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In order to reduce the power for a large quantity of WS2812b matrix, I would like to power it directly by 24V, by intuition, chaining in series 5 LEDs (for the power only, the data will be one by one to be able to address each LED).

As it's just an intuition, but I'm not really expert on it, can you please tell me what do you think about this solution?

Can you please help me to confirm the power consumption for a matrix of 100 LEDs, grouped by pack of 5 LEDs.

Will this improve consumption as compared to powering all 100 LEDs in parallel from a 5V power supply?

enter image description here

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  • \$\begingroup\$ I don't think you can do this with addressable LEDs. They use constant current drivers to drive the LEDs. I would expect very erratic behaviour \$\endgroup\$
    – Makoto
    Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 14:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ Question, do I need to add a resistor per branch to fix the intensity ? \$\endgroup\$
    – Yannick
    Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 14:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ Thanks Makoto, I didn't thought about that. I will try to check for that. \$\endgroup\$
    – Yannick
    Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 14:13
  • \$\begingroup\$ You can't reduce the power. The requirement will be the same whether they're in series or parallel. \$\endgroup\$
    – Finbarr
    Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 14:18

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Good way to smoke a load of LEDs!

They draw current depending on the individual unit brightness settings, so this will not work (Among other reasons having to do with the need to level translate the data between each stage).

Use a small switching regulator to take the 24V down to 5V and use that to power them in the normal way.

Regards, Dan.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ It was worth a try ... ;-) Thanks a lot. \$\endgroup\$
    – Yannick
    Commented Apr 17, 2018 at 14:34

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