So I’ve been trying to get LEDs working for months, and they only work on arduino, never on V5. Talked to Sylvie and a couple of other people ab this multiple times and they just have no clue why. So then I just wondered: why make it harder for teams to do stuff like that? The microcontroller doesn’t have any functionality. If we have it at the very least powered by the brain itself using the 5v and ground of the 3 wire ports, why shouldn’t we be allowed to use it for a non functional purpose?
But no, I did not try the inline buffer, didn’t have one lying around and didn’t order one since basically everyone I know who’s gotten one working hasn’t used one, with the Same led strip I had. It is being powered by the 5v and ground though, I know that for sure (checked with an LED cuz my multimeter was dead :D. ) it’s just the data line having issues. Wasn’t giving me any light up on my led but considering the rate of the pulses it’s probably there anwyays and just not lighting the leds up regardless. And yeah it does work on an arduino. Maybe I could try with a resistor to change it to 3.3v resistor on the arduino and see if that changes anything?
And also just to point out everything I and others (Sylvie, pros devs, etc) have ruled out:
It’s not the wires being badly soldered
It’s not outdated pros, brain or any software
It’s not Sylib (obviously)
It’s not the led strip itself (since it works when it’s not on the brain)
It’s not the cable port itself (it works with other things, using a 3 wire extender)
I do see that maybe your solution can work, I jsut don’t understand why it is an issue for only my led strip (two really, since I bought two and both have the same issue) compared to the rest of people who’ve done leds (mostly), mainly with this strip.
Have you tried different 3wire ports ? or a 3wire expander ?
Assuming all wiring, code etc. is correct, those users that have luck in getting the strip to work without level shifting and pulse shaping are just that, lucky.
On this topic, does anyone know where the line is drawn for “Microprocessors”? R14 says “Any other microcontrollers or processing devices are not allowed”, but this is seemingly more broad than intended, as one would probably call the WS2812 chip itself a processing device, yet it has been allowed in competition. Does this mean other ICs would be permitted as a non-functional decoration? If so, how complex does the IC need to get before it is considered illegal?
Yes, tried all ports of the legacy, and then I think half of the 3 wire expander, with the 3 wire expander in like 4 different ports (none of which were fried)
Haha so about that, yeah I tried to cancel the order, already shipped (this was like last week Friday), then tried to buy the thing you said, and I bought the wrong one (74HCT574 I think), and by that time my dad was already pist and said “ok no more make it work with the first one”. So yeah can’t I just have a 5v from either the same cable or a different cable as the LED strip have a resistor that brings down the voltage to 3.3V? Kinda no other option now
Using a resistor to drop the voltage from 5v to 3.3v only works if you know exactly what current your circuit will be drawing and if that current draw is consistent - in short, this isn’t a good idea. You could look into using a Zener diode and resistor to get a consistent 3.3v, but you might not have those laying around either.
Some people have used a diode in series with the 5v input of a WS2812 pixel (knocking the supply voltage for that pixel down to ~4.3v), which then makes that pixel accept (4.3 * 0.7) = 3v as a data signal which should work with the 3.3v logic (basically using the first pixel as a level shifter). To do this though you’d have to supply the second and subsequent pixels with the 5 volts still. See this article for a good wiring diagram.
