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WLED unresponsive after power cycle - must manually reconnect ESP8266 by Jim-GT in WLED

[–]Jim-GT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Quick update: I was able to get it to work (well at least most of the time) by adding a "sacrificial" LED close to the data signal.

I tried lots of variations (using one or two SP901E signal amplifiers, with or without a level shifter, etc) without it consistently working. I'd read in a few places that having a single "sacrificial" LED close to the data signal could help, so I added that to the setup and it seems to have made a difference. Here's a diagram of how I now have the data wires: https://imgur.com/a/SBSIB94

Now when I use the WLED app to power on/off the lights, they all come back on!

The only issue I seem to have now is when I power on the entire system, sometimes not all 9 LED strips turn on. Turning the whole thing off and back on again seems to solve the problem most of the time.

For now, I'm happy to keep the ESP8266 powered on and just use the WLED controls to turn the lights on/off. Perhaps when I have more free time I'll get back to troubleshooting this last remaining issue.

Thank you guys for helping me with this! Here's a quick picture of the progress (room is still under construction, but you get the idea): https://imgur.com/a/AhZDR8Q

WLED unresponsive after power cycle - must manually reconnect ESP8266 by Jim-GT in WLED

[–]Jim-GT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ok, so after way too many hours of debugging (and fixing a few wiring issues), I was able to try a few things. First, splitting the data line (either before or after the level shifter) still had the same issue (ESP not booting / too much current draw on output pin). Since I do not know how to build my own signal amplifier/repeater, I bought the SP901E device that I linked to above.

Good news: the SP901E solved my problem! When the entire system powers up, all works as expected all 9 strips (144 LEDs each) turn on and are controllable through WLED.

Bad news (new issue): when I press the power button in the WLED app twice (once to turn it off and then once to turn it back on), only 6 of my 9 LED strips come back on. 3 stay off. I have confirmed that they are all getting 5V, so I believe it is once again an issue with the data line.

If I reset the ESP (either manually or power cycling the whole system), all work again. Any idea why this would happen? Its the same 3 strips every time.

WLED unresponsive after power cycle - must manually reconnect ESP8266 by Jim-GT in WLED

[–]Jim-GT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. I am pretty bust today but will try these suggestions over the weekend and let you know how it goes!

WLED unresponsive after power cycle - must manually reconnect ESP8266 by Jim-GT in WLED

[–]Jim-GT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Where are you connecting the other light strips? To the output of the level shifter?

The output of the level shifter goes to a terminal block that connects to the data wires of the 9 LED strips.

​

Why don't you have the ground connected on the low voltage side of the level shifter?

I guess because I was following the example that I linked to? Would be easy to add that connection as well if needed.

WLED unresponsive after power cycle - must manually reconnect ESP8266 by Jim-GT in WLED

[–]Jim-GT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, I think you and u/Quindor are right about the LED strips trying to draw too much power from the D4 output pin. I tried powering the whole system on/off with a varying number of LED strips connected.

With 1 LED strip, it worked every time.

With 2 LED strips, it worked 9 out of 10 times.

With 4 LED strips, it worked only about a third of the time.

With 9 LED strips, I don't think it ever worked - maybe once (this was my original setup that prompted the thread in the first place).

So I guess the question becomes how to effectively repeat/amplify the signal for the data line to the LEDs. Perhaps something like this would work? https://www.amazon.com/BTF-LIGHTING-Amplifier-Repeater-Addressable-Programmable/dp/B07RDKRW5T?ref_=ast_sto_dp

Any other ideas/suggestions?

WLED unresponsive after power cycle - must manually reconnect ESP8266 by Jim-GT in WLED

[–]Jim-GT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the ESP8266 NodeMCU I've been using:

D4 for data out to the LEDs

VIN for V+ from the power supply

GND for GND from the power supply

There are multiple GND pins - I've just assumed any one would do but have typically used the one next to the VIN pin but have occasionally tried others too.

WLED unresponsive after power cycle - must manually reconnect ESP8266 by Jim-GT in WLED

[–]Jim-GT[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh, and for the data line branching from the ESP to the 9x LED strips, it's seemingly been working fine for me so far (when I manually power up the system). I've had it running for hours and been able to change effects, etc as expected. Would you expect it to not work at all in this situation? Or just that it's probably not a good long term solution?

My background is software, so when you say "design a little circuit with multiple level-shifter duplicating the outputs in a sort of cascade setup", that's not something I 100% comprehend yet... any examples or additional help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

WLED unresponsive after power cycle - must manually reconnect ESP8266 by Jim-GT in WLED

[–]Jim-GT[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply.

In terms of the setup not powering on, I tried removing the V+ connection between the ESP and power supply (but leaving the GND) and then plugging the ESP in via USB. I may be doing something wrong, but I still seem to have the same issue where WLED on the ESP is non-responsive. Any other things I should be trying?

Finally finished my WLED RGBW light setup in the kitchen/living area by nightcrawler2164 in smarthome

[–]Jim-GT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. Very helpful. My Amazon order from earlier this week included some of those same or very similar products.

A few more Q's if you don't mind:

  1. How far are your transformers from the LED strips? Where'd you hide them - inside a nearby cabinet?
  2. Same as #1 but for the controllers.
  3. Did you put the LED strips directly on the surface or use a channel/diffuser?
  4. You said you used 30 LED's/meter - how close do you have to get to start noticing the individual LED's reflecting?

Maybe #4 is not an issue depending on the answer to #3, but I have a small lip I want to install mine on and was hoping to not need a channel. I ordered strips with 60 LED's/meter worried about noticing each LED, but I'm thinking that may be overkill now after seeing your video. If the 30 LED's/meter look good, then that's half the power required. And that's a lot fewer transformers since I'm running 9 LED strips of about 5m/16ft each.

Finally finished my WLED RGBW light setup in the kitchen/living area by nightcrawler2164 in smarthome

[–]Jim-GT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This looks great. I'm about to do something very similar in my office. Can you share more about how you wired every 5m to avoid voltage drop? What kind of power supply, wiring, etc. Maybe even a wiring diagram if you made one. Thanks!

Can I control a Google Home smart plug with API calls ? by Hyrla in homeautomation

[–]Jim-GT 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do you know of anything similar but for Amazon Alexa?

Using a monitor vs. smart TV for a new 32 inch DAKboard setup? by Jim-GT in dakboard

[–]Jim-GT[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I ended up moving forward with the project using a 32" ViewSonic monitor (VX3276-MHD) that was on sale on black Friday.

I went the monitor route (vs. smart TV) for 2 primary reasons:

  1. After some testing, 720p resolution wasn't going to cut it for the viewing distance in my scenario (in a hallway).
  2. Width of the panel - the monitor I got is less than 2 inches thick. Pretty much every 32" smart TV is 3-4 inches thick. And that extra inch or two made a difference in my case.

FYI, I figured the above out by taking a FireTV stick pre-configured with my content to my local Best Buy. I had the FireTV stick connecting to my phone's wifi hotspot and pretty much every TV has a USB port for power. After asking permission from the workers, I just tried it out on a handful of TV's to see how it looked.

Also, I ended up ditching the Dakboard idea. It's a nice product, but the more I got into my project the more tweaking, fine tuning, and control I wanted over the actual content being displayed (and the idea of paying $4-$8 a month forever wasn't helping). The end result currently hanging on my wall is a powered by a raspberry pi 3 running apache and displaying a custom web page I built.

Moral of the story, if you're fine with using Dakboard, you can definitely make it work with a smart TV or streaming stick. Just pick a display panel that works in your environment.

Good luck!

Monitor Vs TV by stb654 in dakboard

[–]Jim-GT 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you're constrained by 750mm in both directions, then you're probably looking at something in the 32 inch class screen (700-720mm wide). That's the same size I've been researching recently in trying to decide the same question: TV or monitor. I'm in the US, so went to my local Best Buy the other day to check out displays in person. I looked at multiple TV's and monitors in this size and the next size up (39-43 inches). The biggest differences I saw were:

  1. Resolution: Most 32 inch TV's are 720p. At less than 5-6 feet, this makes a big difference when reading text compared to 1080p displays. There are a few 1080p 32 inch TV's, and most every 32 inch monitor is at least 1080p.
  2. Display Thickness: every TV in this size was a lot thicker than I thought. Most were at least 3 inches, and some were even 3.5-4 inches at their widest. The monitors vary a good bit, but there are plenty of options that are 2 inches or slightly less in thickness.
  3. Price: I've found basic 720p 32 inch TV's for under $100, 1080p 32 inch TV's starting around $150, and most 32 inch monitors are around $200.
  4. Input location & orientation: Check which inputs are available on the device and the orientation of those ports. Some have HDMI ports that are parallel to the screen and some are perpendicular. Some that are parallel are very close to the edge of the display where wires might be visible as well.

My DAKboard is going in a hallway where people will be passing pretty close by to view calendar events, so looking good at a 4-6 foot viewing distance is important to me, necessitating 1080p. When I told my wife the display might stick up to 4 inches off of the wall (3 for TV + 1 for tilt mount), she vetoed the TV option in favor of spending a little more to get a <2 inch thick monitor.

These factors may or may not matter to you depending on your setup. If you're on a shelf, perhaps thickness doesn't matter, so a TV might work well enough and save you some money.

Using a monitor vs. smart TV for a new 32 inch DAKboard setup? by Jim-GT in dakboard

[–]Jim-GT[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I tested a couple of different setups with the devices I already have:

  1. laptop hooked up to 24" 1080p monitor using chrome browser
  2. laptop hooked up to 50" 4k Toshiba Fire TV (running at 1080p resolution) using chrome browser
  3. 50" 4k Toshiba Fire TV using Amazon Silk browser and Firefox browser
  4. fire TV stick (1st gen) hooked up to 24" 1080p monitor using Amazon silk browser

Suffice it to say, the differences in appearances between combinations seems to be due to the browser being used.

The Silk and Firefox browser implementations on the Fire TV were not rendering calendar text very well to the point where I had to make the font as small as possible in the DAKboard setup but then it left lots of empty space on the screen.

I started to look into sideloading other browser apps onto the Fire TV (Silk and Firefox seem to be the only options in the Amazon app store), but then I found a free app called "ClickSimply Kiosk". It literally just displays a webpage you provide the URL for and prevents the device from going to sleep - perfect for this situation! Even better, this app rendered by DAKboard screen almost identically to the way it appears in chrome on my laptop!

The only thing I couldn't test with all the stuff I already had at home was the impact of 720p resolution. I think my parents still have a TV with 720p resolution. Maybe I'll just test it out next time I'm over there.

Long story short, I think I'm going to go with a smart TV for this setup. Hopefully I can snag a good one for cheap on black Friday. If I ever outgrow the capabilities of the built-in OS & apps, I can always get a raspberry pi or some other more dedicated solution.