APA106 flickering, timingproblem

[Bubbleman75]

Hello

I have a problem with APA106 LEDs, they are flickering and show random colours. I have 17 of these LEDs in a row. The length is 50cm. All cables are short and neatly soldered. I have tried everything. With and without level shifter. With and without resistor and capacitor. The power supply has 5 Amper. I have tried an ESP8266 and an ESP32. It does not get better.
I think it is the timing. Although it says everywhere that APA106 = WS2812B. But this is not true! The timing is different.
I would be very happy if you could include this LED type in WLED. Otherwise I would also try to change the timing myself, if I knew where that is possible.

Thanks a lot
Thomas

[blazoncek]

Look at NeoPixelBus.

[Bubbleman75]

This is certainly a powerful library. But I want to use WLED because it is ready to go. I use WLED without any Problems with a 500 LEDs SK6812 RGBW Strip!

[blazoncek]

NeoPixelBus is the foundation WLED is built upon.

[dendel71]

Hi @Bubbleman75,

I have the same issue. All effects can't stop flickering. Even "Solid".
LEDs = WS8211
Length = 469
Board = ESP8266
Firmware version = 0.13.0-b4

Any tips how to solve or which configuration to play with?

[blazoncek]

Use level shifter and make sure all connections (and GND especially) are good.

[dendel71]

I used a level shifter, ....it did not work. Then I used a scacreficial LED...it did not work. BUT, then I replaced the cable between MCU and LED string. That did work!
Old cable was probably too thick and too much resistance. Before MCU I used an Arduino and that did not to have an issue.

[Airrr17]

Same here. My setup is 53 leds in a string. First 30-40 works somehow close to desired result, with flickering and red-green colors swapped. Near the end of string there is only random colors.
Sure this is problem with timings.
Will you add support for apa106 in any future?
Thanks.

[blazoncek]

What level shifters do you use?

[PureTek-Innovations]

I have some APA106s that I'd like to use with WLED.
I have posted also here:
https://wled.discourse.group/t/apa106-support/7037

[itstefanjanos]

I've made a pull request for APA106 support and I've just tested with Wemos D1 mini and PL9823 (It has same timing then APA106).
#3580

[blazoncek]

Implemented in #3580
available since 0.15.0-b1