LEDS not powering on

Hi all,

I’m using an sk6812 power strip with a 5v 10 amp power supply. My raspberry pi (3B+) is being powered via microusb with its own power brick.

I can capture an image, but I cannot get the power strip to power on. The most I ever got was one green led, now I don’t even have anything.

I will attach my setup diagram for additional information. Hyperion doesn’t even detect my power strip.

Will also attach error logs.

I sincerely appreciate anyone who takes the time to help out

< ----- Current Log --------------------------- >

2024-03-13T04:00:18.717Z [EVENTS-CEC] (ERROR) Failed loading libCEC library. CEC is not supported.

2024-03-13T04:00:21.911Z [IMAGETOLED|First LED Hardware instance] (WARNING) Mapping LED/light [0]. The current mapping area contains 6840 pixels which is huge. Therefore every 2 pixels will be skipped. You can enable reduced processing to hide that warning.

————-

Hi,

Thank you kindly for your response. I've implemented the mentioned changes and can now see the settings for the sk6812. However, my lights still dont seem to be powering on. I've attached the error logs and screenshots of my settings. In the error logs i will omit the lines that continuously repeat itself for ease of reading.

Thanks again

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< ----- Current Log --------------------------- >

2024-03-13T18:44:11.267Z [EVENTS-CEC] (ERROR) Failed loading libCEC library. CEC is not supported.

2024-03-13T18:45:32.088Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (WARNING) SPI rate 5000000 outside recommended range (2050000 -> 4000000)

2024-03-13T18:54:22.274Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (WARNING) SPI rate 5000000 outside recommended range (2050000 -> 4000000)

2024-03-13T18:54:22.275Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (ERROR) SPI failed to write. errno: 90, Message too long

2024-03-13T18:57:40.319Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (ERROR) Previous line repeats 200 times

2024-03-13T19:11:28.481Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (ERROR) Previous line repeats 25 times

2024-03-13T19:11:28.483Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (WARNING) Failed switching device sk6812spi OFF

2024-03-13T19:11:28.485Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (WARNING) SPI rate 5000000 outside recommended range (2050000 -> 4000000)

2024-03-13T19:11:28.486Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (ERROR) SPI failed to write. errno: 90, Message too long

2024-03-13T19:26:58.052Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (ERROR) Previous line repeats 95 times

2024-03-13T19:26:58.052Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (WARNING) Failed switching device sk6812spi OFF

2024-03-13T19:26:58.054Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (ERROR) SPI failed to write. errno: 90, Message too long

2024-03-13T19:28:25.196Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (ERROR) Previous line repeats 169 times

2024-03-13T19:28:25.197Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (WARNING) Failed switching device sk6812spi OFF

2024-03-13T19:29:53.623Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (ERROR) SPI failed to write. errno: 90, Message too long

2024-03-13T19:36:19.879Z [LEDDEVICE|First LED Hardware instance] (WARNING) Failed switching device sk6812spi OFF

Hi yes, i placed spidev.bufsize=1024000 with one single space bar after the last digit in the cmdline.txt file. I have also uncommented (removed hash) in the "dtparam=spi=on" line in the config.txt file

Should I buy the ws2812 instead of using this sk6812? I read that you recommend sk6812 over the ws2812 so I kinda don’t wanna give up on this lol

Hey, thanks for your response. Apparently the new sk6812 that i ordered recently doesn't need a level shifter according to BTF in this video at around 30 seconds, it says it supports 3.3v. BTF-LIGHTING: Full Upgraded New SK6812 RBGW LEDS! (youtube.com)

I have tried using GPIO 10 aswell to no avail.

Can you please tell me what you mean by this "driving the strips via PWM on GPIO 18." Not sure what PWM is, im new to all this sorry.

Quote from LosArtigah

if I may add something else besides this error: `SPI rate 5000000 outside recommended range`

You mentioned that you have a 5V 10 amp PSU for the LED strips but according to your settings that will require about 18 amps.

I recently came accross an issue because I was not supplying enough juice =/

I thought that 5v 10a would be okay as long as you don’t max everything to full brightness and white light? Maybe default brightness levels set to 100 and that’s why I’m not seeing lights?

Quote from Lethargik

No worries. If you go to your LED hardware tab in Hyperion your first drop down is “Controller Type”. Try changing this from “sk6812spi” to “ws281x” which is listed under PWM (Pulse Width Modulation). I won’t pretend I know the difference beyond it basically being a different signal/format of data than SPI. GPIO 18 is the default PWM pin on a Raspberry Pi and you will need to run Hyperion as root for this work:

Login to the pi and enter

“sudo updateHyperionUser -u root”. Enter “Y” to confirm when prompted and reboot the pi when it’s done. You only need to do this the one time.

For context, and I’m just paraphrasing, the sk6812, ws2812b, ws2815, etc. all use the same foundation which is the ws2811 code library (which is why the controller type is labelled “ws281x”).

The sk6812 have great colours when you get them working but I’ve always had a hard time with them and up until the build I just finished this past week, I’ve only ever been able to get them working using ws281x controller type.

Lastly, as LosArtigah mentions, your power supply is too small and your power setup is a little concerning now that I look more closely. I’ll stop here for now but happy to go into the power aspect of things as well if you like.

Display More

Thanks so much for the detailed response will try entering the sudo command you mentioned and see if that makes a difference. Ive already changed the controller type to ws281x, but hopefully in combination with the sudo command it will make a difference.

I’ve just ordered a new power supply (5v 15A) hopefully that will be enough.. but even so I was under the impression that if you control the brightness then all of your lights should turn on to some degree.

What is it about my setup that seems problematic? Would appreciate your advice and btw what power supply do you use for your setup? I’m using a 5m 60leds/m strip for context, is that the one you use?

Do I need to use gauge wire at any point in my setup?or can my led strip power cables go into the barrel jack directly.

Some tutorials on YouTube use guage wire so I’m just curious if that’s contributing to the problem.

Quote from Lethargik

You're right that limiting the brightness will reduce the needed power (and in my experience gives better color results as well). I was just working from your screenshot that Hyperion showed max current draw of 17.7 amps which a 10 amp power supply obviously can't deliver. Either way, the lights should come on, just maybe not the whole strip and/or they'd be dimmer/poor colors if they don't get enough power.

Because I'm overly cautious when it comes to working with electricity there were two concerns for me:

1. If your lights are trying to pull more power than the supply can provide, you may have your power supply often running at it's limit which isn't ideal. The general advice for power supplies (for anything, your PC, LED lights, etc.) is to have a little overhead, so just for example if you knew the lights generally needed 10 amps consistently, you'd get a 12 amp or higher power supply. That said, based on pclin's comment it sounds like 15 amps will be fine for your setup and pclin is far more knowledgeable than me in all of this.
2. I believe the wire pre-soldered to LED strips is 22 or 24 AWG which is rated for about 7 amps (22 AWG) or 3.5 amps (24 AWG) so if that's your only power line and the lights are pulling more than that, the wire could get hot and be a hazard. Not trying to scare you, I just like to be as safe as I can with this kind of thing.

All wire has a gauge, typically listed as either AWG or mm². For this application, the wire gauge is chosen based on the current it needs to carry. There are other factors as well, like length, but current rating is the deciding factor here unless you have long cable runs. So, using the example above, if you have one power line and know you need a consistent 10 amps, you want a power wire rated for at least that much. You can look up "wire gauge current charts" and easily find all that info. I typically use 18 AWG wire which is rated for about 16 amps.

Lastly, my setup is pretty overkill - I have 490 LEDs (60LEDs/m) around a projector screen which is powered by a 5V 60A power supply which also powers my rPi 4 setup that includes a level shifter, rPi Pico and some other components. I have the power running through 16 AWG and split to 18 AWG and connected at 4 points along the LED strip.

So, after my long-winded reply (and knowing you've already made the needed edits to config.txt, etc.) I would set Hyperion to run as root, use the ws281x PWM controller, data wire on GPIO 18 and see if you get any response from the LEDs.

Hopefully all this is helpful. Feel free to ask any other questions and I'll try to answer as best I can.

Display More

Hi,

Thanks for the detailed response. So I’ve got an update. I changed from a 5v10 a power supply to 5v 15 a power supply and got more lights. I’ve also set the controller to ws281x under RPI PWM. These are the only changes I’ve made to achieve the pictured results

The problem is the lights don’t go all the way around and their orientation is completely off (doesn’t actually depict what’s on screen so order is messed up)

I’m getting a 5v 30a psu in the mail shortly so will try to see if that helps, but I doubt it because under “effects configuration “in Hyperion I’ve set an effect at 50percent and 25 percent brightness and it still stopped at the same place, so this tells me power may not be an issue.

How can I fix the early stoppage?

I can only play with the brightness in the effects config screen, is there a way to change the brightness of the leds with regards to the images it captures in screen?

How can I fix the orientation of the leds so it accurately represents what’s in screen?

sorry images didnt attach and couldn't edit post

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So I’ve now upgraded my power supply to 5v 30A and am still getting the EXACT same problem..bottom left corner of the screen just won’t light up and colours don’t add up from the back..this is driving me nuts

Still at it today and no changes.

Here are my settings

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No, I’ve yet to try that, but what do you mean by you pressed it? And if power was the issue, then shouldn’t some sections match what’s on screen atleast?

Also, I’m using 5v 30A..didn’t think I had to inject power at the end ..if I saw colours fade then I probably would have.