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Wiring LEDS to your Raspberry Pi

cp2004 edited this page Sep 1, 2020 · 7 revisions

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The most important part of the setup! Getting your LEDs connected.

I recommend this guide from Adafruit, Raspberry Pi Wiring to get you setup.

Some important things to consider when connecting the LEDs:

  • Make sure they get enough power! I don't recommend powering more than a couple LEDs directly from the Pi, as this can cause power issues that can cause all sorts of problems from connection to printer to WiFi issues. Best to get an external power supply rated for 5V and power the LEDs separately
  • 3.3V vs 5V logic: WS281x strips take a 5V signal input, however the Raspberry Pi can only output 3.3V. I have seen some success using 3.3V signal however this will heavily depend on your strips. To get to a 5V signal, I use a logic level shifter as outlined in the Adafruit guide above.
  • Connect the LEDs to GPIO 10! OctoPrint can not be run as root, so you must complete the SPI setup wizard and have your LEDs connected to GPIO 10 (Physical Pin 19). See the Raspberry Pi Pinout for details of how to find it.

Heads up! This documentation has migrated to Gitbook! Find it here: https://cp2004.gitbook.io/ws281x-led-status/

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