ESP8266 and WS2812B LED Strip behaviour

Hardware
1

Hi all,

I have a 3D printed clock project I’m working on, using ESP8266 and WS2812B strips (30) and everything is working well with my code and lights, except for one odd issue that I’ve noticed.

If I power on (powered via USB-C on a PC) the ESP8266 with the strip disconnected, wifi connects and I can see the device in ESPHome. However, if I power on the device with the strip connected, the strip lights up led0 green, and led1 white. Wifi & ESPHome do not connect. I can see the COM device connected to my PC, but I do not get any log feeds with ESPFlasher (my ESPHome server is running on a separate server, via Docker container)

I have read that this may be related to a ground issue, or I may need a external power source, but I’m not sure why that’d be required considering everything works, as long as the ESP8266 is powered on with no power draw on 5V.

Obviously this issue is a bit of a pain, I am hoping to seal the casing once everything works, and having to unhook the strip every time the device restarts would suck. I am planning to use a USB wall wort (5v 2a) to power this once it’s all working as expected.

Any advice is appreciated!

2

But it doesn’t. You either need a more robust power supply (and that may not as the max current for the ESP8266 may not be enough) or a seperate power supply.

Read the bit on this linked page about powering the led strips:

3

I’ll try swapping to an external psu and just power everything that way, and skip using the usb port. You’ve been a great help for me today! Thanks for answering my newbie Q’s :smiley:

4

Which pin do you use for leds? If it’s strapping pin could be that led are preventing esp module to start. Check out “esp which pins to use” on the web and try to change pin for leds.

Which code do you use, btw…? I’m just building such a clock, but i use arduino code, however i wouldn’t mind use esphome, but it turned out that all projects, made with esphome are pretty old and kinda semi-working…

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