Anything special required to drive SK9822 strips?

Troubleshooting
1

Hi there!

I’m getting ready to install a bunch of LED strips under the handrail of my deck. I am having issues getting a single SK9822 strip to work correctly with PixelBlaze.

Is there anything special that I need to do to configure PixelBlaze to drive these LEDs? I’ve gone through several different settings, and am seeing massive amounts of flickering and randomness that doesn’t resemble any of the effects that are activated. I’ve even put out a single color, and it just flickers randomly with different colors and intensities.

I thought maybe I had the clock and data lines reversed, so I swapped them, but that didn’t seem to do anything.

This is a 5m strip w/ 30LED/m, so a total of 150 LEDs. I’m using an external 5Vdc power source that has sufficient power to power the strip.

Thank you!

2

Hi @kavefish,
No, those should work just fine. PB defaults to that LED type as well. Can you send a screen shot of your settings page, and a photo of your PB -> LED connections?

3

Hi! I figured out my problem. I was using a USB charger to power the PixelBlaze, and a separate 5V power supply to drive the LEDs. Once I powered the PixelBlaze off of the big power supply, it just worked perfectly! I overlooked that the DATA/CLOCK lines needed a reference voltage. Oops :slight_smile:

So that leads me to another question… I would like PixelBlaze to stay powered along with another ESP-powered device that’s tied to Home Assistant (my home automation platform), and only turn the big 5V power supply on when I want the lights to be on. It has fans and consumes a good bit of power on standby.

Electrically, do you think there would be any issue if I tied the two power source negatives together? I am not certain if any current would circulate between the two power supplies and cause any problems, unless there’s a potential path for current to flow through the data and clock lines. I’m not too worried about damaging the expensive, large power supply, but I don’t want to damage any of the strips.

Thanks!

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4

Hi @kavefish
Thats exactly what you need to do. :+1:

As long as there isn’t a return path (e.g. don’t connect the positives), you should be fine.

5

Awesome, thanks @wizard! Looking forward to getting this project completed. Should start installation next week. Having a new deck built, and the installers are going to mount SK9822 strips under the entire length of the railing. Should be nice, and having a PixelBlaze will make it look sweet!

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