Hello Community,
I am trying to connect a LED light strip to my Pi 4b as I would like to use the WS281X LED Status plugin in octoprint.
The wiring instruction mention connecting the Blue wire to the GPIO pin on the pi. In the strip I purchased, there is no blue wire. There are a total of 5 wires coming out of the end. A red and white (assuming these are the power leads, extra?). There is also a connector that has a red, white and green wire. Can anyone help me with deciphering how to connect this strip to the pi using the wiring instructions? I was going to go with the no level shifting approach.
After researching other strip, I believe I can use the green wire as the data/signal wire and use it in place of the blue wire in the instructions? I could then use either set of the red/white wires for power, but I would just use the pair that is combined with the connector. Thoughts?
A pic of the end of the LED is below.
Thank you so much for the help!!!
The two white wires are connected internally, as are the two red wires. It is best not to power the LEDs from the Pi; use a separate 5V power supply and connect that to the "loose" red and white wires (white to ground, red to 5V). Connect both the white and the green wire on the connector to the Pi (white to ground, green to the GPIO pin you need).
It is important that the external power supply and the Pi share a common ground.
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Thank you. Yes, I have a separate 5v power supply to power the leds. I forgot to Point that out.
Thank you for the reply. Based on your suggestion, I will not use the red wire that is part of the 3-wire bundle, correct?
That is correct. It would probably not destroy your Pi if you connect that line to the 5V pin on the Pi as long as the two powersupplies share their ground-lines, but why take the risk?
Great. I tried to connect it today with just the power and no leds came on. I hope it’s because there is no signal coming from the pi yet. More to come
That's expected, with no signal nothing happens.
