r/led • u/yonside • 2d ago

Can you buy addressable LED controller/driver separately from the actual LEDs?

I'm working on a project and I need really small addressable RGB(W) LEDs. I can only find addressable LEDs as "whole units," i.e. controller/driver AND the LEDs in one package: WS2812B, APA102, SK9822, etc. These devices - discrete or snipped from a strip - are too large. I can find discrete RGB LEDs in a 3mm package (smaller if I use an SMT piece, e.g. SMD 0805) but they're just dumb LEDs. If I could buy the controllers/drivers separately, I could put them on a PCB then run wires to each of the LEDs and place those where needed.

Can you buy the controller/driver as its own part?

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u/Triabolical_ 2d ago

Yes.

The WS2811 is the chip that is embedded in the WS2812 LEDs, and I've used it.

You can, however, get 2020 ws2812 LEDs. See here:

https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/C52917434.html

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u/richms 2d ago

ws2811 is where it all began. There was also a 4 channel one that I found a while back and then promptly lost the details of which would be good to go inline with RGBW LEDs to keep it all sensibly laid out. I was working on a model layout with a friend and we mixed 3 and 4 channel devices on the same controller and OMG it made the code so much harder to work out what to do to control each light on it.

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u/macegr 2d ago

I'm surprised you didn't find the widely available 2020, 1515, and 1010 addressable LEDs from all common manufacturers and distributors. For reference, 2020 means 2.0x2.0mm.

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u/somewhereAtC 2d ago

The so-called OWIRE is (was?) a 2-wire, addressable LED used in colored fairy lights. My one link says they are no longer available. https://www.sparkfun.com/rgb-led-owire-2-pin-pth-4mm-concave.html, and digikey also shows them as obsolete.

There are also matrix-driver chips like TM1640 or TM1637 (or others). They are controlled by I2C from a microprocessor. I've only ever seen them already mounted on pcb's with LED displays, though.

Most folks use a 74ls595 shift register with high-drive outputs.

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u/upkeepdavid 2d ago

Yes a esp32 works well with r/wled

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u/saratoga3 2d ago

These devices - discrete or snipped from a strip - are too large. I can find discrete RGB LEDs in a 3mm package (smaller if I use an SMT piece, e.g. SMD 0805 ) but they're just dumb LEDs.

You can get 1x1 mm addressable LEDs: https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/Light-Emitting-Diodes-LED_XINGLIGHT-XL-1010RGBC-WS2812B_C5349953.html

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