How To Use Addressable RGB WS2812B LED Strips With a Raspberry Pi Single Board Computer

We are getting our Blinkies Popping Off Today ✨! Our latest UPDATED guide will demonstrate the fastest and most customizable way to have WS2812B LEDs controlled by your Raspberry Pi. Learn the simplest way to drive a small LED strip, multiple LED strips, and how to externally power a very long strip (150 Nodes).

Related Information

The name WS2812B Strip usually refers to a long length of flexible PCB with many specific RGB LED Nodes evenly spaced and dotted along the top side of the PCB. Furthermore, WS2812B strips are fully addressable. This means each RGB LED node can display a different colour and intensity than its neighbours. WS2812B strips will do everything that non-addressable RGB strips do. In almost all regards WS2812B Strips are better as they allow for more creative LED light shows. Fancier animation/striping/chasing effects become possible when you can decide exactly what each LED Node will do. WS2812B can be referred to as NeoPixels or GlowBit LEDs. For the above reasons, WS2812B Strips are the best LEDs to choose in this form factor.

WS2812B stands for | World Semi | which is the name of the OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer), followed by the name of the IC chip | 2812 |, followed by | B | indicating it is the 2nd big revision of this design. The IC Chips are built into each LED Node. Whether your WS2812B LED Nodes are connected on a rigid PCB or a flexible long strip the control system built in this guide can accommodate both. If you have never used a Raspberry Pi before, we have got you covered with our free, online Raspberry Pi for Beginners Workshop.

No Logic Level Converter or Diode Faff Required!

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0:00 Intro
0:22 What WS2812B Are
0:52 Hardware You Need
2:00 Assembly for One LED Strip
3:40 Software Set Up
4:50 Success! One Bright LED Strip!
5:37 Script 1 Exploration
7:30 Assembly for Multiple LED Strips
8:08 Success 2! Two Bright LED Strips!
8:37 Script 2 Exploration
9:21 Assembly for Long LED Strip
11:40 Success 3! A Long LED Strip
12:18 Where To Now
12:57 Outro

[bekay]

Thank you, at no point did I get lost with your explanation. As others have said this was very comprehensible.

[crusherjones]

Fantastic video that approaches some real "but how do I do *this*" questions that I have yet to see acknowledged.

Good lookin' out.

[nitzkit]

Pro-Tip: if powering the LED strip through a power brick, use a step down buck converter or a resistor to bring the 5 volts down to 3.6 volts. 3.6 volts INSTEAD OF the actual voltage usage from the data sheet for these LEDs.

[PatrykZygmuntSzczepanski]

That was i video i was looking for👍🏼 i had problems connecting 48 LED to an SKR Mini E3 V3 that can only provide 3W and i had issue with Data sending that mixed the colors and now its working perfectly thank you 👍🏼

[PattyCali]

Finally got mine working!!! It came alive like magic 😍😍 thank youuu!!

[carrollcreighton]

Ok. So next question. Controlling the strip by using a 4x4 Matrix keypad? I see tutorials for using buttons, or using the Keypad and one LED, but nothing to use the keypad to pick an animation or a certain segment.

This video got my LEDs up and running perfectly AND explained the reasoning behind some of the code, which the notes were fantastic, BTW.

[scaramonga]

A BIG thanks to you indeed! I was having no end of troubles getting these working, and you have solved that very problem, so much appreciated. THANK YOU!!! x

[warrenlead]

Great job, just what I have been looking for!

[kriswempa]

Thanks for the video ! This was exactly what I was looking for !

[silversurfer]

i think this would be perfect to build a led controller for the pc. you could use the raspberry-pi directly as a host for your own resource monitor. That brings me back to a point that I would be very interested in: the smartest way to realize that the raspberry ->starts<- and stops together with the pc. That would probably be perfect via the gipo's. I would do it with relays due to lack of electrical engineering understanding (I assume that the mosfets etc could be better - but I never know which ones I need etc pp)! maybe you could make a video about it? there are certainly more use cases why you can want that - because unfortunately the PI does not support WOL. would be glad.

[polybius]

Awesome video. Super easy to follow and very informative. I am a Software Engineer but not the best at wiring and/or electrical so I have a question. Is there any way that you can control more than 4 strips with a raspberry Pi despite only having 4 GPIO pins? Thanks in advance!

[SirTrollingham]

Very comprehensive tutorial. I've been looking for something exactly like this. Great job guys!

[BohdanTrotsenko]

I've watched only about 20seconds,
but kudos and like for a concise introduction,

- I'll revisit later when needed.

[honeyapple]

Hello! Thank you so so so much for this video, I am a complete beginner to this and found it super helpful to understand the basics. I do have a question that may seem a bit simple, but I am planning on using WS2811 LEDS that are still addressable and come in strands of 50, and I wanted to double check that I do not need to use specifically WS2812B with any of the python scripts? Apologies if the terminology is a bit off, thanks so much again!!

[WWMT_AERO]

Is there any reason that GPIO21, GPIO18, GPIO12 and GPIO10 are used in particular for WS2812B LED Strips? Is there anything stopping me from using any other GPIO pin?

[patrickrobinson]

Great tutorial 😀 Thanks for making it.
Patrick from Bethesda, Maryland, USA 😀😀😀

[MegaBlox_YT]

Can you make a tutorial on how to make Home assistant led strips with a raspberry pi?

[nickclothier]

11:06, the green arrow in the picture is pointing to Ground not GPIO 18. Almost blew mine up!

[qzgkjkf]

Hi there

I have a 30x30 10mm ws2812 fan with four wires which are "red, black, blue, green" for the raspberry pi I can hook the red and black fan to get power but the green "ws2812 leds" and blue "pwm". How can I get my LEDs to work it has four LEDs on it.

Any help will really be appreciated.

[ados]

1:39 "General Rule of Thumb: A 5V 4A power supply can comfortably handle 150 LED nodes, at full brightness"

150 white LEDs at full brightness would take 9 amps. I haven't done any projects with LEDs yet, but I don't understand how this (5v 4a) would be the recommended power supply. Is it likely that someone is going to go full bright white with their LEDs? Nope. But if they did, bad things would happen, wouldn't it?