50pcs WS2811 LED pixels lights

Good stuff and helps get the project finished. They worked like a champ.

This review is for the ALITOVE WS2811 12mm Diffused Digital RGB LED 50 LED set. I bought these with the idea that I'd use them for Christmas lights or just to play with. I plan to drive them with an Arduino or ESP8266 device. I decided to start figuring it out with an old Aduino Uno. I couldn't find a sample sketch or circuit from the vendor but there are plenty of examples on the internet. Google WS2811 and you'll get plenty of hits. This is a three wire setup and the wires are marked Red: +5V; White: DATA; Blue: GND on the amazon website and the LED's closest to the connector. I hate to admit that I tried every possible wrong combination of wiring before hitting on the right setup. The good news is that I didn't blow the lights up, which is a miracle and testament to the durability of the lights. Once working they are pretty spectacular. Instructions that worked for me: 1) Quadruple check your wiring. The key is to connect the data, power, and ground to the female plug. The female end ( I know some of you are confused by this ) is the end where you have to poke your hook up wire into the hole to make the connection. It doesn't make sense to me why I had to use the female connector but I got zero lights until I moved my connections this end. 2) There is information on the internet that says its a good idea to put a 470 ohm resistor inline on the data connection. I did this. 3) Give it plenty of power. I was not successful running this from the 5v Arduino pin or a 1/2 amp wall wart. I was successful using something that supplied 5v at 2 plus amps. ALITOVE sells a power supply that I wish I had bought at the same time. 4) There is information on the internet that says its a good idea to put a 1000 uf capacitor on the between the power and the LED's to smooth out the power. I did this. 5) Use the FastLED library in your Arduino IDE library. From menus choose sketch->Include Library->Library Manager then search for and install the FastLED library. I tried the Adafruit Neopixel library but have not able to get it to work to date. 6) From the Arduino IDE go to menus->File->Examples->FastLED-> and choose the FirstLight example. These sketches are well documented. You must change the define statement to match the data pin you are using and number of LED's to whatever is correct. Also check to see that the "FastLED.addLeds<WS2811, DATA_PIN, RGB>(leds, NUM_LEDS);" under setup in the sketch is uncommented. Some of the examples are set already and some are not. All other similar lines should be commented out. 7) Compile, upload and you should have flashing lights. There are other example sketches for the FastLED library, plus info on the web. I'm sure there are other or better circuits that could be designed, or ways to get the Adafruit library to work. I just wanted to post a review and outline what worked for me in hopes that someone will find it useful.

Dec 12th edit: I have to eat a big dish of Crow, my first review was completely wrong. Rather than using a complete LED controller like DigiQuad, I was using a basic ESP32 with WLED to test the pixel strips. Originally the ALTILOVE brand wasn't working well at all, while the Rextin brand was functioning. I had planned to ship the ALTILOVE back and even had Amazon send me a return label. Then I began having problems testing the Rextin brand that was already hung on my house. After investigating it, I read from DrZzzzz that the ESB32 Data Output pins provide the absolute bare minimum signal voltage for the WS2811 chip. Even a short wire run can degrade the signal enough to cause problems. The ALTILOVE must have been more sensitive than the Rextin. I installed an F-Amp inline voltage translator right at the output of the ESP32 and that solved every problem I had. All ten 15ft strands of these lights work perfectly now. I was even able to chain eight in a row and they worked flawlessly, another inline F-Amp and the last two made it ten complete strings all running of the single output. Please disregard everything I said in my initial review. These pixels work great, putting them on the house this weekend. ******************Completely incorrect initial review below.*************************************** I purchased a set of these LED lights on Nov 22nd, brand was Rextin, $143. They have worked flawlessly. Color is great and they respond to WLED perfectly. the first two pictures ore of the Rextin brand. Amazon pushed me an AD for a set on Nov 27th at $115, I am guessing as part of Cyber Monday. Although they look similar, they are not, these are ALTILOVE and they are trash, buyer beware. 80% of the strands have failed, six won't turn on a single LED, two have a few that light, and two light completely. The tird picture shows a strand where only LED 1 lights. They are very obviously from different manufacturers, the wire color is different. But these ALTILOVE are garbage, waste of money and effort, if you bought them, test them as soon as they come in so you can return the defective ones. Only blessing was I tested before I hung them, so I didn't have to do a bunch of rework. Steer clear of the ALTILOVE brand.

Love the color palette with this particular string. I use them to design signs and light boxes. Paired with a web controller it is an unbelievable product. Easy to set up if you understand the controller. And rated for outdoor so they can go anywhere you're above water. Works perfect and for the price point you can't go wrong.

I used a bunch (150 lights) of these to make a control panel, operated by a raspberry pi and a fadecandy board. They worked fantastically well, and even at a third of total brightness were plenty bright. Making a hole for the LEDs in a board was a little tricky - finding an 11mm bit is not fun (unless you use amazon). I ended up using a 3/8th inch drill bit and expanding it out with a circular file, which I marked off with tape so it made just the right sized hole in MDF for a snug fit (adding hot glue to keep them in place). I would love to find something like this that could snap into a panel mount.

De helft is al kapot

Muito bom

I purchased 12 strands all together, all work flawlessly. Currently running with digUno controller and 12V/60W power supply x2- no need to inject power when running 250lights on single power supply! I'm sure I will be buying more in the future.

Funzionale pratico ed economico

Pixel led fantastici, sono tre anni che illuminano una insegna e sono impeccabili, abbinati a un ottimo controller e un ottimo alimentatore vanno che è uno spettacolo.