I’m making some wearables (jacket, cape) and want to save some money by bulk ordering LED’s. In the past I’ve purchased 5V BTF WS2812B’s pebble lights from Amazon with 4 inch pitch. I’m looking for 2 inch/50mm pitch and 1 inch/25 mm, potentially smaller. I know Ray Wu’s store is recommended, but the lowest it goes is 50mm. But I see plenty of 2811’s with lower pitch. Any recommendations for other suppliers, or should I roll with 2811’s?
I got 25mm pitch from Ray Wu, but the listing was hard to find. Here you go: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005005482945067.html?spm=a2g0s.imconversation.0.0.1e233e5fLRYDEP&gatewayAdapt=4itemAdapt
(I’m also going to plug my blog post about the current state of my jacket. See you on the Playa?)
I actually referenced your blog post when I made my first coat awhile back, so it’s already been very helpful for me!
Since you linked 2811’s - I’m not an expert on the hardware side, but is there any issues with 2811’s vs. 2812’s? My understanding was you don’t get as much control with 2811’s as it controls a trio of LED’s, so I’ve always gone with 2812s.
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Are they 2811s? Each pearl is individually addressable and they’re working great for me with PixelBlaze.
The listing says 2811, but I think they are 2812’s
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Pretty sure that’s just an oops or keyword marketing.
At 5V, which these seem to be, there’s not much difference anyway. A WS2812 is basically the WS2811 chip inside the same package as an RGB LED. At 12V or higher, its common to drive multiple LEDs with a single WS2811, acting as a single pixel, but there are single LED 12V ws2811 systems they just waste more power as heat. Newer 12V single LED addressables like WS2815 and GS8208 do some tricks and can run any combination of R + G + B in series for more efficiency, but any unused power from “off” LEDs still gets wasted as heat.
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