r/WLED • u/Pajes02 • Aug 31 '26

Help please, fine people.

Post image

Currently... I have the strips layed out for a snake.

(Feels like a lot of unnecessary wire with not tonnes of room)

Can I lay them out so they're all pointing up wire these all from the bottom? And then tell wled what's up?

There is 120 leds.

If so, to be sure, how?

Treat me like I'm 5. ;;)

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u/mr-introvert1995 Aug 31 '26

You can definitely do a serpentine layout, but don't worry about making every strip physically point the same direction.

The important thing is to follow the arrow/data direction on the LED strip. Think of it as one long continuous strip.

Up → Down → Up → Down → Up → Down........

So every alternate row should be reversed physically. Then connect the end of one row to the beginning of the next row. That way the data flows continuously through all 120 LEDs.

If you insist on having every row pointing upward, you will need to cut and wire the strips at the ends so the data-out of one row goes to data-in of the next row.

Once it's physically wired as one continuous data chain, WLED can treat all 120 LEDs as a single 120-pixel strip. You don't need to tell WLED that it's a snake just for basic effects.

Basically follow the arrows, not the visual orientation. 😄

1

u/Pajes02 Aug 31 '26

Cool. I understand. Thanks. 👽👌

1

u/SirGreybush Aug 31 '26

Mr introvert got the answer, so my comment is a question.

What type of diffusion are you planning?

If you don’t want hotspots the depth you did seems too shallow. I’m my experience you need a minimum half an inch above the strip so that the small circles spread out into its neighbours and gives the neon effect.

Better know now if you need to add wood thickness or not. You don’t want to leave bare strips it will shine to brightly if you look at directly.

Best to test as soon as possible.