so I have this project with my WS2812B LED strips (~14m in total) and I read and experienced myself that the drop in voltage is a real problem.
To fix that I read that I would have to connect VCC and Ground over and over instead of just once at the beginning. However I am not sure if I have to connect ground over and over aswell, since I dont see a point in "refreshing" the ground connection.
(Im a newbie in this topic so I might miss something important here.)
The reason why I ask this is simply because two cables take a lot of space in my setup so it would be great to know whether or not I can save some space by only worrying about one cable.
Of course I do, but I dont think you understood my question. The strip itself is connected to my power supply via, of course, Ground and VCC and it works fine. However, to prevent voltage drop from getting to noticeable I have to reconnect VCC over and over. I basically "cut" the VCC cable I have connected at the front of the strip in half and connect that other half that is not connected to the front to e.g. the middle of the strip in order to "refresh" the voltage. Now, I dont think I have to connect ground AGAIN, because there already is the ground from the front "forming" a circuit with the newly attached VCC wire. I only connect ground once, instead of multiple times, like I do with VCC.
My question is if I am right or wrong.
Additional info: Here is another image of how its supposed to look like. Ground and VCC reconnected. Cant I just get rid of the ground wire? There already is a connection to ground in the strip, so thats kinda confusing.
And yes, I know circuits need two wires. Im just thinking that its the same as having two wires, right?
Let's assume that the LEDs in your diagrams are 1 cm apart. Also remember that the conductors on the LED strip are much smaller and therefore have more resistance per cm than the heavier external wires that we are talking about.
In the diagram of reply #5 the furthest the current has to flow through the conductors on the LED strip is 8 cm. That would be 4 cm from the red wire to the end LED and 4cm back to the black wire.
In your diagram of reply #4 the external red wire is only 2 cm from the bottom LED but the path back to the other side of the power supply is more than 5cm. If there was a heavy black wire connected opposite the external heavy red one then the path back from that bottom LED would only be 2cm.
(This explanation would have been easier to write and to understand if both of your diagrams had the same number of LEDs.)
