How to Fix LED Flickering and Inject Power

The most common DIY LED problem and how to solve it. Flickering is a Data Signal problem.
Regardless of the Source of the problem a Data Booster is likely to fix it
Get the QuinLED Data Booster:
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LED Troubleshooting Algorithms:
drzzs.com/flickering
drzzs.com/noworky
Data Signal Quality Article:
quinled.info/data-signal-cabl...
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[@johngarofano7356]

Many of your viewers like me are in the KISS category keep it simple stupid,and you nailed ,thank you ,and I love your sense of humor, 😂😂😂 greetings from Australia❤

[@markroles7304]

I miss these short how to videos of yours. They are direct and to the point

[@thesuperknot_]

I have a Dig Uno powering 339 5v pixels on my house. Looking back, I absolutely should have done 12v and not had to worry about power injection. I used slightly thicker wire for power injection to three railroad points on my install, and it works well. I only notice at full white (rare). Most effects don’t use all pixels at 5V. I also used a sacrificial pixel and my flickering disappeared. I did end up buying more Permatrack than I needed but it made the job go so much quicker, so I consider that a sunk cost on my next install. Thanks, doc.

[@scottyanke655]

What worked for me this year - 5v system, a 60a power supply every 3 trees, 2 for the roofline (100 ft), 12awg wire out to each tree (w/fuses, tho none blew), at each tree did a separate power run at every other 50 bulb string, used tasmota controlled power outlets to turn the power supplies on/off (some individual lights just stuck on otherwise) and separate 5v supplies out to each of my WLED controllers at each tree (10a powered at all times) w/20awg wire to each WLED controller (since I'm running 75ft out to each tree). Overall, it worked and drew less power than I expected because I only needed to run each tree at around 20% brightness. With 1200 lights on each tree that was bright enough. Other than one WLED controller being funky (water got in the case) it all went well. Thank you for all the recommendations for power injection. That really helped. Buying enough supplies early (like Oct) also helped. Quick disconnects, terminal blocks, cable by the 200 ft roll, heat shrink connectors, 3,6, 9 & 15ft 3-cond extensions made it all possible.

[@mattnelson1366]

Thanks, very timely video for me and the issues I'm currently facing. I've got way to long of runs from my controller to my first pixel. At least I'm only working with under stair lighting, vs up on the roof. Otherwise I would be kicking myself for not hearing your earlier advice of fully testing things out on the counter, vs wiring it all up and hoping it works and troubleshooting up on ladders!

[@gedgicat2063]

Great video with lots of useful information 👍. When it comes to cutting out the 1st bad pixel could this also be the out of the last good pixel being bad instead of the pixel it goes to?

[@TravelingPerformers]

Finally I found video that explain it so perfect. Thank you ❤❤❤

[@idriveE60]

Thanks man ,I'm about to run 5v strips in v channels on roof line and power inject was concerning so yes home run to dig quad it is then also going to to do bench testing to see when when led dim thank you

[@ronm6585]

Nice! Thank you sir. 👍🏻

[@majorredbeard]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@DrZzs]

Glad it was helpful!

[@mikegatlin1ify]

This was fantastic. I bought the Govee permanent LED lights and have a huge gap to jump (about 30ft). Thanks for the info! Very easy to follow and comprehend!

[@DrZzs]

Glad it was helpful!

[@kolesplace]

Thank You! I got my first set of lights and a controller. Everything worked perfectly but it flickered very bad. My problem was data wire was laying on power wire (on test bench)

[@DerekHolmes]

It was a great summary. It might be worth noting that with 12v the actual power use per LED is higher. So if you have a really large project you will have more power draw at your power supply using 12v than you would with 5v.

[@JonathanRootD]

12v uses lower amps. 5v uses higher amps. Power use should be the same unless there is an efficiency issue with which LEDs you pick.

[@jamiestarr1022]

Hi. Thank you for all your work. Question. The data injection unit shown in this video also has power wires that are connected. Does that mean it is both a data and power injector when it comes out the other side? Or does that data injection board need a power sources to work? Thanks

[@timdaye2018]

Dr. Zzs: Thanks for all these helpful videos. I have a plan to outline my roofline, garage, 2 windows and porch pillars with ws2811 12v bullet LEDs. I am using a DigQuad so I can utilize the 4 channels, the roofline (1), the garage (2), the 2 windows (3) and finally the porch pillars (4). Here is my problem, the run from the controller to the garage will be rather long (somewhere between 35'-40'). If I run power separate from the data cable, how far can the data cable go before it needs a data booster? Is that length of data cable even possible? Can more than one data booster be utilized in the run? Is it ok to bring the 3 cables together into a short xConnector pigtail to go into and out of the data booster? Thanks for your time!

[@boocoo28]

After watching just about every video you posted I decided to I build a 5v LED cloud design with some cotton and a metal frame for my daughters ceiling. My question is how long can the power cable be from the power source to the ESP 8266 before it becomes a problem? I want to try and hide the cable in the corner of the wall with a piece of trim. I am brand new to this DIY thing but im hooked immediately. Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated.

[@wondersteven]

Thanks, very informative, although I am confused about the 33 vs 249 switch on the data booster. When to use which? I'll watch some other KZbin videos to find out.

[@wondersteven]

Ok, just watched a Quindor video that explained 249 vs. 33. thanks.

[@kartunenetwork9232]

Great Video! I'm wondering why for my case, 40 LEDs from my esp32s-3 (WLED), was working fine until i turned it off, then now it flickers. I changed GPIOs and it worked again, until i power cycled it again. Do you know why it does this? (The whole strip flickers, i've also skipped 1st LED).

[@sprinky216]

I have a Dig Quad running two small sections of lights. The first on data one has 98 LEDs. The second section on data 2 has 74 LEDs. The lights on the second data pin will all work for a day or so, after while many of the LEDs will stop. I then cut the non working lights out and it works again. Again after time, same issue.

[@Electronieks]

You solved my problem with wled and ws2811 flickering. A gnd problem it was

[@DrZzs]

I'm glad I could help! Cheers!

[@JIgsaw2120]

So... What does that mean exactly? I don't know why I still don't see it. Am I literally separating the data from the other wires? Just letting it be alone running up?

[@neonpy4345]

saved me! thx

[@DrZzs]

Glad to hear it! Thanks for watching!

[@TooMuch637]

I’m having an issue with WLED resetting non-stop after I attach my power injection wires. Any ideas there?

[@Gyovione]

Great Video, how to fix this on esp32 when installing wled, Connecting...................................... Unexpected error: ESP Chip Auto-Detection failed: Failed to connect to Espressif device: No serial data received. and this under view log, Unexpected error: could not open port 'COM3': PermissionError(13, 'Access is denied.', None, 5) Thanks

[@imdbtruth]

I always plan on power injecting any project over 200 pixels. Power Injection is pretty easy, so I would rather just know for sure that voltage drop isn't going to be an issue. I only use homerun method. I also like to use external capacitors, again because it's easy and I'm OCD about keeping my LEDs fed.

[@davidrc5164]

did using external capacitors really help?

[@imdbtruth]

@@davidrc5164 Yes, it definitely helps.

[@davidrc5164]

@@imdbtruth do you know where I can find a schematic of using capacitors and resistors to use that method

[@bradwalsh305]

Hello. Why would my light flicker. It will be fine for a while Then start in again ?

[@kikola76]

Hi, I would like to know if somebody can help me i installed around 9 segments of govee RGBIC permanent outdoor lights but i am having issues with the last segment it's flickering half of it I'm just wondering if somebody can help me with the power injection how to do it and where to inject it thanks in advance

[@NZStu]

And for newer digquad users flip the dipswitches under the esp32 and then give this comment a thumbs up when it makes things run smoothly

[@JIgsaw2120]

?? I'm starting these things now? What does this mean?

[@JIgsaw2120]

249 to 33??

[@pablomedina5527]

What does this do ?

[@charliez6243]

YOU ARE THE FUCKING MASTER! My lights haven’t worked right for over six months because of the dip switch. Cool feature, but not exactly obvious.

[@Watjalukinat]

Ok, running dumb 12v LEDs in my bathroom. I'm at just over 430leds, so I need power injection. Cant I just add power injection to the end of the strip?

[@DrZzs]

Yes

[@Random-rt5ec]

Warning: Do not use cheap copper clad aluminum wire for power injection. I had a 5 volt 20 foot run of 12 gauge of this cheap wire and the lights blinked uncontrollably. Everything worked fine when I used high quality silicone insulated copper wire.

[@Ove_Bjerknes]

08:00 - 😂😂