Controller freezing/power questions

Troubleshooting
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1

Hello hivemind!

Working on a cosplay project, and need some assistance.

Components: Pixelblaze V3 Standard with sensor board, 4 meters of ws2812b LED strips at 144 pix/m (576 total pixels), USB C female port to DC wire, usb C cable, 5v battery bank.

Configuration: LED strips in series with power (via USB C port to DC) connected at start and halfway point, controller getting power from LED connection (not direct USB).

Troubles: While LEDs are capped at 50% brightness and the majority of LEDs are full white, the pattern will freeze and controller will not respond to web commands

Work arounds: At 25% cap, it seems to be fairly reliable, but I would like to be able to go brighter for stage lighting. I also plan on adding an LED killswitch to make it so I can power just the controller in the event I get stuck on a too bright pattern.

Next steps: Inject power at end of LED strip, swap USB to DC with something with higher amp rating, check max amp output of battery pack, if nothing works, cry.

Would love any assistance!

2

You probably don’t need injection at the end unless you see it going reddish on full white (but it wouldn’t hurt if you can).

Your battery bank can’t handle it. USB A only ever gives out 10W. When you’re all white, the voltage drops low enough to reset the PB (or the bank trips overcurrent protection, same problem).

You can try a couple things, depending on your risk tolerance and confidence with power supplies.
A) use 18650s that won’t have a current limit.
B) separate your strip into multiple power domains and use multiple battery banks (or a bank with several USB ports, or a combo)
C) use a PD power pack and from there
a - convert all your leds to 12V and use a PD dummy to request 12V from the battery pack

b - use a 5V 3+A buck and use a 12/15/20V dummy on the battery pack.

Good luck!