Help with WS8212 strip

ESPHome
1

Hello,
I’m just starting down the path of getting an ws8212 led strip up and running and I can’t get it to turn on. I have it connected to an esp8266. v+ to VIN, v- to GND, and data to D2.

My yaml is:

light:
  - platform: neopixelbus
    type: GRB
    variant: ws2812
    pin: GPIO4
    num_leds: 24
    name: "Basement TV LEDs"

The device is added to HA just fine, it sees it. I can save the yaml to it. The device is there and I can turn it on/off and adjust color. The messages in the logs say its turning on/of, dimming, changing color. But the led strip itself isn’t doing anything.

It’s a 24 led strip so I can’t believe it would be a power issue. I’ve hooked the LED strip up to a WLED instance, and it works fine there. I’ve tried it on 2 different esp8266s and it isn’t working on either.

At this point I have to assume I’m not configuring it correctly somehow or another.

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

2

Just guessing should ot be gpio04?

3

Wled has current limiting feature. Try to power your strip with external power source, not through Vin pin.

4

D2 is gpio4

5

Good catch. I changed it, but still not working.

6

This got me a whole lot closer. External power source got the lights on. However, there is really weird behavior going on with the lights. Clicking to turn them on, off, dim…everything I do the lights go berzek. I can tell it’s receiving the commands, but it’s like it doesn’t know what to do with them. Lots of different colors flash and flicker and then it goes back to all white.

7

Figured it out. I was powering the ESP with a USB cable and the 2812 from a different power supply. From reading around, the light and the 8266 both need a common ground and powering them seperately wasn’t doing it. I put them both on the same power supply and it is working now.

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