Dipping my toe in the DIY ESP32/WS2812 water

S

slbailey

New member
So we bought a LED snowflake from Lowes last year. They used nothing fancy, silicone mold 2 wire straight white and bright as hell LEDs. Fortunately (for me) the power supply crapped out and the wife wants to replace the LEDs with something "more fancy." So naturally I thought WS2812 individually addressable with WLED or some kind of ESP32 controller running the show.

But now I'm so lost with exactly what this will look like. I think I've picked the lights.. SK6812 in an IP67 sheath. 2 x 5M strips and 30 LED/m should be pretty close to what was there but now I'm struggling with the wiring. Since the control box will be on (or near the ground) and the snowflake will be mounted on the side of the house, I want minimal wires running down the side of my house to the ground. Naturally I have to waterproof everything but I'm trying to figure out where to put the power supply, where to put the ESP32, what kind of connectors to use.

I'm also thinking 2x5M strips because then I can run 16AWG power to the beginning of each strip. Should make the wiring neater.

Anyone have a good sample project that I can reference to learn more about the wiring side of things?
 
This forum has had discussions about pixel LED strips breaking. Personally, I think outdoor strips are doable, but I recommend ordering more than you need (they're cheap) and come up with a setup where you can easily take the whole strip down and replace it. China sells solderless strip connectors which let you cut the strips, snap on a connector, and connect them again. Which you'll need, if a pixel goes out. Repairing a strip on the side of your house kind of stinks.

But I believe the majority here have shied away from pixel strips, because they break, and the knowledge base for how to repair them is not as extensive as for bullet pixels. I am not the majority, though: I placed a strip on my driveway one Christmas and drove over it with a pickup truck every day. That strip lasted the whole season.
 
I had massive failures with my WS2812 30/m based strips. I have a good track record with my WS2811 3:1 strips. I had a lot of solder connections come loose under the IC. I suspect it was due to very cold outside temps (back of strip) and then a hot chip causing the solder to break. Putting a clamp on the chip was a quick fix. Hitting the exposed chip with my air solder gun also did a temp fix. Removing them from the show was the final fix.
 
I got failures due to hot weather. A tire holding up a 1.5-ton truck, the strip could handle, but direct hot sun, it could not. This was on WS2815, since theoretically that is supposed to be more reliable than WS2811/WS2812.
 
WS2815 uses the same basic design as the WS2812. Tri-color LED bonded on top of a pixel, surface mounted to a flexible PCB. It is the interface between the WS281x chip and the PCB that causes the issue for me.
 
I use a very little amount of standard ws2811 bullet pixels. I'm slowly adding more simply because if the ready-made props the bullets fit into. What I have had GREAT luck with is the LED Module strings. https://www.amazon.com/Rextin-Changing-Waterproof-Decoration-Injection/dp/B078WRVH1Q. Southern Maine winters and 4+ years I haven't needed to replace a single set. Only downfall is I can't find them with xconnect so I do solder pigtails on each additional string as I add them.
 
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