Powering LED's

I have this exact pair of LED lights. I have the 5 metre pair and I'm looking to light up the whole entire 5 metres, how can I do this using my arduino uno? (I'm new and scared I might do it wrong or blow something up) heres some info:

Product Name: WS2812B LED Strip (Black PCB)
Voltage: DC5V
Quantity: 30LEDs/M
Power: 6W/M
Package: 5M/Roll
Mode of connector: Red Wire 5v, Green wire DI, Black wire GND

BOARD:

Uno R3 Controller Board

LINK:

Hi,

Have a look here:

  1. Get a big 5V power supply. Plan on 60mA for each LED in the strip when full bright is commanded.
  2. Do some research on using Neopixel library or the FastLed.h library to send data to the strips.

For example, I used FastLed.h to make these rings of 43 or 44 LEDs each turn on & off at different colors.
I had a 5V, 10A supply powering them.

Here's the basics

#include "FastLED.h"


#define NUM_STRIPS 4
#define NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP 43
CRGB leds[NUM_STRIPS][NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP];

// For mirroring strips, all the "special" stuff happens just in setup.
// We just add Leds multiple times, once for each strip
void setup() {
  // tell FastLED there's 43 NEOPIXEL leds on pin 9
  FastLED.addLeds<NEOPIXEL, 9>(leds[0], NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP);


  // tell FastLED there's 43 NEOPIXEL leds on pin 10
  FastLED.addLeds<NEOPIXEL, 10>(leds[1], NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP);


  // tell FastLED there's 43 NEOPIXEL leds on pin 11
  FastLED.addLeds<NEOPIXEL, 11>(leds[2], NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP);


  // tell FastLED there's 43 NEOPIXEL leds on pin 12
  FastLED.addLeds<NEOPIXEL, 12>(leds[3], NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP);





      for (x = 0; x < 3; x = x + 1) {

        for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP; i++) {

          leds[0][i] = CRGB::Red;

          leds[1][i] = CRGB::Red;

          leds[2][i] = CRGB::Red;

          leds[3][i] = CRGB::Red;

        }

        FastLED.setBrightness( fullBright );

        FastLED.show();

        delay(brakeFlash);

        for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP; i++) {

          leds[0][i] = CRGB::Black;

          leds[1][i] = CRGB::Black;

          leds[2][i] = CRGB::Black;

          leds[3][i] = CRGB::Black;

        }

        //FastLED.setBrightness( fullBright );

        FastLED.show();

        delay(brakeFlash);

      }

There is obviously more, the program was split over 5 tabs in the IDE to read buttons, turn the strips on & off in different colors, with left turn indicator, right turn, brakes, back up, hazards. But outside of all the logic, it was just calling the code to do the above.

Hello, I tried this:

(see images)




and got a small amount of light, then they went off. I hooked up my 9V1A power supply plug to the Arduino Uno board and that didn't work, I followed the wiring diagram and still no luck.

Black wire went to GND, Blue to ~5 and red to 5v. What am I doing wrong?

You need a dedicated 5V power supply for the strips. You can not power the strip from the 5V pin.

300 leds times 60mA equals 18 amps (worse case, full white for the complete strip).
150 leds times 60mA equals 9 amps (worse case, full white for the complete strip).

[FIXED] Got it working after running some updated code. Thanks everyone for the help!

Hi,
Welcome to the forum.

Please read the post at the start of any forum , entitled "How to use this Forum".
OR
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php/topic,148850.0.html.

Posting images off forum makes it difficult for some platforms to view, please attach them and they will be inserted into your post.

Thanks.. Tom... :slight_smile:

Voltage: DC5V
Power: 6W/M
Package: 5M/Roll

So 30 Watts (6W/M * 5M). At 5V that's 6 Amps (30W / 5V). Get a 5V supply rated for at least 30 Watts or at least 6 Amps. Higher will cause no harm.