Hi guys, sorry if I chose a wrong subforum, however this is a question regarding LEDs.
I have purchased individual ws2812b LEDs which didn't seem to work. I have soldered one led to a Nano for a quick check buy it didn't light up. After a while I decided to check the connections using a continuity test - the Data pins did not work. The + and - are ok, but on Data the Multimeter didn't make any sounds.
I have contacted the seller and he told me that I should use a special controller.
Will this really make a difference if the Data in and out are not continuous?
Kensain:
Yes, I agree that I should delve a little deeper into the LED topic. Nevertheless, what exactly is wrong in testing the LED with a multimeter?
It achieves nothing.
It is equivalent to testing your CPU with a multimeter.
Seriously - this is not just a LED or three LEDs, it is an ASIC which happens to be internally connected to three LEDs.
Kensain:
I have contacted the seller and he told me that I should use a special controller.
Well, fact is, the seller does not know what they are either!
The "special controller" (well, one version at least) is an Arduino running a WS2812 library.
This Led are digital, they have in side micro controller, it means that you need communicate with them as serial port sending numbers that each led can read this value and then adjust brightness.
Library from adafruit make all hard work.
Greetings.
I will answer your question. The + and - lines are continuous along the strip. You would expect your multimeter to show that they are continuous, as long as the strip is not faulty. But the data line is not continuous. It stops at the first led. A separate data line goes from the first led to the second led, another separate data line from second to third and so on. So this line is not continuous. As mentioned, each led contains a chip which receives data on its input line from the previous led or the controller/Arduino and sends data on its output line to the next chip.
PaulRB:
I will answer your question. The + and - lines are continuous along the strip. You would expect your multimeter to show that they are continuous, as long as the strip is not faulty. But the data line is not continuous. It stops at the first led. A separate data line goes from the first led to the second led, another separate data line from second to third and so on. So this line is not continuous. As mentioned, each led contains a chip which receives data on its input line from the previous led or the controller/Arduino and sends data on its output line to the next chip.
Now it's clear to me, thank you very much for the insight!
I have managed to connect everything together and run a strandtest. It works. I just had to pay more attention to the circuit.
