Some LED's stay on WS2812

Support
1

Hello,

I flashed a ESP8266 (D1 Mini Clone) with “WS2812_GRADIENT v4” image using the online flash tool https://install.diyhue.org/

Works all great, except when turning the strip off. Some LED’s lighting red on very low birghtness. I tried allready an other ESP, with no change.

The only way to switch all LED’s off is to turn the strip on and off several times. Sometimes all LED’s turn off. Seems to be luck.

I think it’s a firmware bug. Maybe you can check and fix it with the next version.

EDIT: I add a picture. Everytime the same 22 LED’s stay on.

20211208_162519
20211208_1625191920×1440 62 KB

Thank you in advice,
Jaschkopf

2

It may be caused by the number of leds (ideally must be a number that divide 5) or lack of level shifter.

3

The strip is 3m long with 180 LEDs. I didnt use a level shifter, never needed one. Most people say that ws2812b strips make more problems with levelshifter than without.

What type of level shifter do you recommend?

Greetings jaschkopf

4

I’ve never tried the gradient strip sketch but I know that the Generic WS2812 sketch works. After a quick look, it looks like the number of “lights” the sketch builds might be hard-coded in the Gradient sketch. Unless you are specifically looking for a function in the gradient sketch, I would give the generic sketch a try.
It also appears that the Gradient sketch only allows for command and the whole strip even though it can be divided into segments? If you compare the Generic and Gradient sketches side-by-side the differences that are highlighted quickly show that some of the necessary variables are hard-coded in the gradients sketch.

5

Today I tried to use a SN74AHC125N level shifter, but it makes no difference. I think it depends on the brightness level when switching off. Seams like the downfading causes the problem. The higher the brightness level when switching the strip off, the more LED’s stay on. When I set the brightness to 30%, all LEDs turn off. At 100% almost about 90% of the LEDs stay on with low brightness. Maybe there is a software bug.

Thank you in advice,
Jaschkopf

6

Yes, but the bug would be in the sketch running the strip, not in DIYHue. I would try a different sketch, like the Generic WS2812B strip sketch instead of the Gradient one.

7

Yes @ryan780 that’s what I mean. The bug must be in the ESP sketch. I tried the Generic WS2812B sketch with the same hardware setup (including the level shifter) and it is much better, but sometimes one single LED stays on anyway.

I really like the project and I tried to include some DIY lights in my existing smarthome setup, but at the moment it doesn’t work as reliable as I wish. So if the project doesn’t make any progress, I had to buy an expensive original hue gradient strip :sob: :sob: