u/drsetay

Pardon me if this isn't the right place to ask about this, but I'd love some creative and clear wiring guidance.

I built LED leg warmers using one 10000 mAh USB battery per leg (in a 3D-printed ankle holster), ESP32 controllers with WLED installed, and five 20-LED strips running down each leg (controller and strips held to the leg in a sort of calf belt harness setup).

What I'd love to figure out is a cleaner, more tidy wiring setup. Bear with me, but the current setup is as follows:

Power is a USB battery.

Next is a USB adapter with screw terminals.

From that adapter, I run 5V and GND wires which form the power "spine" and run through the whole project. I then splice branches into that wire to send 5V and GND to my controller (ESP32 board) and all strips (in this case, 5 separate strips).

From the ESP32 controller, I run another wire as the data "spine," then do the same thing as above, splicing data branches to all LED strips.

It's a LOT of splicing!

So:

Battery (5V/GND)
||
||
||=ESP32
|| | (data)
|| |
|| |
|| |====== 5V/GND/DATA===STRIP 1
|| |====== 5V/GND/DATA===STRIP 2

ETC

To try to make wiring easier, I'm going to switch to silicone coated wire. I've heard that's far more flexible.

I was also thinking of using a single two-wire cable to carry 5V/GND instead of two separate wires. But then I run into a quandary: how do I splice into something like that? And if I can't/shouldn't splice, what then? Can I, say, branch 5V/GND 6 ways from a single point? And can I branch DATA 5 ways from the ESP32?

Now let's say I have another project with just two LED strips running in parallel. Is there any other way to approach this that I'm totally overlooking?

Thanks for putting up with my questions! I'm a wiring noob. I've made several projects work, but I'd like to improve my approach moving forward.

Hi everyone,

So I've been creating a number of LED-based projects using ChatGPT to guide me. Overall, things have gone well! However, I'd like to see if I can simplify my wiring approach, as it's rather messy. Interestingly enough, this is an area ChatGPT just can't seem to support.

Here's the setup:

Power is a USB battery.

Next is a USB adapter with screw terminals.

From that adapter, I run 5V and GND wires. These form the power "spine" which run through the whole project. I then splice branches into that wire to send 5V and GND to my controller (ESP32 board) and all strips (in this case, 5 separate strips).

From the ESP32 controller, I run another wire as the data "spine," then do the same thing, splicing branches to all LED strips.

So:

Battery
5V/GND
||
||
||==ESP32
|| | (data)
|| |
|| |
||==|====== 5V/GND/DATA===STRIP 1
||==|====== 5V/GND/DATA===STRIP 2

||==| ETC

To try to make wiring easier, I'm going to switch to silicone coated. I've heard that's far more flexible. I was also thinking of using wire to carry 5V/GND instead of two separate wires. But then I run into the quandary: how do I splice into something like that? And if I can't/shouldn't splice, what then? Can I, say, branch 5V/GND 6 ways from a single points? And can I branch DATA 5 ways from the ESP32?

Now let's say I have another project with just two LED strips running in parallel. Is there any other way to approach this that I'm totally overlooking?

Thanks for putting up with my questions! I'm a wiring noob. I've made several projects work, but I'd like to improve my approach moving forward.

Wearable LED build - wiring help?

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