Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS2812 (

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J_adafruit
 
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Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS2812 (

Post by J_adafruit »

Is it possible to connect several strips of WS2812 (WS2812B) LEDs in parallel (see diagram below).
If so, is it still possible to individually program the LEDs or will each strip be limited to a single color?
LAYOUT LED - PARALLEL.png
LAYOUT LED - PARALLEL.png (11.62 KiB) Viewed 5292 times

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

You can connect them in parallel like that. A fan-out of 2 or 3 is usually no problem. If you have too many more, you may need to add some buffering for the signal.

To you software it will appear as a single strip. You can still address the individual pixels on the strip. And all of the strips will display the same pattern.

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by J_adafruit »

Thank you for your feedback.

Allow me to rephrase your explanation in order to confirm my understanding. In the case of the diagram I provided, it is possible to address each of the three pixels on a single strip and the remaining two strips would display the same pattern. However, it is not possible to individually address the nine pixels.

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

it is possible to address each of the three pixels on a single strip and the remaining two strips would display the same pattern. However, it is not possible to individually address the nine pixels.
That is correct. Since all three strips are seeing the same control signal, they will all behave the same way.

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by J_adafruit »

Again, thank you very much for your feedback.

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by kredal »

If you wanted to fan out more, (say you wanted 9 strips all showing the same data) fan it into 3 strips that consist of a single LED, then fan each of those into 3 strips that are installed where you want them. In any displays you make, skip the first led (leds[0]). Because each LED segment has a signal booster included, it can bump up the signal to a few more strips. If you needed to go further, you can just repeat the fanning over a bunch of LEDs. Keep in mind that each strip still takes the same amount of power, and that's going to be your limiting factor, most likely!

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by J_adafruit »

kredal wrote:If you wanted to fan out more, (say you wanted 9 strips all showing the same data) fan it into 3 strips that consist of a single LED, then fan each of those into 3 strips that are installed where you want them. In any displays you make, skip the first led (leds[0]). Because each LED segment has a signal booster included, it can bump up the signal to a few more strips. If you needed to go further, you can just repeat the fanning over a bunch of LEDs. Keep in mind that each strip still takes the same amount of power, and that's going to be your limiting factor, most likely!
Thank you for your input.

In actuality, due to the manner in which my strips of LEDs are situated (nonadjacent), I wanted to minimize wire and was hoping that the strips could be connected in parallel as indicated in my diagram while retaining the ability to address each of the LEDs. Unfortunately, I have confirmed that this is not possible.

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by kredal »

Yup, you'll have to run a separate signal wire back to the signal source for each strip in order to control them all separately.

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

You can always set them up as 3 separate strips connected to different pins. That would give you the ability to address each pixel of each strip independently.

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by J_adafruit »

kredal wrote:Yup, you'll have to run a separate signal wire back to the signal source for each strip in order to control them all separately.
Thanks again.
adafruit_support_bill wrote:You can always set them up as 3 separate strips connected to different pins. That would give you the ability to address each pixel of each strip independently.
Unfortunately my application (multirotor flight controller) only provides a single pin for the LED signal.

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Re: Technical Inquiry: Parallel Connection of Strips of WS28

Post by RobMcKeown »

kredal wrote:If you wanted to fan out more, (say you wanted 9 strips all showing the same data) fan it into 3 strips that consist of a single LED, then fan each of those into 3 strips that are installed where you want them. In any displays you make, skip the first led (leds[0]). Because each LED segment has a signal booster included, it can bump up the signal to a few more strips. If you needed to go further, you can just repeat the fanning over a bunch of LEDs. Keep in mind that each strip still takes the same amount of power, and that's going to be your limiting factor, most likely!
Hello, rookie here. Wondering if I could parrot this back to you to see if I understand you correctly.

I'll speak in terms of my situation if that's alright, using single module WS2812B's in parallel to make clusters(all responding to one data signal), then wiring the clusters in a data chain.

In each cluster:

- A single power wire comes from power source/previous cluster.
- Wire the Vin & Vout pinsof all LEDs in parallel.
- A single power wire continues to next cluster

- A single data wire comes from the arduino/previous cluster.
- Wire all the Din pins in parallel
- Only wire out of one DataOut pin; which continues to next cluster.

Is this what you mean? And if so, what would be the limit of the cluster size before the data is spread too thin.

Thank you!

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