WS2811 and Arduino Nano

Other Hardware LEDs and Multiplexing
1

Hi,

I recently purchased a WS2811 LED Strip from AliExpres.
The led strip itself is 5m.

I wanted to programme the LED so was following this guide on youtube:

although the LED strips I have are 12V.

My setup is as follows:

But after testing it out, the Arduino board was burnt for some reason as shown below:

I am now asking for help as I do not know why the board fried.

Any tips would be great.
Thanks

2

You have WS2811 strips that are powered from 12V? Got a link to them?
That is unusual as the chip itself wants 5V power.

3

I would saaaay... the 12v applied to a 5v strip blew the hell out of all the 2811's. The 2811 at the front failed such that the data in pin was shorted to +12v (often when you fry a chip it's I/O pins get near-shorted to vcc or ground). Then the +12v applied to the data pin trashed the arduino.
A 12v 2811 string is bizzare and probably doesn't actually exist - the chip wants 5v, and since they're individually addressable, it's not safe to put them in series (as the load on consecutive leds may not be the same). Unless it's got a switching power supply to convert 12v to 5v at the start of the wire, you hooked a 5v strip up to 12v. To be fair, I would totally believe you if you said a chinese ebay vendor said it was 12v on the product page.
I think there's a different addressable led chip that does work at 12v (2801 maybe?), but not 2811.

I stand corrected. I should do better than this.

4

The data sheet shows a 12V configuration for this chip. Look at Figure 2.

ws2811.png
ws2811.png1680×1138 293 KB

5

This is the link to the LED i am using:
http://s.aliexpress.com/QBZNB3IN

6

A 12volt WS2811 strip uses one driver chip per three LEDs, so you can't control each LED individually.

OP can't have used the blown Nano properly, because the pins never have been soldered.
Leo..

7

Is it possible to use a Arduono nano to control this LED strip and is my setup fine? Should I try it on another Nano (got 2 spare)

Thanks

8

uniQ:
Is it possible to use a Arduono nano to control this LED strip

and is my setup fine?

Should I try it on another Nano (got 2 spare)

Yes

Don't know. You didn't show any pictures of your setup (and soldering).

Up to you. Maybe wise to have a 470ohm resistor between Arduino pin and WS2811 data input.
Leo..

9

Also a capacitor would help on the power input. But undoubtedly what killed your Nano was a ground dropping off, due to it not being soldered.

10

People often have issues mixing cheap chinese PSUs with other equipment, e.g. powered by USB. I suspect it is due to grounding issues, possibly even that +12V is referenced to ground (verified by one user).

That problem could be avoided if you take the 12V and convert it to 5V for the nano with a suitable voltage regulator.

11

Hi. Thanks for the replies.

I think it was due to grounding as I did not have the wires soldered. I will try again but I was wondering if it is possible to power the Nano using the 12V. I read that the VIN can be used?

Thanks

12

Yes you can. A voltage of 9V would be better as the Nano would not get as hot.