WS2812B LED strip faulty?

1

Hi,

I purchased a 5m roll of 2812B LEDs and for the life of me I cannot power them on ? Never played with LED strips before. I have connected a 1m length to my bench power supply white to ground, red to 5V and when I turn the power on I get no lights but about 30ma current draw. Bench power supply goes into CV mode. I even followed the Core arduino tutorial with the same result. I am a beginner but right now I feel completely useless. If I attach the data line to ground it makes no difference. Any suggestions welcome. They cannot be faulty, surely I am missing something.

Richard

1 Like
2

Ws2812s aren’t just LEDs, they have brains so they require data to tell them how to turn on. The current draw is just from the little control chips powering themselves.

I’m pretty sure Core has a tutorial on WS2812’s and addressable LEDs actually.

3

Thanks. That makes sense. I have only ever played with a strip with no brains. Did a little reading and all working fine now. Pretty cool these LED’s

4 Likes