uno and nothing else: 12V WS2812B 3-wire LED Strip with Arduino Uno - YouTube) and it's all ultimately resulting in me being dizzyingly perplexed.
I have had about three hours of Arduino tinkering with the Elegoo Mega kit and 8+ hours in researching everything to do with the Arduino ecosystem, which has been...dizzying, to say the least. Any electrical discussion feels like it goes immediately over my head: I don't understand a volt vs an amp vs an ohm, no matter how many times I read it, it just doesn't stick in my brain. I want to cry when I try to look at electrical diagrams. So....it's been a bit rough.
Programming, I've got some Python experience and I'm pretty comfortable tinkering around with code.
Sounds like you might be in over your head. You should start small, and build up to large project like that one.. Learn ohms law. how to light/blink an LED. learn how to solder, (if you don't already) . Get a small strip of addressable LEDs sometimes they come with there own power supply, preferably a five volt one. Adafruit has arduino library for the neopixel, that should get you up and going in minutes. If you want Wifi or Bluetooth connectivity, an ESP device by ESPRESSIF is definitely the way to go. check out WLED Project. youtubes has a tone of build projects on this. There are specifically designed Controllers for this that can be programmed in the ARDUINO IDE. However, be aware that power management is a serious concern, you'll need a large power supply that can do the amperage. Most projects need power injection every few meters or so and signal boosters for large gaps, so soldering skills are necessary.
You do not need that arduino can handle 12v.
12v WS2811 strip differs from 5v only in supply voltage. The control signal in both cases is 5v, so the strip can be controlled directly from the Arduino uno.
One of the possible connection schemes:
You might just have to change the colour order because the individual LEDs are sometimes different with these bigger LEDs. I have only used 5mm individual addressable LEDs.
Can you post a link to this strip you have please?
The WS2811 12V strips are normally run so they have 3 LEDs at one address so you can not normally address individual LEDs, but only in groups of three.
Most of the WS2811 ("Neopixel") code out there requires memory to hold a color for each LED, so at least 3 bytes per. 500 pixels would be 1500bytes just for that data, out of the total of 2k that is present on an Uno.
(Power delivery to 500 separate LEDs might also be a problem. I doubt that you can simply feed in 12V at one end of a long string, unless it has really thick wires.)
Totally! It's these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MSOT9LZ/ . So it looks like they might be connected in 50 LED chains. I think I can connect 2 on a 12V, but I can't tell if I need 4 strips or 6. I'll know that a little better once they get here and I can properly measure it against my house.
I know how to blink a LED, that was actually the first project in the Elegoo mega kit, and I have no problems soldering. I understand the programming for how to make the LEDs blink, the problem is understanding which controller is best for this project and how to manage higher voltages.
The WLED project didn't make any sense to me, unfortunately, it's over my head, and I've youtube'd this half to death and haven't found anything useful.
Thanks.
Having read the data sheet of the WS2811, voltage of the data pin is not clear. The problem here is that we don't know how the WS2811 is connected to the Vdd inside on those LEDs you bought and what relationship this has with the supply voltage.
However, reading the comments and reviews from that website there seems to be no problems with people who bought the 12V version, which I would expect if they needed a 12V data signal. This is because the reviewers don't sound like the sharpest pencils in the case.
So I suspect that the 12V version still only requires a 5V signal in order to run it. You can try this and the worst that can happen is that they do not work. That is what I recommend you do.
I would also recommend that you go to that Amazon site and ask the question:-
Do the 12V versions require a 12V data signal, or will 5V be sufficient?
There are ways to get an Arduino to output a 12V data signal out, but these require a few extra components, and could damage the LEDs if it is not needed.
The 2811 data sheet says Vdd abs max is 7V, and strongly implies that Vdd has an internal regulator of some kind, so Iām pretty confident that the signal is 5v
