LED strip does not turn on

[strudelkopf]

Hi there,

first of all thank you people at nootropic design for this really cool product and your amazing short shipping time 🙂

Sadly I can’t get my lumazoid to work so far. I haven’t bought a bundle since I can’t use the US power supply (or plug) and at the moment I don’t have a 5V supply with 2A.

I have a WS2812B 60 LED strip which I have used before with a Arduino nano clone. My connection was the following: 5V power supply to + and – on the LED strip, and common ground with the arduino. Data pin of the arduino to LED strip. And Arduino powered by USB. This setup still works for me.

I soldered pin headers on the lumazoid board and connected it like the arduino nano before (DOUT to the according pin on the LED strip, GND to LED strip GND and a own power supply with 5V and 600mA) but no LEDs light on. I tried turning it on while holding the color button to adjust the brightness, but no LEDs on the strip turn on 🙁 (the blue LED on the lumazoid itself turns on, so I assume it works properly. Audio thru does also work)

Does the lumazoid require a power supply with 2A even if the LED strip positive isn’t connected to it? I’ll order a sufficient power supply to only use one to power everything and hope that’ll work.

Any tips?

[Michael]

Hi, I’m sorry to hear you that it isn’t working for you. To answer your question, no the Lumazoid does not require 2A just to operate. Your 600mA power supply should work just fine to display some LEDs. Only when turning on lots of LEDs does the current requirement go higher.

Pressing the COLOR and MODE buttons should cause the strip to show something.

Just to confirm, when you power on the Lumazoid does the blue LED blink a few times? This tells us that the microcontroller is running.

Do you have a multimeter? I would check to ensure that the DOUT data pin is not shorted with the 5V or GND lines on the strip.
Also, how long are the wires from the Lumazoid to the strip? They should be kept short (less than 1/2 meter).

[strudelkopf]

Hi, thanks for your fast answer.

Yes, the blue LED does blink a few times when I power on the unit.

The wires from the Lumazoid to the strip are very short (approx. 10cm).

On DOUT I measure 2.10V.

Just to make sure (as I’m not an expert in electronics): connecting all GNDs together would be the right way? As said, it works for the Arduino Nano but I’m not really sure if this is the right approach for the Lumazoid too.

[Michael]

The 5V power connection should just go to the Lumazoid, since it is a 5V device. The strip should just connect directly to the 3 pads on the Lumazoid: GND, DOUT, and 5V. There’s no need to have separate power supplies. Just one big supply (600mA is fine for your testing) into the Lumazoid. It passes that power directly to the strip.

[strudelkopf]

Okay, I tried connecting the LED strip to all 3 pins on the board and used only one power supply to power the lumazoid board. http://i.imgur.com/khw6o3w.jpg

Now sometimes some LEDs light up when I hold a button while powering on, but not everytime and it seems random and they “freeze” – meaning only the LEDs which lighted up on power on are on but nothing else happens.

btw, I’ve ordered two lumazoids and I have the same problems with both, so I think it’s either my LED strip or maybe my power supplies which cause the problem… I ordered some new ones and will see if that fixes the problem.

[strudelkopf]

Hi again! Finally my new LED strips arrived and I’m glad to say: it works like a charm with them!!

Thank you so much for your support and this great product.

[Michael]

Ok, glad to hear that you have a working system. Have fun!

[Author]

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