Hello people! Today my led strip arrived(a ws2811 12v, 3 leds per pixel) and I was trying to make it work using FastLED in a WeMos D1 Mini However I had a lot of trouble. When I connected the board to the socket in the proofboard, the strip remains white and starts flickering some completely random bright colors.
I think this has to do with the item 4 in the FastLED F.A.Q which says to connect the LED Strip GND to the controller GND. So, I tried doing that and when both are connected, the strip stops flickering and the pixels that have the different colors remain static(Some pixels are white, some are a little greenish, etc). I used a paper clip and a screwdriver in order to test this and both gave the same result.(maybe the data signal is too sensitive to use something like this as a conductor?) While doing that, I accidentally fried the board by connecting the 5v pin to the gnd pin of the Strip and I may order a new one tomorrow. Anyway, I checked all the solder in the proofboard with a continuity test on a multimeter and everything seems fine. Here’s my test sketch: https://pastebin.com/33Btw74c
@ze_arthur - If you are using a Wemos D1 Mini and if it is like the Wemos D1 Mini Pro, then your pin 16 in line 10 of your code should be D8 and not 16. Run your code with your computer connected to the Wemos but not your WS2811 strip and see if the Serial Monitor ( under Tools of the IDE) will show the words in your code.
FYI, the Wemos boards were more challenging for me to get running than other boards like the Teensy 3.2 or 3.6. Once you get over that hump, they are easy to use.
Also like @Jeremy_Spencer said, you need to get a level shifter.
I think this is getting hard. It would not be easy at all to find that voltage shifter in here. I would really need to order from ebay and would take a lot of time to arrive. I’m now thinking of getting a arduino uno and a ethernet shield, with those i would get 5v IO pins. Do you guys think this would work?
Btw, arduino uno + the shield is about the same price of the Wemos D1 Mini.
Wait… you said it’s a 12V strip? You might have to use a fast-switching transistor to drive the data line. I don’t know what would be an appropriate part, but if somebody else does, I’d be curious to learn, too. I also have a 12V strip somewhere in my parts collection that I ordered off eBay before I knew what I was doing.
