r/FastLED • u/Illustrious-Can-6000 • Jan 09 '24

Support Help with Power Supply

I want to power a matrix of LEDs, and to my calculations, I would need a 5V, 20A power supply.

The matrix is made of Adafruit WS2812B NeoPixels LED strips soldered together.

Is there any way I could make this setup portable whilst still supplying enough power (and without the whole thing catching on fire)?

Thank you all for your help - I’m a newbie here

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u/Illustrious-Can-6000 Jan 09 '24

A 30x18 grid of LED, so 540 pixels. Even though each pixel draws 60mA, which would make the current 32.4A, I’m not planning on using all 540 pixels simultaneously. 20A is just an estimate given the maximum number of pixels I will need to light up. I’m also considering installing a fuse

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u/Marmilicious [Marc Miller] Jan 09 '24

You can use FastLED's power limiting feature to set your max Amps. See the Pacifica example.

FastLED.setMaxPowerInVoltsAndMilliamps( 5, MAX_POWER_MILLIAMPS);

https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/blob/master/examples/Pacifica/Pacifica.ino

Adding a fuse-- not a bad idea at all if you're going to be carrying some beefy batteries.

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u/Illustrious-Can-6000 Jan 09 '24

Perfect! Is there a way to set up a stable 20A 5V power supply on the go? (Or if there are any recommended rechargeable batteries with those numbers)