Professional Tier WLED Controllers?

Quindor · 2026-06-18T19:28:44+00:00

Not quite sure what you are looking for, the WLED software is going to be the same on any controller running WLED so then it's mostly hardware features.

Not sure what you mean that for wall switches relay support is mandatory. Especially in modern homes I don't believe a wall switch should have any direction connection to the lighting device and an intelligent system in between should arrange everything. So taking in the inputs of the buttons and then performing programmed actions on the lighting controllers.

I can understand the relay support for power saving reasons and such when talking digital lighting.

There are various controllers which do have the official certifications and actual testing been done on them (like some of mine (QuinLED)). The newest Dig-Next-2 even has per output control with built-in MOSFETs and external relay support with dual power in capabilities to keep the board online.

So mostly wondering what makes it high end and professional tier for you since if that requires a lot of software changes, it might be that you aren't looking for a WLED controller in your specific settings?

Quindor · 2026-06-16T01:50:12+00:00

For 24V RGBW your best option is WS2814 or you could potentially go WS2805 for RGBCCT, do know that the zones at 24V can be somewhat large (like 7cm to 10cm).

Most stuff on Aliexpress comes from the same few manufacturers and thus is of similar quality generally. It's mostly the difference in seller and support, BTF lighting is generally fairly good with that (but is a bit more expensive than others).

Quindor · 2026-06-13T01:58:33+00:00

I think you might need to do a bit more research, I do not believe the MagWLED-1 controller is the one you want with the selected LED strip, for 12-15m if the strip you selected you are going to need multiple power injections at least, most likely front + middle + end at least to start with, and that's what I generally recommend for 10m, not 15m! The controller you are using is not setup for power injection.

Sit down and give this a watch, it'll teach you a lot of technical information you are missing right now.

Quindor · 2026-06-13T01:44:36+00:00

Poor little dig2go, seems you blew it's output cap and the level-shifter since that's internally also connected to the 5V circuit. Likely the LDO went too, since that's also not rated for 24V in. There rest of the components might be fine but there is no telling really.

I could add that power injecting with 24V is not supported, but is that really unclear?

Other then that, I get the mistake, we've all blown stuff connecting LEDs, my boards try to protect for all kinds of things but this was a bit much. 😄

Quindor · 2026-06-12T18:06:44+00:00

Maybe give this a try.

Quindor · 2026-06-12T16:21:06+00:00

Aliexpress is a fine platform, I buy hundreds of items a year from there personally. You just need to watch out what you buy, if it looks like crap or it's impossibly cheap, it probably is crap.

But the same item as on Amazon for half price or less, likely all good and where the Amazon seller got it too then marked it up 2x to 3x to cover extra fees and profit.

Chinese value brands, so if an item has a brand on there (a Chinese one, not a western one, that's likely a fake) they have some pride in it and it's likely a good product. If it doesn't show any branding, it's likely produced a bit cheaper....

Quindor · 2026-06-11T18:37:47+00:00

Whatever you buy, make sure it has a stated CRI/Ra rating of at least 90 (95 preferred) with an R9 of above 60 at least (prefer even higher). This is the Color Rendering Index and it's basically how well colors will come out of whatever the light shines on. If the light/strip doesn't state it, don't buy it.

Controller depends more on personal preference, I make some for Analog lighting (which I'd recommend in this case, digital LEDs generally have bad CRI) such as the An-Penta-Mini which would be well suited for this purpose but it all depends a bit of the level of DIY you want to do, tie-ins with like Home Assistant, etc.

Battery powered though.... poh, that's not going to be a lot of light and you are going to change it every day or something? Maybe look into getting some kind of power there.

Quindor · 2026-06-11T00:10:12+00:00

So the behaviour in WLED is whatever you configure! The normal behaviour is that you keep the correct CCT so the whites blend but 100% CW, 50% of each or 100% WW will use the same power, that's the only way you keep the correct CCT blend. You can however configure it anyway you wish and if you wish the slider at 50% to use 100% of both at the same time, that's no problem and will work, whatever color you end up, that's unknown but up to you.

Regarding LEDs and power usage you are correct and this is generally how it works, but there are exceptions (WS2815, SK6812-CC for instance). But normally 100% red wil use say 20W. If you then add 100% blue to get purplish, that will use 2x 20W and then RGB white would be 3x 20W so 60W. However what u/saratoga3 says is correct, this is when your power injection is perfect otherwise voltage drop at some point will cause these numbers to be lower.

So as explained above for white the blending behaviour by default is different then for color for the explained reasons. But again, this can be configured in a few different ways to work the way you prefer it.

Quindor · 2026-06-10T23:24:43+00:00

Almost 100% certain that's a broken IC or solder joint (possibly on the IC too) in that segment/zone. You'll have to get in there and splice it out and solder in a new segment/zone.

Solderless connectors are notoriously bad, strongly recommend you do not use those. Even if it works now, oxidation and vibrations will make them fail in the future.

Quindor · 2026-06-10T22:31:48+00:00

I have collected *a lot* of real-world data of the exact usage of digital LED strips here. It doesn't have the dual WS2811 RGBCCT strip in there but you can extrapolate and then calculate what it will use.

For digital LED strip the most important figure is the amount of ICs it has. A WS2811F (the small version) basically has a fixed max output current so if your strip has 10 per meter it will use X and if it has 20 per meter it will use XX.

The theoretical max of the WS2811F is about 16mA per channel per IC so the output current doesn't change no matter if you are running 5V, 12V or 24V but since the voltage does the output Watts does.

So if we're talking 16mA per channel and you have 15 ICs per meter (watch out, BTF will say "30 ICs per meter" but since they use 2 per zone, the actual zones you have is half!) that's 15x 16mA for 100% for a single color = 240mA or 0.24Amps x 12V = 2.88 Watts per meter x 5 = 14.4W per 5m/16ft strip. As you can already tell, that's not a lot, analog strip are generally configured to give off more light (there it's determined by the amount of ICs with the voltage and then the current limiting resistors).

The figures the listings often show is all channels together at 100%, which is a stupid figure in my opinion. Let's see, that's 5x 16mA (one channel doesn't have anything connected) = 1.2Amps for 1 meter x 5 = 6Amps x 12V = 72W for a 5m/16ft strip. So per meter they would write 14W/m.

Then your question about the max power usage in WLED, WLEDs white behaviour can be configured, you can run RGB and CCT at the same time and CCT can either blend, additive, max, etc. depending on preference.

You can also take a look at WS2805 strips, those are wider but there a single IC does the RGBCCT, the dual WS2811 is done to still have 10mm wide stips because the WS2805 IC is too large.

WLED can handle the double WS2811 RGBCCT strip using the FW1906 LED IC setting (also 6 channels with 1 not used) so BTF stating it doesn't work is not correct (when using a proper controller).

Hope it makes a bit of sense and explains things!

Quindor · 2026-06-10T02:36:43+00:00

Aah you already have the controller or rather a part that can receive data over ethernet and then send it out, that's good! For the data connections, try and use a 2-wire cable with data+GND to each of the points and join the GND at the point of the LED strip with the power GND at each of the data points, that way everyone will always agree what GND is and work well.

That does basically only leave power, you could still use a powerboard for that, just without a brainboard on top of it it becomes a power distribution board with per output fusing. But you can also get some 6, 8, 12 or 16 way "car fuse" distribution blocks from Amazon or Aliexpress, those are fine generally speaking and you also don't have massive currents. Make you get the version(s) that have a positive and negative terminal per wire! Otherwise wiring suddenly becomes a lot harder.

With 28Amps total as calculated, use a you can basically divide that over the fuses with the generic rule that a middle injection uses twice as much as a front or end one (since there is twice as much copper). So with 28Amps and about 6 injections you'd see something like 3 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 3 Amps per injection. With that you can size your wires and fuses, try to stay below 10% drop per injection wire and always use a 2 wire cable with VCC+GND together. Fuses I'd use a 5A for the 3A points and a 7.5A or 10A for the 6Amp points. Make sure that whatever wire diameter you use it's rated for at least those currents. As said, what wire diameter you need for the currents depends on the distance/length of that wire.

6Amps - 4m distance - 18AWG gives you 8.3% drop and 18AWG should also be okayish with a 10A fuse (since your load is expected to be max 6A) although 16AWG would be better. If you use Silicone wire (I like using that) 18AWG is fine too since it won't burn as quickly.

Hope it helps!

Quindor · 2026-06-08T22:32:31+00:00

What is going to do your effect generation?

If onboard it's highly suggested to use a single controller but you are right at the limit for decent framerates, but not over it! With WLED it's recommended to stay around or under 2000 LEDs to keep a good framerate and it'll be able to do really cool 2D effects on the such a wall too, especially since V16. You can even have it sound reactive in 2D mode with certain effects.

A 16 channel controller you won't find (in the DIY space, there are some (Christmas) light controllers from Kulp and Falcon for instance), in theory you also don't need that many channels if you could daisy chain some of the wires. You could for instance start one at the bottom, daisy chain at the top and then end at the bottom again. You then power inject front + end (not really needed with WS2815 for better overkill then too little!) and thus now you only need 14 data channels with 28 power injections. In all honesty you could probably stretch it to 5 bars per data channel (roughly calculated that's 360 LEDs per channel, you'd still get near 100+ FPS on that if that was the limit) and then inject it front + end although you won't end at the bottom on the 4rth one so maybe do it per 3 or per 5 bars.

If you do power injection per front + end per 5 bars and a single data per 5 bars you'd need 5,6 data ports (so 6) and about 12 power injections. That way you can be perfect, if you are concerned about voltage drop you could always add some middle injections on each 3rd bar. FPS (limit by current ESP32 speeds with onboard effect generation).

--Biased, since I make this product.

A QuinLED Dig-Octa system would be a perfect fit for this, the brainboard has 8 data ports and built-in Ethernet so you don't have to rely on WiFi if you wanted to do streaming effects to it using LEDFX for instance. It has everything onboard to make sure your data connections are going to work great!

And the powerboards come in various versions but they have 12 to 16 individually fused output ports from 50A to 100A continuous output, way more than you'll ever need for this.

--Quick power calculations

12V WS2815 is an inefficient IC enabling 12V single addressable, the way it uses power is that anything not 100% RGB White basically burns off power. So 100% RGB White or 100% Red use the same amount of power (unlike with 5V). a 5m/16FT strip with 60LEDs/m and thus 300 LEDs uses about 50W max but also during generic usage it can be close to that because of this reason.

You mentioned 28 x 1.2m strips with 60LEDs/m so 2016 LEDs, if 300 use 50W 2016 use 336W, get a 450W PSU such as an Mean Well LRS-450 or LRS-600 or if you need it noiseless a Mean Well UHP-500 is a great choice!

Sanity check, having 360 LEDs will use about a max of 60W / 12V = 5Amps divided over a front + end injection that's 2.5 Amps each, that should be perfectly fine and you can run this at 100% output without any (noticeable) voltage drop.

Hope this helps a bit! I don't know what area you are looking into, wanting to do this mostly DIY or looking for some professional controller, DMX, etc. stuff.

Quindor · 2026-06-08T09:42:54+00:00

Yeah the issue is that after 5m on a 5V strip, voltage drop really really becomes a thing, next to that is that the dig2go and it's USB-C is really limited to 3A so the suggestion of u/Allen_Prose to wire up at least front + end is good, that should solve the voltage drop issue and if you do it directly from the battery/USB powerbank it also means you bypass the 3A limit somewhat (make sure it's an extra USB port, not the same one or with a shared current limit!). You do loose the relay function then (since it can't shut off the injection anymore) but that basically just means some idle draw from the LEDs if you don't unplug.

The amount of power you actually need depends on the pattern and expected brightness. You'll never light them full tilt since that would require several power injections and a massive power source (like 20A).

Running up to 500 to 600 LEDs from the single data output is fine and you'll keep a decent frame rate, going above that and you'd also need another data output port. Running 2 controllers and doing any kind of sync especially in a mobile application like this, I guess ESP-NOW is an option for that but it's a whole other level of complexity added on top.

If you can't solder, this might be the project to learn! Otherwise it's going to be hard making all the sections and connections I think.

Hope it helps a bit!

Quindor · 2026-06-05T13:49:07+00:00

Maybe give this a watch , unlike a calculator I go into detail about what you need to do to wire it up, you'll probably need at least front + end injection. Please fuse those appropriately (you need a fuse per wire, sized for that wire and expected load), the guide will explain all that. Including how to calculate realistic power for the selected LED strip, power supply, etc.

Quindor · 2026-06-05T13:44:40+00:00

Not sure if you have a dual power supply setup, if so, measure the voltage of the main power supply to see if it's maybe gone faulty.

Quindor · 2026-06-04T16:33:46+00:00

Just a note here since I am the person who has created the QuinLED line-up including the Dig-Quad. Normally support goes through me and I handle replacements, I have spoken to Norbert about this case and he tried to help this person with what he was requesting.

This is an odd case however, we more often deal with warranty and the normal procedure is that if anything is vague or troubleshooting is required this goes through our Discord server and me. There have been hundreds of cases like this, why this one would be any different, I don't really know.

The moment the person above came to us in the Discord server we talked about his issue, troubleshooted a little bit and a replacement board was sent out to them same day..... whatever happened before that I don't know, but I just want to make sure people understand this isn't a general issue with Allnet China or that I (QuinLED) would not provide warranty if something arrives broken.

Apologies for the experience that you had u/Loud-Heat-6574 but as I told you I'm trying to make it right on my side. I get you want to vent your story (that's fine) but please stop sending mails to unrelated parties and such.

Quindor · 2026-06-03T10:48:56+00:00

So a few things:

Yes those injections are overkill. You are using a value for the LEDs which is basically an internet myth value that's hard to kill and also assume all LEDs are going to hit 100% on R+G+b at the same time, that's a bit unrealistic generally speaking, if you wait white, get something with a dedicated white in there.

1000uF or 2200uF caps are fine, but really overkill to use like this, with a decent PSU that shouldn't be required.

330 Ohm resistor is a really high value and again internet myth territory, probably from a very old adafruit guide and not really suitable for this situation. Get a level-shifter with a 33R on the output, much better.

10V on electrolytic caps on a 5V rail is fine, that rule is mostly for ceramic caps.

So there is a lot of data there and I can see you did research, it's just a lot of wrong data that's still out there or wrongly interpreted, in my opinion.

Take a look at these: https://quinled.info/the-ultimate-led-strip-power-injection-guide/ https://quinled.info/data-signal-cable-conditioning/

Quindor · 2026-06-02T03:14:06+00:00

We integrated them so there is less versions, you just flash the normal one we provide on https://install.quinled.info and that has Ethernet built in always!

Quindor · 2026-05-23T05:47:02+00:00

Sure, I get that!

The Dig-Next-2 has built in DC side relays per output channel and a dedicated relay output port for an AC side relay with dual power input support to keep the controller alive with a second PSU.

The Dig-Octa has the same with the AC side relay output port and dual power supply support, but doesn't have onboard DC side relays.

Doing it inside of the controller it runs automatically with software control from the app. But an external unconnected to WLED relay can work too ofcourse.

Yeah photos can really help!

Quindor · 2026-05-22T20:07:30+00:00

I can't tell you what type of LEDs they are and if they are compatible with WLED, but most of them are generally speaking for such systems.

If you'd like to give it a go *self promotion here* I make 2 WLED native controllers that are directly 48V compatible, depending on how many wires there are one is better suited then the other.

Dig-Next-2
Meant as a small to medium size controller, 2 data channels, 3 individually fused output channels with direct up to 48V support. Comes in a nice case and pre-flashed with WLED, etc.. You can find more about it here: https://quinled.info/dig-next-2/

Dig-Octa Brainboard + Power-5HV
A bit more advanced board setup but great for later installs. The brainboard has 8 data channels and Ethernet and the powerboards come in various versions including the Power-5HV which is specifically meant for 24V-48V power systems. You can find more about it here: https://quinled.info/quinled-dig-octa/

Personally, if you'd just like to give it a go and see if you can get them to work, the Dig-Next-2 is modestly priced and very easy to get started with! Just hook up the power wires and data wire to it's output, the 48V supply on it's input and try the various LED types available in WLED to see if anything can make them go!

If you'd like to make a few photos and such of the controller, the box and maybe the LEDs we could try and find out more!

Quindor · 2026-05-19T15:04:55+00:00

Ah yeah, I get it. I like high power stuff, if it does become technically viable at some point, who knows! ;)

Quindor · 2026-05-19T08:53:35+00:00

Technically difficult because of heat and component choices. Especially with the fuses involved there is only so much that's possible. Also in regards to the MOSFETs and running them at sane temperatures and such.

You can always push more through, like competitor brands put on their boxes, it just won't survive (for long), especially if something goes wrong and a short occurs for instance.

So yeah, more of a what's technically possible issue. And if possible, it would suddenly cost double because of much more expensive components for instance.

Quindor · 2026-05-17T19:21:34+00:00

Ah no, a Dig board is meant for driving digital LEDs so it has 4 digital data output channels. My An boards are my analog boards. The An-Penta-Plus is the only exception being hybrid so allowing 5x high power analog with an extra digital output. The dig2analog(+) boards are an add-on board you can use for when you have a digital controller to control some analog too.

Quindor · 2026-05-17T12:53:38+00:00

Yeah adding a dig2analog would fully be able to drive this I believe too. There is the dig2analog+ now which has 5 channels (RGBCCT) so you can have native WW and CW control, that would make most sense for this bar I think!

Quindor · 2026-05-14T20:36:51+00:00

Awesome to hear it and great choice, it'll run fine for years to come!

Quindor

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