I've been researching various websites on all of my questions and have found answers to many of them but I am also finding conflicting answers for some of them. I've read that electricity is something that is very dangerous when you are in contact with the main and that is what I think I am doing so I wanted to verify my setup and have all my questions answered so I can be safe while handling these.
My setup basically starts with an old wire that I found around the house. This is a standard 3 prong US plug which I'm assuming was from some laptop charger. What I've read online is that I want to cut the end off (the part circled in purple) and it'll have 3 wires which I will connect to the power supply. (If there are any cheap, fast, and safe alternatives that allow me to not cut the end off please let me know)
This is the power supply I've ordered. From what I've read I am assuming that when I cut the end off the wire I will reveal 3 wires, black, white, and green. Black goes into the L, white goes in N, and green goes into ground which is the one next to N with the lines. Now I can plug it in to test if it works and everything should be safe and I can unplug and cover that entire section with some black electrical tape.
After hooking up the wires I can hook the power supply to the arduino and LED strip. I read that I needed a common ground, but I don't know what that really means. I'm assuming I do since everything goes to the power supply which is grounded through the 3rd prong on the wire, but if I'm wrong please let me know. This is the arduino nano I am using. I'm going to use one of the V+ ports from the power supply and have a 20AWG wire run it to the 5v pin and then the V- is going to have a 20AWG wire ran to the GND pin. These will be soldered into place and then covered with electrical tape. Then there will be a 20AWG wire going from the D3 pin to the DATA pin of the WS2812 LED strip. Now from the power supply there are still unused V+ and V-. I will put a 20AWG wire into the V+ and it will be soldered into the 5v+ copper part of the LED strip and and GND of the LED strip will be connected to the V- of the power supply that is unused. Then I will wrap this with electrical tape.
Thank you for reading this and please let me know if this setup is safe. Also let me know if this has a common ground. If it does, does that mean V- and GND are essentially the same? Also is it safe for the arduino and my computer to plug the arduino into my computer via USB to upload code while its being powered by the power supply?
Sorry for the lengthy question, but thanks in advance for any answers!