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Alicia Hintze photo
Nepal, Kathmandu
1 Level
449 Review
0 Karma

Review on πŸ’‘ WESIRI WS2811 Diffused Digital RGB LED Pixel Lights with Black Wire - Individually Addressable Round DIY LED Pixels Module - IP68 Waterproof - DC5V - Set of 50pcs by Alicia Hintze

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Big, fat and weird. Good for experimenting, bad for installing

I bought them mainly for experimenting with Arduino and they are really very good for that. But for a full install, they probably aren't the best. Let's start with the current situation. Of course not included. You need a 5V power supply with at least 3A to run the whole circuit at full brightness. However, I've found that they actually run from a USB port with low power consumption. I have a 0.1 volt drop across the string. This might be high enough to cause the colors to shift across the strip. The ribbon usefully includes extra pigtails at each end, so you can supply extra power at either end if that bothers you. However, those extra wires are pre-stripped and hanging loose, which is a recipe for shorting out your power supply. . It also makes the first and last bulbs messy - they have 8 separate wires! I recommend cutting these extra power lines and gluing them if you don't intend to use them. Speaking of cables anyway, there's a standard 3-pin connector on each end in addition to the power inputs. , which allows you to link them together. They contain a pigtail connector that connects to the female end of the string. This may be the only clue as to which end is the beginning of the string. Once you've found this, examine the transparent case carefully to read the silkscreen markings on the circuit board inside. This will tell you which wire is positive (5V), which is negative (GND) and the other (DI) signal. At least for me that meant the wire with the stripe on it was GROUND. The length of the chain of 50 LEDs is only 3.5 m - between the lamps there are only approx. 6 cm. Each lamp is approx. 11 mm thick and 38 cm high. You are plump! Each lamp has a couple of wedge shaped things on the outside that help them hook into the inside of the appropriately sized hole. That's good, but again - each hole should be less than 6 cm from the previous one! Finally, there's obviously no controller, so they don't do anything until you provide one. Use the arguments "NEO_RGB + NEO_KHZ800" for the Adafruit NeoPixel library. They can even be easily controlled by ATTINY-based DigiSpark boards. Just connect 5V and GND together (don't use VIN) and choose a port to connect to the string's DI line.

Pros
  • Decent performance
Cons
  • Functionality