Wiring an led ring with arduino nano

Projects General Guidance
1

Brand new to arduino and electrical circuits in general, I've done what googling I can but I'm not 100% certain of a few things.

I'm making a lamp with a 2812b 24 led ring and an arduino nano. This is going to go to a switch and a plug for a wall wart. My basic understanding of this is as follows:

  • from the + end of the plug to the input on the switch
  • split the output of the switch to the 5v pad on the ring and the 5v pin on the nano
  • data from any pin on the nano to the data DI pad for the ring
  • ground pad on the ring to a ground pad on the nano
  • ground pin on the nano to the - end on the plug

What I'm not certain about is do I also need to run a ground directly from the ring to the plug, or is it fine as long as the nano is grounded?

In also curious if it makes sense to wire the nano to the switch, or should I just put the leds to the switch and leave the nano itself powered all the time basically? I can't imagine it would use too much power overall. Appreciate any advice, thanks.

2

Hi Mrwhitepantz,

Doing it the way you are setting it up should be fine. The whole circuit has the same ground so there should be no problem there.

Whether you put the nano on the switch or not is a choice. Either way it should work fine, but switching it off would save some power and shouldn't really change anything.

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

p.s.
If you want to be extra sure of you wiring, take a photo and post it here so we can see. Also consider doing this for future posts (or make a wiring diagram, hand drawn is fine) since this makes it a lot easier to see what you are doing.

3

Thank you! That is quite helpful. I did not think about the wiring diagram but you're correct, that would be clearer. I will look into how to draw one up for the next time.