I've done something similar myself... took me a few weeks and a bit of trial and error before I learnt everything I needed for a custom DIY led setup like this. I also found off the shelf alternatives with fuses and capacitors later on but you live and you learn. I still enjoyed the tinkering.
Hey mate, great video, I've followed your set up exactly and is running into an issue where any time you power the WLED on/off, switch colours, it'll randomly cycle through a few colours before settling on the right colour, then once in a while it'll also randomly switch colours and come back as well. Is this the same issue you've had initially? Did you end up fixing the problem? I'm also using 24v, with buck converter to ESP32, then to the bi directional logic level shifter data out to LED with power and ground straight from power supply to LED, pretty much exactly as your diagram.
Thanks for the video. Even with experience with these kind of projects, the wiring of the level shifter without breadboards and such was a bit of a mess, but got it working. Quite underhwhelmed by the low brightness of the 12V FCOB from BTF Lighting. Does this happen on the 24V strip too?
Yes. I would definitely use the SN74AHCT125 as a level shifter if I was doing it again, but you do see the one in the video in other people's builds. I have the 24v FCOB from BTF and it is SUPER bright, far brighter at 100% than anyone would possibly want. So that's likely to be down to either the amperage of your power supply, or the WLED settings (e.g. turn off the current limiter?), I would suggest?
Great video. Really well put together. Simple and easy to follow and understand. I've found this video in pursuit of making my 12v addressable led strip work correctly with ESP32 running WLED. I searched for level shifter which no one else seems to mention in their videos but things work fine. In my current non-working set up I've got a voltage converter to power the ESP32 from the 12v power supply and I've wired everything up correctly yet I get unresponsive or random colour changes from the 5m strip. Doing further research WLED spec suggest a level shifter (yet there a few videos which reference this) so I'm going to give it a try since watching your video.
Thanks for watching! I finally got the SN74AHCT125 delivered but haven't had chance to replace it on my boards. I have found the Athom pre-built controllers to be good, easier than building your own and cheaper than importing QuinLED to UK. The WLED Discord is good for troubleshooting. Best wishes for your project!
