@marmil I just tried the same setup but swapping out the larger LED strip back to the 6 LED I was using before. Same result. Full blue for a moment, then turned off.
Reprogramming the Teensy down to 6 LEDs went fine. So I don’t think there’s anything wrong there.
Going to move on to your next troubleshooting tips but have questions for both…
On the code side, I’m not sure how best to move forward. I was looking at porting the Cylon code into the example I mentioned above. I’m not sure if I understand that example well enough though. For that FastLED sketch ‘OctoWS2811demo’ are the only edits to that I need to make the number of strips and LEDs per strip? Looks like I don’t have to specify any pins? I used the green wire out of the CAT6 cable, which looks to be what I should use if only using a single strip. Would I be better off testing from Paul Stoffregen’s OctoWS2811/BasicTest example instead? I’m figuring I’ll try that before trying to adapt the Cylon code to either example. Just trying to start with code I know is supposed to work to minimize troubleshooting variables.
On setting up the wiring, I was using the breadboard while prototyping. Then was planning to move from that to a prototyping board with trace. Would I be alright connecting the 1,788 LEDs soldered through the prototyping board or is that still unadvisable? If connecting the supply and capacitor straight to the LED wires, I guess I’m unclear on how best to split out the power running to the 5V regulator/Teensy? Any tips on how best to account for that?
Again, appreciate the help! I’m excited to see this all up and running.
My concern was running too many amps through the bread board.
You can split off wires from the terminal block to the 5V regulator. Or from the power supply sperate from the lines to the LEDs. The point is to have a direct and solid wiring setup to the LEDs. The bread or proto board can be for the regulator, MCU, buttons, etc. Wiring to the LEDs should essentially come straight from the power supply with a sort run if possible.
Getting Paul’s basic test running would be a good test to confirm hardware is wired up fine.
Thanks for clarifying. I’ll try this tomorrow and share the results. While prototyping, the distance from the power supply to the first LED will be less than a meter. Once I move to install it will need to be a few meters though.
Looks like with Paul’s example you only need to specify ledsPerStrip and not how many strips. So I’ll set that to 6 while testing on the smaller strip for now and if I am getting the data pin on the strip correct and have the other floating then it should be configured for 800kHz.
Hopefully I’ll get that clarification from the supplier before I’m ready to power this up!
Hey @marmil . Between loading up Paul’s code and making the wiring adjustments you had suggested, that’s got me up and running with all 1788 LEDs! Thanks again for the help. I’m noticing one strange thing that I’m not sure if it’s a manufacturing defect or damage I had done in testing. When I alternate the LEDs between blue and white. The first pixel doesn’t show anything while blue, displays as red when the rest of the strip is white. I have more strips, so going to test with them tomorrow.
As for the code, that’s my other next step. Trying to move from Paul’s example I listed above to the FastLED library. Any advice on how to go about that? Aside from adding in the library. Seeing as the OctoWS2811 demo available in the FastLED examples didn’t work for me I’m not sure where best to start here, but I’ll feel more comfortable using the library since I have some familiarity with it.
Right on, glad to hear you’re progressing.
Fill your strip red, then green, then blue and check to see if one of the colors in that first pixel is burnt out. Testing on a second strip when available is always a good test too.
Thanks @marmil , me too! That had me up late enough last night I didn’t get to thorough testing. I’m pretty sure that first 6 LED segment is damaged but I’ll try cycling the colors as you’ve suggested to get a better understanding of what’s going on with it. With the hardware side having taken longer than expected I’m still not up to speed on the software side. Any guidance on how to integrate the FastLED library with Paul’s OctoWS2811 example would really be appreciated. I’ve dropped it into a gist to add in some of my questions as inline comments…
Hey @Daniel_Garcia , thanks for the help on this earlier. Was hoping you may know what’s going on with the results I’m getting when I load up the FastLED OctoWS2811 Demo example. Here’s a video of what that code is looking like for me…
I’ve started a new thread with further details. Here’s that link. Any thoughts would really be appreciated. Thanks!