Power LED Lights + Injection. Complete Walkthrough

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

🎄 BEST Christmas 2024 DEALS (updated daily): amzn.to/41ffvu6 ☑ Check out my sponsor to begin your FREE 14 day trial to Aura: aura.com/chrismaher In this video I will do a complete walkthrough of the 3 most common ways to power LED Strips as well as how to inject power into your longer led runs. I am definitely not an expert when it comes to powering led strips but the goal of this video is to hopefully show you that its not as hard or complex as you might think. In all my projects where I have powered things the way shown in the video, I generally have the maximum current on the WLED limiter set anywhere from 850 mA - 2000 mA which has always been bright enough to achieve the desired results. I also don't leave my led lights on overnight and will generally be in the room when they are turned on. Even though I have never had any issues, make sure to consult a trained professional if you are worried about safety. Spotless Regular LED Diffuser Channel 1m Amazon: amzn.to/47aIujz Spotless Regular LED Diffuser Channel 2m Amazon: amzn.to/3QoHeDb 5% Discount Code: CHRISMAHER Spotless Regular LED Diffuser Channel 1m or 2m Company Site bit.ly/3NHG5Uw Spotless Corner Diffuser 1m Amazon: amzn.to/3DFhRpf Spotless Corner Diffuser 2m Amazon: amzn.to/3Krqw2q 5% Off Discount Code: CHRISMAHER Spotless Corner Diffuser 1m or 2m Company Site: bit.ly/3D3yI4R LED Strips Amazon: amzn.to/3pMBg1l LED Strips AliExpress: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DdU9Nfl 60 Amp Power Supply: amzn.to/3qHd93x Wall plug for 60 Amp Power Supply: amzn.to/3pNM27G 10 Amp Power Supply: amzn.to/3HrFcdW 2 Amp phone charger: amzn.to/3t6WhGj ESP8266 Board: amzn.to/3FThzdS ESP32 Board: amzn.to/3JFO549 18 AWG Silicone Wire: amzn.to/32GfJP2 20 AWG Extension Wire: amzn.to/3EPgliz Wire Stripper: amzn.to/3eHFFMT Breadboard Jumper Wires: amzn.to/3znjPaL ============================= Support My Channel Directly: Become a monthly contributor on Patreon: www.patreon.com/ChrisMaherDIY Buy me a Coffee: paypal.me/ChrisMaherDIY ============================== Link to my WLED/ESP8266 setup video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ommyfpxtiLKjp9U Link to my WLED/ESP32 setup video:kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioCon3mBgdJsidk Setup: 0:00 - 5:28 Testing: 5:29 - 10:34 Power Injection: 10:35 - 15:14 Other Projects I have done: 15:15 - 16:15 Link to some of my full DIY LED how-to project videos: LED Board and Batten Accent Wall: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGKWh3-fgJx0hbc LED Baseboard Trim: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5ybeaF9rcuEp5I RGB Lamp Hack: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3-zg5Jvbd1_h7s Corner LED Light using Pex pipes: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHrFha2LeZd4as0 DIY Govee Glide using only paper: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGqvpJyHdrd5l9U Simple Corner LED Project: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHOYeaSNnbKLhNE DIY Customizable Light Up Images: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKLCq6V7mMeLfqc LED Strip Diffuser Ideas: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmqQl5yNn7VnaLs DIY Hexagon Project: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmrbeKx4acabr7s DIY Edge Lit Designs: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpC3pXuhd6dmrKM DIY Black Acrylic Floating Shelves: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJTWhICqi8SippI LED Tutorials: Soldering Tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l6G2q2aEjb6frpo Installing WLED on esp8266: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ommyfpxtiLKjp9U Power Options for LED Strips: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXfXm5lroqlpqqM Use WLED with Govee Lights: kzbin.info/www/bejne/omHWg3pnjKaVp5I Re-Use Leftover LED Strips: kzbin.info/www/bejne/d4TRpp5jjamJmKs Unboxing Videos: Best Diffuser Channels (same ones used in this video): kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4SuoJJ-mbCJj6M Lytmi Neo 2.0: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qaXLXniaesuGn9U Govee Lyra Floor Lamp: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hHeniq1pbL-ijrc Govee Glide Hexa Panels: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3W8hqmcmMpnqq8 Govee Glide Light Bars: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m2TNe6ybYsuMpa8 The best way to help support my channel is to like, comment, make sure your subscribed and share my videos with as many people as you can. The other way is to use my links above as I get a small % at no extra cost to you if you buy something. Thank you all for the support!

[@minifireball1170]

Hey Chris, I am trying to make a parts list for everything I would need to power 4 5m 60 2812BECO light strips. So far I have the strips, 18 gauge wire, ESP32 Development boards, 2 of the 60 amp power supply's and the necessary 3 wire power cables, and Wago connectors. Is it necessary to have the 20 gauge extension wire or can the power injection be done with the 18 gauge? Did I leave anything else out? Thanks

[@IntermitTech]

Love the video, but I do have some serious concerns about the methods you explain...... now I don't want to be mean or degrading so please take this as constructive criticism, nothing else meant with it, we're all here to learn! I'm also fully open to discussion or questions, etc! Overall assumed values: 300LEDs of ws2812b when properly injected can use up to 13Amps (65w) real-world, I've done extensive power measurements and publish a real-world power sheet for lots of types of LEDs to know what to expect and calculate with. For general usage I normally use the 50% white value which would be 6,5Amps or 32,5w to run single colors and effects at 100% brightness. A single injection point cannot take in more then ~4Amps before voltage drop becomes too high and it basically won't do much anymore. If you want to power a 300LED strip of ws2812b for 100% RGB white you will need proper sized wires and front + middle + end injections, anything less then that and they won't be running at their full potential. So in all scenarios shown you where running limited. Although that can be fine, this will also in part limit smoothness and such. Each LED has a Red, Green and Blue diode which have 256 steps of brightness. Limiting them also limits the range they can use and thus will things more "choppy". Basically 50% power means it now only has 128 steps, not 256. Now the WLED limiter is good and doesn't do this per LED but overall and in real-time, but still, using 850mA will for sure show this for instance. Setup 1 - 2000mA phone charger A. Make sure to test this charger can deliver a sustained 2000mA and won't overheat B. The ESP board (circuit traces) and USB socket are not rated for anything close to 2000mA C. The included USB cable probably already has quite a bit of resistance and will start to drop voltage over 1000mA D. Dupont wires, please please don't use over 500mA on these Running addressable LEDs like this can be done, but please don't exceed 850mA, even that is stressing it already in my opinion. Now this can be fine in some situations where you don't have a lot of LEDs or don't mind running them at low brightness, still, it can be dangerous (fire!) running more power through this setup, the hardware is NOT designed for it (dupont really shouldn't exceed 500mA). Most likely the resistance on the USB cable is already lowering voltage coming into the ESP board (and with it Amps) and then the dupont wires will lower it even more, but still. This is not the correct way to run any decent amount of LEDs... Setup 2 - 5v 10Amp power supply Already much better! But still I have issues.... A. Those barrel plug adapters, please please don't use them for 5v, it's stupid they come with them, they are not to be used over 3Amps continuous or will melt. But just snip off the barrel plug on the PSU wire and use those wires directly. :) B. 18AWG wire is nice, but since you are only using it to power the ESP using dupont wires here would have been fine actually. :) But as said, this setup is much better but won't draw more then 4Amps to maybe 5Amps before voltage drop becomes too much of an issue again. Still that can be fine for running single colors and some effects. It would however be better to use a 6 or 7.5Amp power supply since then if it has OCP that could provide a little bit of protection against shorts or other issues. A fuse here might be a good idea but the PSU not being giant also gives a bit of protection already (f it's good quality). Setup 3 - 5v 60Amp power supply Better but also somewhat worse. When using such big power supplies their internal protection mechanisms will not work for you anymore so you need to add protection yourself in the form of a fuse per injection line, etc. A. Fuses! B. Using a 20AWG 5m/16ft wire for 5v really doesn't work. In what you showed with front + end, it will equalize voltage a little bit, but really doesn't do enough. Voltage drop calculator says 16ft/5m of 20AWG doing 4Amps will have 1.3v of drop just on the wire alone which then becomes heat.... C. Adding the second strip make this problem worse since it's now not an edge connection but a middle injection capable of delivering up to ~8Amps into the strip effectively but as shown in the video, it already has 2.6v drop on just the wire alone. Now because it's 5v and the resistance makes the voltage drop it probably won't burn up, but it's not a good situation either as is kind of shown by the result in the video too. So basically, all scenarios are seriously under powering the LEDs, this is also why at some point you won't see a difference when moving the sliders around in WLED for instance. This can be ok if that's a choice, but still. All scenarios also only work because you are attaching the very short wires on the LED strip directly to the power source, using the same type of wires even just a little bit longer will make all of the scenarios fail basically. Now you mention in the video you aren't an expert in this and learning yourself, that's good! I kind of partly then think maybe not make "advice" videos like this on the subject but I also get you need to start somewhere. Maybe next time do a bit more analysis of your setups, include voltage measurements using a multi-meter at the start and end of the wire when set to a single color or 100% RGB white, do the same at the start middle and end of the strip, etc.. That would make it a bit more scientific and you'll start figuring out more why some of the stuff you are seeing is happening and what is a good situation and what isn't and can potentially be dangerous. :)

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond with such great information! I'm all about learning and it sounds like you would be a great person to learn from! Do you do this for fun or is it part of your career? Thanks for all the advice and for watching! Also, i'm a huge fan of your work. What video of yours goes into this type of detail? I'd love to link it in the description of my video so people can watch.

[@MrTubertub]

Thank you for this very detailed technical answer and carring about our safety. Can you please let us know what is the best simple power supply and wires to Buy for powering a WS2812B led strip of 5 meter and 2 x 5 meter with 300 to 600 leds. Thank you

[@Filipvdb]

@@MrTubertub The reason why you will probably not find a video that clearly states the wire sizes and power supplies is because they will all end up with the same answer "It depends". Every setup is unique in regards of lengths and power requirements, some use more or less lights, straight wires instead of moving around obstacles, those kinds of things.. There are some resources that explain each step more in detail, but I do not want to hijack this video to promote others. The most important steps are explained here, keeping those in mind should improve the safety of any installation you create. The very dirty short answer would be to first calculate (roughly) the maximum amount of power your strip will need. As Quindor stated that would be about 65W for WS2818b strip with 100% RGB white. with the recommendation to calculate mostly for 50% RGB white, that then translates in to about 33W for a 5 meter strip (1 roll of 60 LED/m or 16,4ft) and to 65W for a 10 meter strip (2 rolls of 60LED/m or about 33ft). Now that you know the power, you can base the rest of the calculations on those numbers. First of all, the power supply. Generally best practice is to have a PSU can can supply more power than the maximum you want from it. Good rule of thumb would be to have about 10-15% more power than required. Following that rule you'd look at buying a PSU capable of doing about 40W for a single strip, and about 75W for 2 strips. That's the easy part. Moving on to the wires themselves.. Since power always tries to balance things out in a perfect world, you can start looking at the number of injection points you require to transfer all those amps to the LED's safely. For the 65W example, that would be (65W divided by 5V) 13A. Knowing that a front/end injection can transfer about 4A in to the strip, and a middle injection about 8A, this would be possible by injecting power in the front (start of the first strip), middle (between the 2 strips) and end (end of the second strip). If you'd go to for example full brightness, you'd require 26A (or 130W). In that case you will need to inject front (4A), middle of the first strip (8A), middle of the 2 strips (8A), middle of the second strip (8A) and end of the second strip (4A). Than you will be able to get (4+8+8+8+4) 32A max in to the strip, with room to spare on the 26A the strip will take. For each of these injection points you can then calculate the wire size required to safely transfer the power over the distance. Start here by measuring the distance from the power supply (or even better a fuse box) to the LED strip and note all those distances. Then pair that distance with the expected maximum power on that wire. We'll take the example of the 5m long injection wire. So that wire would be 5m long, carry 5V 8A, and needs to stay within 10% voltage drop. The 10% voltage drop is the standard tolerance of most electric equipment, unless specified otherwise. You can use a voltage drop calculator for that, and that will tell you, you would need a 12AWG wire to transfer that power, with about 8.8% voltage drop. Now I know for many people this will seem crazy and they won't believe you need such a large wire for this.. But the truth is, if you want to transfer low voltage over a large distance with a few amps, the wire almost needs to be perfect to not drop more than 10% voltage. Higher voltages have a better tolerance since there is more room to play with. For example 5V 10% is only 0.5V while if you use 12V 10%, that's already 1,2V tolerance. Go to mains voltage and the drop allowed is even bigger in terms of voltage. Hope this helps!

[@yashdobra9154]

Heyyyy thankyou for such an in detail review I don't even knw wht videos u upload on ur channel but jst this review and inisder u gave I subed ur channel, thnx for giving such in detail info about this topic I would really love to check out ur channel and actually as a beginner in RGB stop lightning u actually cleared my confusion should I go for 12v or 5v one after you, I m cleared out tht I'm going for the 12v ws2811 strip thankyou so much for this ❤ mahn !! Keep up the grt work

[@SantiagoOleas]

Fantastic info. Thank you for sharing. I subscribed to your channel and joined your discord server. A question for you and OP @ChrisMaherDIY, are these MeanWell power units noisy? Do they require further housing?

[@andrewfrey6960]

It's great that you mention not just how much power these led strips use, but that not all the power can make it from one end to the other. A while back, I put up a bunch of warm white led strips and noticed that one side of the room was brighter than the other. Voltage drop from one end to the other was enormous.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Yeah it would be nice if voltage drop did not happen lol. It would make working with LED lights so much easier! Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment!

[@ArcadiaVibe]

This is exactly what I was imagining I’d have to do. I’ve got a 48” run and plan on going 90% brightness with these same LEDs from Amazon. I don’t want to run any cables down the wall, so I plan on starting it from a closet. I’ll have to run 4 pairs of wires down to the third strip to have 0 degradation of power. You’re the only person I see who actually explains and demonstrates it all step by step thank you so much!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

That sounds like a great project! Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment and I'm glad you liked the video!

[@cometmace]

Great walk through. This is the only video I've seen that clearly shows an injection wire running all the way from the power source, along side the LED strip to the far end. Thanks for clearing that up! 13:09 - There's an obvious color change for both the un-injected and single injected wiring for the two parallel LED strips. 14:25 - *I* see very little color change when only the beginning and middle injection points are enabled. Shouldn't this look exactly like 13:09?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and I'm glad you liked the video. I went back and watched the sections and you are right. My only guess as to what the difference might have been at the 14:25 point was even though I know I had the limiter turned off, I might have fogot to turn the brightness all the way up on the WLED brightness slider and therefore it was not as obvious as a difference. Good catch!

[@wyattspop]

Just an FYI, you could look into 6 amp "mini-amplifiers" instead of that bulky one with the protruding pins you use, the "mini-amplifiers" are no bigger than a usb flash drive but half as thick, so much easier to hide when you hang your lights, and they do the same function, keeping the remote controls in-sync and are a buck or 2. They also help with injection just being wired into the sequence

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for the great suggestion! I've never heard of mini amplifies so I'm very intrigued! Hiding big stuff is sometimes a nightmare so anything to help on that front would be amazing! Thanks so much!

[@Rene-kg7pf]

I'm also curious with this if there is a link or the like to these?

[@Ghostboy401]

Link?

[@danilo352]

I’m curious too.

[@wyattspop]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Hey Chris, I was wondering, will the animations only work with "Govee" light strips or is it the control unit that drives the animations?. My lights are good quality, but only have the cheesy remote that has like 12 colors and just a few animations (fade, flash etc)

[@mattm1447]

what a great tutorial and very different from others I have seen. Your practical approach and using the limiter to help maintain colors is great. This has shown me that there are many solutions beyond injecting power every X amount of pixels. Thank you and keep them coming.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks again buddy!! Glad you liked the video! Appreciate the support my friend!

[@aintnoair]

Thank you for the tutorial! I‘m new to diy led stuff but want to make kinda advanced stuff in my room… this video helped me perfectly!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You are very welcome! Glad the video was helpful! I know when I first started 1 year ago I had no idea what I was doing (and still dont most of the time lol) but i'm slowly learning things as I go! Let me know if you ever have any questions!

[@aintnoair]

@@ChrisMaherDIY not sure if you have done so but it would be really helpful to have a video about how to tie in the WLED lights with alexa or siri or something and how to set the custom lights up for home automation. Maybe you ought make a tutorial for this as well?

[@wyattspop]

Hey Chris, I STAND CORRECTED! Although my mini-amp idea does work keeping 3 strands in-sequence, your wifi board is vastly, ridiculously BETTER for it's functionality, and is so worth it's larger size. You can easily hide the wifi board by simply using longer wires and having it end in anyplace you wish. If you're lighting a bedroom for example, the obvious place is a closet, you'll want to do this with the 60 amp supply unit for sure as it's the size of cigar box. PAY ATTENTION TO CHRIS, I've watched dozens of videos and tried many configurations, power supplies and Chris's video is the only one that is both accurate and user-friendly

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for the follow up! I'm certainly no expert so I'm always looking for better/different ways to do things so i'm always glad when people bring up new ideas! But I'm glad that the way I did it seems to be working for you! I appreciate all the kind words my friend! Hope you have a great day!

[@zachd.873]

I bought the exact same RGB strips and I had no idea what to do since I didn't realize not everything was included. Thank you!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! That's a bummer! Yeah with these type of leds you need to have more than just the led strips. In the description I do leave links to everything that I used in the video including the led strips, power supply options, esp devices and wires. Hope that helps!

[@shadowboy23]

Ok so I gave this a go .. and how fun is this! I'm gonna invite my mates over with their sons so we can have a LED workshop and make some lights for church. Thanks again :)

[@richardfingers4360]

I like where this channel is headed man. Totally forgot to sub, rectified that now. Cheers brethren.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much buddy and thanks for the support! Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@eDRoaCH]

Question: I always thought the extra 2 wires off the led strips (the unused ones) were for power injection. If so, couldn't you use them for power and then just plug data and ground from the esp to the plug?

[@eDRoaCH]

note to self, watch whole video

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You are 100% correct. You could certainly use the extra 2 wires at the begining to feed the power/gnd since they are soldered to the exact same pad that the ones I used were connected too. I never know how detailed to go in someo of these videos but thats something I could have definitly clarified. Thanks for watching buddy!

[@gb1613]

Yeah I have some of mine setup like this. Power supply connects to the power injection wires and then I use the JST connector to connect to the ESP8266 for power, ground, and data

[@ScienceNotFaith]

Well done. Exactly what we all need to know and were wondering about. Thank you. I'm impressed by how well the phone charger works. So much cheaper than the big boy option and we all have those chargers lying around.

[@steverhysjenks]

I'm just getting into WLED and this has been useful explaining runs and the concepts of injecting additional power

[@rdy4trvl]

I'm remodeling a bathroom (9'x5' or 28' circumference) where the LEDs will be secondary lighting (recessed LED fixtures primarily) and to occasionally add color to the room. The LEDs would be mounted behind Flannery LED Reflective Drywall Trim to conceal the strip. The 60v (edited) power source would probably be best. I'd probably mount the power unit in the vanity. Any thoughts, suggestions?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Sounds epic! 60v would be what I would go with and depending on how bright you want to run it, probably a couple power injection points as well on 28'. Let me know how it turns out!

[@donschafer3428]

Do you recommend setting up a STATIC I.P. ADDRESS for LED lights?

[@Christian-ws3xs]

Instead of using Wago connectors and twisting wires to connect them, can We solder the wires together for a less costly option? Also the 3 Pin LED Extension Wire 20 AWG,for WS2812B be used as normal wire for other projects such as connecting wires to a a esp board for example? Appreciate your tests and info!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching! Yeah you can for sure solder the wires together! And yes the 3 pin connectors will work just fine for that!

[@johnnguyen685]

Christ is a person most accurate on any project to a successful completed....many thank

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much buddy! Glad you enjoyed the project and thanks for watching!

[@ChrisBrown76]

I've learned SO much from your videos!! I purchased this power supply to run 3 strips of WS 2812B (900 LED's). I have power running to the first led strip, and another power injection connected to end of the 900 LED's. It works great, exactly what I needed. My question though is do I need to put a fuse on both positive wires coming from this power supply?

[@ALIDIY007]

Hey Chris, you’re a life savior my men I follow another tutorial video and got stuck thankfully your video pop up I was using the D2 pin instead of D4 I really thought I had return all 7 rolls 16ft strip. Thank you brother!!! God bless you!

[@ALIDIY007]

Also can you please advise on how to chain link 5-7 16ft roll leds

[@morganevans8326]

Really great video - I was wondering if you have ever taken the time to explain how led amps/voltage is calculated. I have a background in electrical and I would like to integrate LEDs into the crown molding of my trim and connect it directly to a light switch and then control color through the app. I just dont want to connect that power converter directly to a 20 amp circuit with 120v on 12ga wire and have a fire hazard.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I still have not done a deep dive into that aspect of LEDs. I know there are some other great creators our there that are a lot smarter than I am that have some great videos out there. Check out @IntermitTech @@DrZzs or @TheHookUp I do hope to at some point make a video on this!

[@wild8wire]

I’m late to the party and just now diving into LED strips (I have a firm background in electronics in general though). Really enjoy your videos, thank you SO much. My question is routing injection wires. To minimize the number of wires or channels visible outside the LED strip, are you running the extra power wires inside the LED channel? Or do you actually leave them external and break into the strip where the wires need to connect?

[@khaledwaled5660]

Bro for real you are the man, I have been looking everywhere for these information, nobody explained it this good, you helped big time, love

[@FlyersPh9]

Thanks for the video! I’m following the 3rd method and after wiring everything up and plugging it in it would appear the power supply isn’t getting power. If I power the ESP board via USB both the ESP & power supply have LEDs turn on, but nothing is happening when plugging in via the power supply. Any suggestions? EDIT: I had to switch the power supply to 110v. All good now!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and glad you got it figured out! I actually did the same thing one time. Drove me nuts until I realized what it was lol.

[@caffeinatedw-w]

Hey it’s been 2 years. Do we need to think about adding fuses for these setup? Thanks

[@Tarecco7]

Hi Chris, my Leds doesnt turn on at all. do you know why? i followed your instruction.

[@quickgurke]

Too little power

[@ferrarig1763]

Dude you are the LED king. Thanks for making these videos so well

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks buddy!! Glad you like the videos and appreciate the kind words!

[@bennyben8390]

Hi chris. Bit of a problem here. I’ve connected my esp32 board with wled installed. I’ve connected the jumper cables from the board to a 5v, 5 metre consisting of 60 LEDs per metre. I connected a micro usb like you did on the esp board. The light on the board stays on aswell as the last led on the roll without any others working and when connected to the wled no luck with any of the strip working except the last led. I’ve got the ground on the right pin, I know I need more power injection but I’m just trying to test out the setup to see if it works before I connect the power. In your video a 5v Samsung charger seems to work. Any help recommended please. The direction of the LEDs are connected right aswell.

[@Tom-ek5oy]

Dude this is the best walk thru for this type of thing that i have every since thanks so much for sharing this info. This was exactly what ive been needing to know.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much buddy!! Appreciate the support and glad you found the video helpful!

[@maxwisner5316]

Hey Chris, great Video. I want to ask about wiring the power supply, is it important which wires i use?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

I've used wires from 18 gauge to 22 gauge and have not had any issues. Although I think most people who know a lot more than I do would recommend using at leas 20 gauge wires and recently I've found the 18 gauge ones to be perfect. I think the thinner the wires the more likely they are to heat up and the worse they are at transporting the electricity efficiently.

[@ScottMicale]

This is a great video. Thanks for making. If you use the big power supply could you use the +/- terminals for all power and the injection points? Or do you need to use the other 2 +/- terminals on the power supply for the injection points?

[@karimsalem86]

I am planning on connecting ten 16.4 ft together. Do you know if the large power supply in the video will work?

[@OhadLutzky]

And here I was trying to solder the wires together straight, where twisting them like that gives a much better connection. Thanks!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! yeah the longer i've been doing this the more I realize there are a lot of different ways to go about doing something. I've recently started using Wago connectors for things like this and they are amazing. If you are just trying to connect 2 wires together, these in line ones work great: amzn.to/3XrpXdS

[@rodolphesimon295]

i have a dumb question. If i have enough power, can i power up 2x (ESP32 + Led) with only 1 power supply ? so 1 x power supply (5v 10a) -> 2 x ESP 32 with 1m led

[@judahben149]

Hi Chris, this is such detailed explanation. Is there a way to wire this up via dmx so it can be controlled from a lighting console? And be able to access each individual pixel to achieve the same animations? Thanks.

[@leemontgomery72]

Just to make sure that i am fully understanding here, you are putting power to both ends of each led strip? I am in the process of putting these strips around our bonus room. Is there a wiring diagram that i can see?

[@DFinesse88]

love your videos! quick question. i want to install leds on my kitchen island. would i use this power supply and get power from the outlet? thanks in advance

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! That's for sure one way to do it! I know there is probably ways to tap directly into the house power but i'm not sure how that would be done. I hope to at some point dig into this as it would be nice to eliminate plugging things into outlets for more permanent installs.

[@KevinHoogdorp]

Does the 3-wire extension cable carry the 5 Volts over a distance of say 6 meters without noticeably dropping voltage?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I have not tested out that length yet but my guess is there would be minimal noticeable drop in voltage. I could be wrong but that's my guess! If I ever test out things with that length, I'll let you know!

[@mankav]

Well done! Very good demo! I am gathering a few things to build my diy wled strip and I was wondering about the power supply, wether I should get a more powerful than my 5V/2A usb charger. Your video cleared a lot the things up. Kudos!

[@HoundDogCatia]

This was super helpful. What would you do if you needed you to add another power injection point since all the slots on the power supply were used?

[@GRJOHN360]

Great tutorial! Very useful for me. I have a question Chris. Im gonna use 4 or more led strips for my room (desk, floor, monitor) with 144 leds/meter, so about 600leds in total. 1) How many ESP32 do i need for all of them? (i guess 1 esp32/led strip or there is another way?) 2)Is 60 Amp Power Supply enough for all of them? Note : some strips are gonna be away from others. Is there any way to sync all of them with one power supply?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much!! I think you could get away with 1 esp32 device but I know I do sometime just like using 1 esp32 per strip. However you can assign different led strips to different pins on the esp32 device. Here is some good information on the specifics: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/ I think you could use 1 power supply. I'm more of a trial and error type of guy so I would use 1 power supply, hook things up, see how it looks and go from there as far as if you need more power units or just some power injection. You can run long wires to connect all the strips together or you can control them all at once via the sync feature that they have on WLED. Thanks again!

[@geoherrera8477]

Great video thank you so much! Question: how far apart can the controller be from the beginning of the led strip?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! That's a great questions. I don't know the exact distance because it depends on cable thickness and other variables but lets say you have the controller 10 feet away from the first pixel and the lights are flickering and not responding. That's a good indication that its too far. You can either shorten the distance and test again until it works like it should or you can add a resister like i do towards the end of this project: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGKWh3-fgJx0hbc or add 1 LED (sacrificial pixel) close to the controller and then run the long wires from that first pixel to the rest. Either option should allow you to put the controller far away from the lights and have it work perfect! Hope that helps!

[@geoherrera8477]

@@ChrisMaherDIY it does thank you so much!

[@GeeKayOfficial]

❤❤❤ Lovely comparison among 3 different types of power sources and their affect on the LED lighting and power injection - love it ❤❤❤

[@petter435]

Hey! Wonderful video! But how come the wall plug is only 16 amp to work with a 60 amp power supply? I'm Norwegian and have 230v from the wall and bought a 40 amp version of the power supply you got. What is my amp supposed to be on the wall plug? Best regards P!

[@frontiervirtcharter]

40 amp x 5 volts = 200 watts output. Check the data sheet for your power supply, hopefully it will tell the efficiency rating, but likely in the range 60% to 80% efficient. So almost certainly less than 400 watts of input from the wall plug, that would be 400 W / 230V = 1.73 amps .

[@imlon2]

I’m planning on running 3 LED RGBNW 60 LED’s/Meter (300 LED) strips on 3 different ESP8266. I have a set up I can draw out and hard to explain I’ll give it a shot. • 1st strip would be cut into 6 piece just under the 30” mark. (That will leave about 2’) • 2nd strip will be cut down to 3 pieces just under a 58” that will leave just under 2’) • 3rd strip will be the full length with the remaining LED’s tied to the last strip. What would be a good power unit to connect all three of these to? I will had a power injection to the end of both the 2nd and 3rd lines. Hope that make sense. 😊

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and that makes sense! For that number of LEDs I would probably just go with the big power supply. I think that would be good for the project and provide enough power for things to look good! I would probably also recommend using an esp32.

[@imlon2]

@@ChrisMaherDIY what would be a good power supply and size I should be looking for? I already have the ESP8266 board should I ditch them and go with the ESP32 or just use the ESP8266 since I already have them? Thanks for your help.

[@jdmjimmy_drift]

Im a total novice to this but very intrigued. Does the power injection need to be added at the end of each strip or can it be daisy chained to the next strip then back to the power supply at the end of the run?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Great question! You can add power wherever you want. So you can daisy chain 2 strips together and if necessary, add power to the end of the second led strip. I will always test things out with no power injection and see how everything looks and then go from there. I'll inject power if necessary. Let say you connect 5 long strip together and inject power at the end to go along with the power at the beginning. My guess is that the LED's in the middle of those 5 strips will be a different color since the power is not getting to them with as much as they need so you would more than likely need to inject power at around the middle point so that those leds will have enough juice. Hope that helps!

[@jeffro.]

This is VERY USEFUL. It shows how to properly power long strips of LEDs, instead of just powering from one end, then wondering why the strip or matrix burned out! The wires connecting them together aren't heavy enough to conduct all that amperage through, so you have to "inject" more power through the leads provided. Great video! Hopefully this will help some of the no-brain Gen-Zers out there, trying to get though life without EVER learning anything except what they call "hacks" that allow then to meander along without ever becoming knowledgeable about anything. Heaven forbid they might accidentally learn something. And, this was appropriately titled, for a change. You could've just titled this "Comparison of Power Supplies and Methods of Powering LED strips." That way, it's easier to find in s search. I hate it when ppl mis-title their videos, just to get lots of views. YT should encourage PROPER TITLING, instead of encouraging MIS-titling the way they do now! It just makes sense. After awhile, there's trillions of videos online, but nobody knows what any of them are about without having to watch each one until you find what you're looking for. That's just crap, and a massive waste of time. But, hey, does YT care?! Of course not. They just want VIEWS.

[@tomchaney6117]

Great videos and great work. As someone who watches tons of DIY YT videos I always skip and X2 the playback in order to sum up the videos. The style you have in delivering your information as well your video cuts and side bar walk-through leave me immersed and following along at normal speed. Great job keep up the great work. Very inspirational 👏 🙌

[@Dinez]

Yo chris what or where do you connect the backup data if you had one? or can u leave it out completly?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! Here is a video I did on a 12v led strip that has the backup data pin: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJPLlXtjprh0hMU I think most people either just add the backup data to the gnd or add it to the regular data. I'm not sure what is best but I would try one of those two options!

[@Dinez]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Thanks a lot chris.

[@dieguin_nomas]

This experiment is really fantastic and well done!!! Thanks for the info !!

[@DJDUSTYB]

what is the longest run you can do with the 60a power supply ? and using all 3 power feeds from power source?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching! Thats a good question! I have yet to try maxing things out but I think you would probably reach the limit of WLED before reaching the power limit if I had to guess. That would however be a fun thing to test out! Here is what WLED say about max number of leds on the esp32 device (esp32 is a little more powerful than the esp8266) ESP32 There is a maximum of 10 strips supported Contrary to the ESP8266, the pin usage does not matter on ESP32, feel free to use any available pin For perfect performance, it is recommeded to use 512 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 2048 LEDs. For very good performance, it is recommended to use 800 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 3200 LEDs. For good performance, you can use 1000 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 4000 LEDs. For okay performance, you can use 1000 LEDs/pin with 5 outputs for a total of 5000 LEDs. For okay performance, you can use 800 LEDs/pin with 6 outputs for a total of 4800 LEDs. ESP32 can calculate about 65k-85k LEDs per second (that means 1000 LEDs @~70fps, 2000 LEDs @~35fps, 4000 LEDs @~18fps) 4 outputs seem to be the sweet spot.

[@serjioxswern]

Hello Chris, thanks a lot for this awesome video. I would like to ask something about the 5V to 60A Power Supply. I want to use like 500 (6-6.5m) LEDS from the same LED Strip (BTF-LIGHTING WS2812B). So I thought I would buy 5V to 60Amps external Power Supply to light them all. If I connect the microcontroller as you did on the Video (on the third test with the external Power Supply) does not going to Burn beacuse of the 60Amps? Thanks in advance!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I never had any issues with things heating up. But I'm also not an electrician so I'm not very smart when it comes to all the voltage questions. I generally will try something, wait for about 5 or 10 minutes and as long as nothing is heating up, smoking, or on fire, I'll just go with it lol.

[@stanzhubrak818]

Question, the data wire does not have to be connected to additional strips? I can not get any info anywhere about the DATA wire, so as long as its connected once to the strip I can inject power anywhere and be good? so no need to connect the yellow or sometimes green data wire to the rest of the strips?

[@partete3460]

Thanks for this video! Is very helpfull! How many mA accept those leds? 6000mA?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I'm not sure what the max is. I'll have to take a look and see If I can get an answer on that.

[@andrescastro6538]

quick question to connect 20 meters of strip ( 5 meters sets x4 ) do you recommend 12v or 24v? i will like an option i can use a single power supply to power all 20 meters from the beginning - i assume at the end of each strip i will connect the data cable to the data cable of the other strip ? also a single controller can run all 20 meters correct .. thank you so much for all your time and videos.

[@danielcrow8393]

you made it all easier in my head but how much will i need to power up 2160 leds that i can only inject power in the end?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! I've never built anything that big but the power supply I linked to in the video (the big one) is about as big as they come. The led lights can only take so much power and there will always be voltage drop that unfortunately wont be able to be avoided by simply using a bigger supply. The best advice is to wire everything up and see how it looks at different levels of brightness. It may work for what you need it to at a lower brightness with power injection only at the end but my guess is you will need to somehow figure out a way to inject power at different points with that many leds.

[@danielcrow8393]

@@ChrisMaherDIY thank you so much for your response after looking into my project more i found out i only need 900 leds so i think i will be ok :D

[@3_Clones]

When power injecting into another LED strip, do you need another module to control the lights?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

No you should not need another module as long as the two led strips are connected by the data wire. If you are not going to connect the first led strip to the second with the same data flow, then you would use another module for the second led strip.

[@oflittleconsequence]

At the end, why did the two strips connected to the 60A power supply mot act as a continuous string with the animation? I would have expected the colors to traverse the entire strip from one end to the other. Instead, they both started from the end closest to the camera and travel away together, as if it were two strips. Was it just because the WLED pattern was configured to start at LED 1 and LED 301, or is there something else going on there?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching! In WLED you can assign segments to the lights and then you can also choose what direction the animation goes for each segment.

[@oflittleconsequence]

@@ChrisMaherDIY I appreciate the quick response!

[@sunildiaram8201]

This was so helpful thank you! I had a question, I’m going to be doing about 900 led’s about 56ft. Would the big power supply be sufficient and if so am I injecting power at the beginning and end of each strip ?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I think the big power supply would be good to go with. I also think power at the beginning and end would probably be good enough for most animations and colors but if you were to just have everything on full white and full brightness you would probably see some voltage drop. But I always just recommend setting things up on the floor and testing it out starting with no power injection and going from there! Trial and error is the best way I learned when starting out.

[@sunildiaram8201]

@@ChrisMaherDIY thanks !

[@bob-ny6kn]

LEDs or WS2812B? 900 WS2812B times 60 ma per piece = 54 amps (60A for 10% safety). Inject power every five meters (you saw the big effect)

[@xXpkMastersXx]

What about fuses? Should I add a inline fuse? Do you have a video on this topic?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I've never added fuses to any of the projects I've done. And even though I have never had any issues at all, its still probably a good idea to do. I have not made any videos on this process but it is something I do want to make a video on in the future.

[@xXpkMastersXx]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Thanks! i would love a guide to follow on that, would be very helpful! looking forward to it!

[@gotzitivi2930]

Hi, Very nice video. I just have a question. I saw a lot of schematics where they interrupted the V+ on the led strip. In order to not make a short or I am not sure why. Do you have any information on this? Have you done that?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! I've seen that as well! I've never done that personally and have never had any issues. I'm also not entirely sure the reasoning on that. Maybe someone else reading the comments can chime in that might know for sure!

[@stephengarcia6622]

Hi! Question. I’m new to all things DIY electrical and LED. Just wondering why you used a 5V60A 300W power source for the third option when the recommended power source listed for that specific LED strip model is 5V20A 100W. Are more amps better? Are more watts better? Would using a power source with ratings other than what’s recommend be dangerous or cause the lights to fail? I’m looking to start projects soon and just want to have all the pieces before I assemble. Thanks!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Great question! So in my experience the price difference between the smaller and larger power supplies are not that much so I just will usually opt for the larger ones. I've never had any issues using the bigger ones and from what I've seen, going bigger does not hurt anything.

[@pico1991]

How would you mount that power supply unit so it isn't sitting on its shell? Having a hard time figuring out the search terms to differentiate these power sources from PC power supplies, etc.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

That's a good question! I'm also not too familiar with pc power supplies so I'm afraid I'm not much of a help on this topic. Maybe someone else reading might know and can chime in!

[@G0S]

Very nice video! I’m planing on getting 3 strips of SK6812 (60LEDs/M) and connecting them together. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need a big power supply. Do I need around 60a?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

I would go with the big power supply and do the biggest one which I think was the one I used in this video! I love those SK6812 strips! Great choice! Those are the onese I used in this video and they are perfect! kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGKWh3-fgJx0hbc

[@howiestoffberg]

great video.....if your strips are in a straight line, wouldn't injecting more power say at the end of 2 five metre strips require a ten metre run from the power supply thus having voltage drop?

[@allegiencelies6610]

Ok so I am running a molding style strip in my sons room where the wall meets the ceiling. Using the 30 mill corner channels. I think will be using strips with 30 led’s RGB no white per meter and it is a 44’ linear run around the perimeter of the room. If the four corners of the room are A B C D and I have my power supply and esp32 start at corner A. can I run all the way around and inject power at the end when it gets back to corner A? Also what power supply would you guys suggest? Tips and suggestions appreciated this is my first LED project

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and great question! I still have not done any large projects like your mentioning but If I were doing this I would first test things out on the floor and probably start with a 5v 30a power supply (assuming your using 5v led strips) and have power at the beginning and then at the end, turn things on and see how things look and go from there. Being that your using led strips that have 30 leds per meter, my guess is most animations would look just fine like that but would probably see some voltage drop in the middle if you are trying to run them at full brightness and power. But I'm certainly no expert so I would also love to hear what others would do!

[@ramsayzaki]

Wow. I always thought you needed to add an additional power supply for each injection point. What you are basically showing here is that you can reuse the same singular power supply for these various injection points? Is it just trial and error to determine when you need to add an additional power supply or is there a calculation we can use?

[@Erik17502]

Thanks Chris! Ill use your videos as cuide for my first led addressable project. I was planning to conect 8 10m strips on a big roof. And now I think I will make it. Thanks to your videos, I will start with 1 line and see how it works 💓

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and glad you liked the video! For any really big projects like that I always recommend people watching this video from Dr. Zzz. Really good stuff. He is a lot smarter than I am: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWHKYWWlbZqZfbs

[@bhushangadiya]

Sorry if it's a nood question but don't we need a stepdown convertor for the esp chip? Won't it get fried when so much power is running through it?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

That's a great question and I'm not entirely sure on the answer. I've never used a stepdown converter for any of my projects and I've never had any issues with the chips getting fried. However, I've also read where you should use a stepdown converter. So I don't have a clear yes or no answer other than it probably is a good idea to use one even though I have not and have not so far had any problems.

[@HeroClaws]

Hello Chris, i have a question, i want to put LED strip around my room (near the ceiling). The whole strip should be around 15 meters, thats around 900 LEDs. In my country i was able to find Meanwells 5V/30A PWR supply. The "start" of the LED strip will be near the end of the LED strip, with the power injection, should i be able to run 15 meter strip smoothly? Im not planning on max consumption on just white. The strip i will be using is the same one you are using in the video. Thanks!

[@laiserfish]

Hey man, I know it's a bit of an older video but i was trying to get your opinion on something. I want to run those EXACT same LED strips along the top of my room through diffuser channels, and i was planning on using the big power supply and power injection run through the channels. The main issue for me is the fact i'm using 3 5 meter strips (60led/meter) in total to wrap around my whole room. I am unsure if this power supply can fully power all 3 strips connected together, and if the controller would be able to be used for the whole thing? Would I need more than one controller? Thanks!

[@victormdp]

What about if you want to add two 5V sensors, let's say for the top floor of the house and the lower floor (so the sensors enable and/or disable the lights); would you still be able to connect both sensors with the second option (10Amps) with one 300 led strips and your led controller, or would it require a bigger power supply?

[@galaxophone]

This is really helpful! Question: I am doing a really complex installation in my office and every LED strip run is attached to the previous in sequence. I've done the math and found one of these "big guy" transformer power supplies that will power the whole room, but there will be 9 or 10 injection points and the transformer only has 3 + & - terminals. Can I attach more than one injection run to a terminal? Or is there anything I could buy or make to expand the terminals?

[@kemawalker55]

Hey Chris - Thank you for the video., I am hoping you can help with a couple of points. 1) When I use the smaller charger, I can't get any output over 1A without burning out the boards. The WLED screen says as much when I config the ESP8266 boards initially, but I raised them like you did in the video and no joy after about 2+ hours. 2) the biggest issue is I tried all three scenarios that you lay out, but the 10A and 60 scenarios don't work after the initial hookup. By this I mean it all hooks up and works great, then when I power it off and power it all back up, the ESP8266 board won't light up and therefore not connection. If I take the ground or power wire off and reconnect, then it lights back up but that is not a working solution. The lower 2A option works every time. What am I missing???

[@CWilsonV]

Hey Chris thanks for the videos on power injections and on setting up WLED. Im trying to get the esp8266 board to work with a 60amp power supply, but it only works when I plug in a micro usb cord as well. Any tips? Next thing im trying is using a different socket.

[@CWilsonV]

I solved my own issue. The power supply comes switched on to 220v, so I had to switch it to 110 and now it works. Thanks for the tutorials

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Thanks also for letting me know what the issue was since I'm sure others have/will run into the same thing! Glad it was a quick simple fix!!

[@CardiacCat]

I used an old surface tablet adapter with usb and rated at 5v 2.5A. It was perfect for powering my small controller and about 3 strands of 50 bullet nodes. Once I plugged in 2 more strands I saw some drop off but when my sequence hit the all white segement, anything beyond the 2nd strand turned pinkish orange instead of white. These are a great way to see where your drop off will happen. I have purchased a 350w 70A big boy power supply to wire up my tree with (and a few other models) I'm here to confirm my understanding of wiring the injection points and you confirmed I understood it correctly. Red to VCC+ and white to VCC-

[@darberk]

First I would like to say thank you for your videos. I'm planing to use WS2812b and it will be something like 200LEDs, and I will use a 5V 50W PSU. I will also use a logic shifter. I have a question now, do you think I need to connect power at the end at the LED strip or do you think it will be OK to only have power at the beginning of the strip?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching buddy and glad your liking the videos! I think you should be good with just power at the beginning so I would start with that and test things out and go from there!

[@shirtybackup7997]

Looking at the 10 amp setup. Not to fond of soldering so can I use my jumper wires and just strip them back. Also on the led strip instead of cutting that little piece of could I just strip the other three wires coming off of it. EDIT- never mind about that I see that there is no green wire so I have to cut off the connector

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Yeah i'm not a huge fan of soldering either. Just a little too much work to make it convienent lol. You can use jumper wires but even though I've never had a problem with things heating up using them, I know others caution against them since they are pretty thin. Thanks for watching!

[@KevinTaddeo]

fantastic video. Thank you. What is the equation I need to perform in order to make sure I order enough power? Example, I am looking to run a 100ft run. I don't want to have 10 of those boxes.

[@권재상-j9i]

What a great video. I want to ask you one question. I want to connect 4000 LED lights(length of 70M) at once, is there a way? If I had to use a power supply, what capacity should I use?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much! I've never done that large of a project so i'm not sure the best way of powering that would be. I always recommend watching this video as it does go into more detail about power injection/setup for bigger projects than I have done. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWHKYWWlbZqZfbs

[@bob-ny6kn]

LED or WS2812B? For WS2812B, multiply 60 ms by 4000 pieces then multiply by volts to get watts. Inject power every five meters. Timing will be a problem.

[@HugRunner]

Thanks for this video! I'm wondering a bit about the big power supply. If you had e.g. 6 strips, I assume you could connect them using a 3x2 pattern, i.e. 2 red/white on each connector on the power supply? Pretty much all power supplies I see only have 3 positive and 3 negative, even if they allow for higher Amps, but it seems rather overkill to only connect at most 3 strips to these.

[@Vanka473]

Chris this was super helpful and really the only spot where I got the information that I needed! Question for you anyway.... I have 2 2815 that will surround a home theater screen. I want them to be connected so the can run the same animations. So if I understand correctly this is what would be best. O yeah and they are 12V which I know is a bit different since the power seems to be more constant with the 2815. 1. Strip 1 to power supply--End of strip with connector connects to Strip 2. 2. Strip 2--Connected to strip 1, but Red and white connected directly to power supply for suppliattive power. Data is connected from the first strip to the wled and power is tied in with the first strip to power the wled. Is this generally correct? I appreciate your help!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thank so much for watching and for the comment. Sorry for the long response time. Had a very busy week! If I'm understanding correctly, you are wanting strip and and strip 2 to run the exact same animations. Everything you mentioned seems correct in my mind but for the data what you would want to do so that both strips run the exact same animations is split the data line coming from the the esp device. Then connect 1 of the split data lines to the beginning of the first led strip and the other split data line to the beginning of the second line.

[@Vanka473]

@@ChrisMaherDIY No worries Chris, I appreciate you getting back to me. I think since I want to the animations in series I will connect them end to end but I didn't even think about running the data cables in parallel. That could be a cool idea as well. Strips arrived today so I'll play with some ideas and see how it works out. Thanks again!

[@RetroWaveArcades]

Great video! I would like to add something to this. You used 5m 5V 60 led/m strip. 1 meter consumes 18W at full brightness. That means that you will need 3,6A for full white. With 5m it will be 90W and at least 18A power supplier will be requaired. 1A=1W / 1V 1W=1A * 1V 1V=1A / 1W easy math ;) It also recommended to have addicional 10% of power in your project. Just for LEDs. With 5V power supply You can power up your other 5V devices such as HDMI splitters, raspberry pi's and so on.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and for the great advice! That does make it seem simple!! Appreciate you taking the time to share your wisdom!

[@VP411Designs]

Awesome helpful video. What do you recommend for DIYers who are setting up LED Strips as main lighting source in ceiling with profiles built into the entire ceilings in long extended strips on entire ceiling space covering about 1000 square feet? Main question here is power source? Controller Source? And how to control individually or together as one? If I install a LED Strip all over my ceiling on the entire ceiling on every room and hallways how/what is the best way to setup from LED product, power product, and controller product.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and those are some great questions! I have never tried doing something that large so I would just be guessing If I tried giving you advice! I will say that if you are using for a main lighting source, finding a good diffuser will be key. You want to find one that lets a lot of light through, but also diffuse it so you wont see the hotspots. If your only doing white then the job becomes easier but if you want all the colors then you would need to go with a strip that has all the color options as well as a dedicated white led. And for large installs like that, my guess is 24v led strips would be what you would end up going with because they would require less power injection but I have really not worked with any of those strips yet! Hopefully someday down the road I will be of more help on larger questions like this but I would recommend taking a look at some videos over at The Hook Up, DrZZZ or QuinLED. They are a lot smarter than me!

[@TrickieD808]

Do I need to program the 8266 board prior to installing them? Thank you.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You just need to install WLED onto the 8266 board before you will be able to control the lights. Here is a video I made going over how to do that. kzbin.info/www/bejne/ommyfpxtiLKjp9U

[@Christian-ws3xs]

Question! Is it safe to use one peg for multiple wires to have room for other pegs to be used for other led projects in a room? Informative video and very useful!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks again for watching! I know I have used 1 peg for a couple strips and its worked fine for me but I don't know what is recommended or if there is a limit. Maybe someone else might know for sure and can chime in!

[@frontiervirtcharter]

The bigger power supply should have a data sheet available from the manufacturer that will state how much current per terminal. You can also buy terminal strips or lever connectors to tie your wires together in a removable way

[@benmiller1129]

Hey Chris , Great video thanks for this. My question is - what is the distance limit you can run 18awg between strips , reason I ask is that my plan is to run LEDs all around the ceiling . This would mean having some long runs from power supply and LEDs. Thanks and great video it’s been very helpful.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! I have yet to do a bid install like that so I'm not entirely sure. I would probably lay everything out on the floor and see how things look after the long run for the power injection. If enough power is not getting to the leds I would either see if you could use another power source closer to the injection point or I would look at maybe using 12v led strips instead. Here is a quick walkthrough I did on some 12v led strips from btf lighting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJPLlXtjprh0hMU&lc=UgwRyKQC3r1Lrr1nnvN4AaABAg

[@graphguy]

Great! I just bought 4 - 5 meter strips , a 60A 300w ps and you proved that I'm going to have to run alot of injection wire to get even white from pixel 1 to pixel 1200.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I always just test things and start off with no power injection and then go from there based on how things look! Good luck and hope everything turns out great!

[@graphguy]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Thanks with that thought. I have set up the whole 1200 LEDs in the garage in a test situation while I am mounting the tracks on the roofline so that is ready once I get the power figured out to a bare minimum of wires, injection points etc. PS really love the lighting ideas you bring forward in your vids.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

@@graphguy thanks so much! What a fun project your doing! Feel free to send me a video when you have it set up! I'd love to see how it turned out! My email is in my KZbin info

[@graphguy]

@@ChrisMaherDIY ok . I'm a tad confused. I have 1500 (60/m) 5v leds up in 5 strips. I have power at the start and I added one home run at the very end and that is it. Every single WLED effect works just fine and looks great! So how come every person says that in that situation I would many injections?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

@@graphguy You are confused just like I was and still am to some extent. So when people ask how much power will they need, there is the theoretical amount you will need if you wish to run the lights at full brightness and on white, and then there is the power (much less power required) that is needed if you are only planning on running animations and colors. Thats why I generally say, it will depend on what you are wanting to do with the lights. As you have noticed, you dont need a lot of power to run most animations and if things look good and your happy, then your done! But my guess (and I could be wrong) but if you turn the lights to white and at full brightness, you might see some color/voltage drop and would maybe do some more injection. Hope that makes sense!

[@darshan.sk37]

Great video sir! For a newbie like me, I was looking for a video to show how to connect to an ESP32 board. Thanks for doing that!

[@MincraftPartner]

Question for you Chris, that 3rd scenario for the 2amp power supply you've set the limiter to 4amps, isnt that dangerous since youre asking the LEDs to draw more current than the PSU can handle?

[@MincraftPartner]

Answer to this is DON'T.

[@JMil7777]

Chris, I would like to power 4 strips 1200 pixels with only one power supply. What power supply would you recommend? Thanks! Your channel is awesome!!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! For that I would probably start out with the medium supply unit and see how things look using that with no power injection and go from there. If needed, I would then inject power at the end and again see how things look at different settings / colors and adjust things accordingly. I'm all about trial and error!

[@mubashirkhan7314]

I was very confused about my 5m wa2812b 300led/m power supply. solved my problem.. thanks 😊

[@ofiasdfnosdf]

Do the same power requirements apply for the COB strips? (amps needed per number of leds)

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and that's a great question. I think it would be very different just based on the lights that cob strips have vs the individually addressable strips. I think wherever you buy them would have the specific power requirements of that particular strip.

[@Garage_gg]

very underrated channel! loved this video..Precise and explanatory! Subbed

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much buddy!! Appreciate the support!

[@dassvijayankumar1776]

I am always inspired with each of your projects. Thank you very much.

[@TheSilvo20]

What conntroler you use? Can i mix diffrent led strips? What are the white and red wires on strip dat you not use? Sorry for my bad eng language.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You can do some mixing and matching as long as they were the same type of strip and same voltage requirements. The extra white and red wires are there in case you want to inject power into the led strip you can just connect the injection wires to those! Thanks for watching!

[@TheSilvo20]

@@ChrisMaherDIY thank you. I have one set from aliexpress, and one from amazon. I am new to addresable led strips i don't wont to burn them :)

[@sinnvollerkommentar263]

Thank you for all of this high quality information. Very unfortunate that I will need such a big power supply every 10m

[@salvatorepisano4078]

I'm trying to run LeD light strips. Into 4 Strips about 50 Inches Per Strip Using 24VDC Strips by BFT I also will be connecting each strip with 50 Inch 16AWG Wire. My question is. Would a 25vdc 15A supply do the trick? I also wanna explore that Module you were using with the App. I would need a wifi /Bluetooth board that I can use with my phone. I do not have ZigBee. And don't want Arduino. Was hoping for recommendations from you what I should be purchasing. If there was a way to reach and talk directly on FB or IG or email it would be helpful

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for the explanation! So I have still really not worked with 12 or 24v led strips much so I'm not 100% sure on the best way to get those all up and running. I would recommend watching this video as he is far more technical than I am at this point and has so much great information: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXmZgXiEoraNba8 Hopefully that will help and hopefully at some point down the road I will be able to help with questions like this!

[@atomicdetailsoc]

does this apply to 12v led strips? i thought i you had to cut the positive from the strip before adding power injection because you cannot have two positives? or maybe i misunderstood. is this right?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! This is only for 5v but a lot of what's shown here is very similar on 12v strips. I made a video going over a little bit of a 12v setup: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJPLlXtjprh0hMU