Hello!I'm trying to wire up my LED strip (3m, 60LED/m, 5V) and I can do so, but only the first 22 LEDs light up. I'm using this scheme and the FastLED Library. For power I'm using a power supply module on a breadboard. Can you help me out?
Your power supply is probably totally inadequate. The regulator on the breadboard adapter is probably rated for 1A at most. 180 RGB leds will require up to around 11A. So get yourself a 15A 5V power supply and some good quality thick wires to carry the current to both ends of the strip. Don't connect it via a breadboard, breadboards are not rated for more than 1 or 2 amps. Also, connect a large cap, e.g. 1000uF, across the power cables near the start of the strip.
PaulRB:
Your power supply is probably totally inadequate. The regulator on the breadboard adapter is probably rated for 1A at most. 180 RGB leds will require up to around 11A. So get yourself a 15A 5V power supply and some good quality thick wires to carry the current to both ends of the strip. Don't connect it via a breadboard, breadboards are not rated for more than 1 or 2 amps. Also, connect a large cap, e.g. 1000uF, across the power cables near the start of the strip.
Maybe he has already a 5V 15A (or a lot more) power supply available. A Desktop PC power supply is perfect for this - at least for testing.
When Paul says "both ends", for you this means the red and black wires. Don't worry about the green one which will not carry heavy currents.
Edgar1:
Maybe he has already a 5V 15A (or a lot more) power supply available. A Desktop PC power supply is perfect for this - at least for testing.
But not on a solderless bread board, even for testing.
Sounds to me like one of the chips is bad. I've had some reallllllly hit-and-miss WS2812B strips where too many of the bulbs either have a bad color channel (for example the red won't light, or won't go out after it lights), or even more fiendishly some bulbs fail to transmit the data to the next chip, so you get a dead-stop in data transmission down the line.
To test if its a bad bulb and not the PSU, you can try addressing a single individual pixel at a time and see if it stops.
for (int i=0; i<NUM_LEDS; i++){
leds[i] = CRGB::White;
FastLED.show();
delay(500);
FastLED.clear();
FastLED.show();
}
If you've got a bad pixel, remove the bad one and solder in a replacement. Keep in mind that the chip that's not lighting may also not be problem if its the chip before it is failing to propagate the data. So I always replace the LED directly in front of the bad one too just in case.
It can be really infuriating, especially when stuff is just supposed to work out of the box. There are enough headaches to troubleshoot without having to question the integrity of the product you just opened. I recently had to throw away almost $100 of WS2812B strips for this reason. I had them for almost a year before opening them (so no return) to find out that about 5% of the pixels were shot. I tried spending hours testing and replacing bad ones before I finally gave up and just bitterly threw them in the trash.
IME, when a power supply is undersized, the chips still light up, but at a reduced brightness. 1A won't go anywere close to lighting up 180 bulbs, but you should get more than 20 before it maxes out. Also, it won't just suddenly stop at one bulb, you'll see it taper and get a color-shift as it tries to keep up.
Thanks so much everyone for your answers! Turns out silly_cone was right, the issue seems to be with the chips. I was able to cut different lengths of the strip that actually worked. The power supply is able to light up 100 LEDs no problem. Can't wait to start some light programming!
danduri:
The power supply is able to light up 100 LEDs no problem.
Those LEDs draw close to 20mA per colour at full brightness.
That's almost 60mA per LED full white.
100LEDs could draw 6Amp, unless the code restricts brightness.
If your supply can't deliver that, it will eventually burn out.
Leo..
danduri:
Turns out silly_cone was right.
Music to my ears, lol!!! 
Glad you got it working!