Switch back to using an external power supply and connect the LED strips directly to it.
You can even power the board with the same 5V or 8-60V power supply using the DC jack or screw terminals.
The 8-60V power input allows using any kind of power supply, like common 12V, 24V, or 48V.
But is also allows using 48V LiPo batteries (going up to 55V), to operate them without grid power.
There is an over current input protection of 2A using an PPTC.
This is to protect the board from very bad accidents, and because Ethernet cables are no meant to carry power (PoE limit is 960 mA per pair, we are using two).
To be able to power multiple WLED chains, each drawing 25W, use higher voltages (48V up to 60).
If you are using 12V or 24V LED strip (e.g. not 5V), you can use the screw terminal to re-use the corresponding 8-60V output.
This is not fused.
But if your are using Ethernet cables, you still should not exceed the 2A limits.
And if you are using these higher voltage LED strips, you probably are building bigger light installation, and should take can of the power supply separately instead of relying on the WLED chain.
Then you can also use this power supply to power the WLED chain board using the 8-60V port, but only one of them in the whole chain (else the multiple power supplies might interfere with each other).
The 8-60V input is also reverse polarity protected, after the fuse.
The 5V rail input/outputs are not fuse or reverse polarity protected.
- RJ45 individual wires connector, using easy to use spring loaded terminal, for allowing using Ethernet cable in waterproof enclosure, where the 8P8C connector does not fit through the PG7 cable gland
- DC barrel jack power input, for 5V and 8-36V, for convenient use with power bricks, allowing injecting power
- power wire connectors, as alternative to the barrel jack, for larger power supplies and usage in waterproof enclosure
- proper 5V DOUT for WS2812B IC input, 5 channels (can be combined for LEDs requiring an additional clock signal)
- in-line LED data resistors for [signal conditioning](https://quinled.info/data-signal-cable-conditioning/). Ideally it should use a smaller value since it's intended for running the signal along ground over short distances, but there were already 100 Ohm on the board for DMX512 termination, and it allows better compatibility for longer single ended cables.
- microphone/line in for sound reactive (use [ESP32-LyraT-Mini](https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-adf/en/latest/design-guide/dev-boards/board-esp32-lyrat-mini-v1.2.html) design as reference)
- XLR DMX512 connectors: they take too much space and I never know if I should use the 3 or 5-pin variant. Instead I will design a separate DMX + power injector splitter board
- full isolation: not really needed as the devices should be chained with a single power supply, preventing any ground potential difference. The splitter board will provide isolation, at the beginning of the chain.
- USB Power Delivery: this is just a convenience feature, but using expensive lower power USB chargers is not ideal for the intended usage (festival installation)
- Lithium battery input and charger: it does not fit the intended usage, with large external power supplies providing enough power for power hungry LED strips. Small batteries would not be able to handle that over longer time. You can still use the 5V power input though, and charge the battery separately
- Power over Ethernet (active): I do use passive Power over Ethernet, by providing power on 2 pairs of the Ethernet cable that are not used for 10/100 Mbps communication. This allows using very simple and inexpensive injectors to power power, using and power supply. Active PoE require specials and more expensive injectors or power supplies, and complex extractors in each device. This is a to hard requirement. Feel free to use PoE though. There are plenty of relatively cheap injectors and extractors that you can use as external devices next to the boards.
- automotive fuse protection (input or output protection): there is not enough space to place such large fuses. We already have one input protection (fuse + reverse polarity on 8-60V), so you just have pay attention to the 5V outputs (limited to 5A by the DC-DC converter) or input (supported, but not the intended use).
[WLED](https://kno.wled.ge/) is a very good firmware to control addressable LED such as the WS2812b.
Just get a cheap ESP32 development board, flash WLED using the [web installer](https://install.wled.me/), and of you got.
I did that very often, and for small projects its fine.
But for larger projects with multiple devices, you encounter some limitations:
- you have to separately take care of the power supply: LED strips can draw a lot of current which the development board can not handle
- remote control using ArtNet over WiFi can be problematic: WiFi routers don't all handle broadcast well, WiFi coverage is not always good, WiFi is jittery
- providing power to multiple device can be a pain: there is not always a power plug nearby
this project tries to solve these issues, and since I designed a board, provide even more features
bus
---
The first problem is WiFi:
- ESP32 operate on 2.4 GHz, a crowded spectrum
- ESP32 board with built-in antenna have poor reception
- WiFi router don't always handle broadcast well
This make the WiFi a poor interface to remotely control LEDs with multiple WLED (using ArtNet or similar) in a real-time manner (low latency and jitter).
The first solution would be to use Ethernet instead of WiFi.
This would keep the networking capability.
ESP32 supports this interface, and the [WT32-ETH01](https://www.seeedstudio.com/Ethernet-module-based-on-ESP32-series-WT32-ETH01-p-4736.html) makes it available.
But to connect multiple devices you need a Ethernet switch, and run wires from this switch to each device (e.g. is a star topology).
I wanted to be able to chain the devices, to increase the distance while reducing number of cables and their length.
You could use the [KSZ8863](https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/KSZ8863) 3-port Ethernet PHY.
This can act as Ethernet interface for the ESP32, and built-in switch.
Now the boards can be chained.
There is already [schematic](https://github.com/espressif/esp-eth-drivers/tree/master/ksz8863) available, but the support still is beta, and the implementation is complex are not inexpensive.
I also though about CAN bus.
This is a very resilient bus, and the ESP32 has an interface for it.
But WLED does not support it yet, and the host would need a bridge for it.
Finally I arrived to RS-285.
It's another differential protocol, often used in the industry because resilient.
And the implementation is WLED is easy because it's just serial.
This is when I remembered that DMX512 also uses RS-485.
And DMX is the de facto standard in the lighting event world.
Thus interface with is will be very easy and there is a lot of software support.
The limitation is that it supports only one universe of 512 channels, or 170 RGB LEDs.
A solution would be to control modes instead of individual LEDs.
- daisy chain capability (providing data and power)
- built-in power 5V power supply (input up to 30V)
- RS-485/DMX512 interface (not isolated)
- RJ45 port (2x for daisy chain)
- RJ45 pin header (to solder wires directly)
- DC barrel jack power input
- RJ45 power input
- proper 5V DOUT for WS2812B IC input
- external WiFi antenna port
- microphone/line in for sound reactive (use [ESP32-LyraT-Mini](https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-adf/en/latest/design-guide/dev-boards/board-esp32-lyrat-mini-v1.2.html) design as reference)
- [sonoff waterproof enclosure](https://www.sonoffegypt.com/products/sonoff-ip66-waterproof-case) format
- XLR port (to fit usual DMX512 installations)
- fully isolated DMX512
- RDM support (requires adding bias on RS-485, and mostly software support)
- Lithium battery input and charger (not really the intended use scenario for this device)
- automotive fuse protection
- high voltage input (up to 60V, using TPS54560DDAR)
- USB Power Delivery power input (using IP2721 or FUSB302)
- [SP201E](aliexpress.com/item/1005005061637017.html): cheap DMX512 LED strip controller, but no WLED, RJ45, or power supply
- [H807DMX](https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005293168050.html): compatible with most LED strips, and has RJ45 DMX512 input, but no WLED or power supply