Power Supply Question

    I'm a little confused about how i should be wiring up the Pi and the LEDs. i purchased a 5v 30a power supply, should i use this to power everything, or is it bettwe to use this to only drive the LEDs, and use the regular miniusb power supply for the pi. If i use the 5v supply to run everything, do i need a level shifter?

    Powering ether way is OK. I like separate power because my Rpi is on 24/7 useing a 3 amp wall wart. It draws just a few watts. And my led's are powered with a much higher wattage drawing power supply that only on when the led's are in used
    A helper diagram (By Christian mosser). showing powering all from one source.


    You can try without a level shifter, it works for some folks. I recommend using one though. They're inexpensive.


    Hope it helps.

    Quote from termeric

    so the level shifter is only needed if i power it all off the single large PSU?


    Some have problems with flickering and other led strangeness without a level shifter, some don't. That being said, the led is looking for a 5v data signal (+/- about 5%). And the Rpi's data pins are 3.3v. Some led's have a wider tolerance of the data signal and handle the lower voltage data signal better.


    Quote from termeric

    does it matter which GPIO pins i connect too?


    Yes, absolutely. Some helper diagram's below.


    Oh,and in that first diagram, think of the battery packs as your wall wart and . .err . .Big Bertha power supply.
    I'm making the assumption that your using a led strip that has a clock and data connection. If its a one pin led data strip, then omit the clock line.


    Hope it helps.


    P.S. good tips and stuff on this page https://hyperion-project.org/t…-ws2801-ws2812b-apa102.8/

    i did get the APA20 LEDs so it has the 4 wires. I had no idea that the data signal would be 5v as well, so it sounds like getting a level shifter is probably a good idea just to make sure everyhting is running smoothly. thanks for the diagrams and the advice

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