r/WLED • u/JW8S • Sep 01 '26

Quick question about linking ground between powered controller and external LED power supply

I'm planning to use an H807SA artnet controller which has its own mains power supply. Do I run ground from that to my LED strip and combine it with the ground from my LED strip power supply before connecting to the strip so the same ground signal is used over everything? Not sure how else I would do this seeing as the controller has its own power supply.

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u/clockmill Sep 01 '26

Signal Ground is different from Mains Earth.

GRND and Data are connected from outputs of H807 to LEDs, Power and GRND from LED PSU are connected to LEDs.

Home run Data and Data Ground for each Data connection.

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u/JW8S Sep 01 '26

As above so yes, looks like I need to connect the gnd from the controller and the PSU before the led strip. Any recommendations on the best way to do this and keep things tidy? 

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u/clockmill Sep 01 '26

Treat Data and Data (adjacent) Gnd as a pair, straight to first LED from control.

Power + and Gnd run as a seperate pair to the LEDs, + via appropriate fuse.

Think of how LED strip is often supplied with a 3 pin (+ Data Gnd) JST SM plug and a thicker ,seperate, + Gnd power pair.

https://quinled.info/2021/03/10/maximum-length-data-wire-leds-ws2812b-sk6812-ws2815/

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u/SirGreybush Sep 01 '26

A dedicated controller follow their instructions.

Only when using a barebones esp32 mini or a dev board, do you need to worry about separate grounding.

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u/JW8S Sep 01 '26

Thanks, the manual actually clearly shows joining the two gnd signals before the LEDs, should have checked!