There’s a learning curve in everything!
“Back in the days” (2017) the simplest controller I could buy was about 400 euros. The one I made with an esp8266 was about 4 euros.
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If I have to solder all those GND together, it does not matter if the solder „spills over“, does it? As long as it‘s only on those ports that need to be connected anyway? 
Also, the LEDs say they need 10A, this can’t be right? I only have a 4.4A supply…
How much power you actually need can vary widely depending on desired brightness and effects and of course the length/number of LEDs. In WLED, you can limit the power usage to be within the bounds of your power supply. It might be enough.
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Like Yeager said… Current requirements has a lot to do with how bright you want the pixels, how fast your effects change, and how many pixels you have.
You can adjust most of those parameters to keep the LEDs running inside the current your PS can supply. WLED has a built in function where you can give it the max current and it will auto-adjust the max brightness to stay inside that.
You’ll also want to plan on power injection. My current design has me injecting power every 30 to 40 LEDs depending on where the end of a ‘segment’ is. This is because I want all the connectors for each segment in the same place on the house.
I’m not sure I put this in this thread, but my plan is to be able to take an entire segment off of the house if a pixel goes out. Climb up on the ladder, disconnect the connectors on each end and remove a few screws. Then I can replace the pixel at my workbench, come back out and do the opposite to put it back up.
You an see the waterproof connectors I’m installing in this picture from last night. I don’t have a lot of free time to work on this this week, but I’m trying to do a few connectors each night. I’m about to run out and am waiting on an Amazon delivery with more.
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Well, that problem solved itself because the old power brick throws the breaker… Gotta buy a new one anyway now.
In other news, the wiring looks like shit, but it might work… I’ll see about it once I got power… Should just have bought a finished board, would have been so much less expensive…
The soldering doesn’t look like complete dogshit… And I got to know that I don’t hate crimping as much as I thought, now soldering took its place.
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Ummm… that’s just a prototype… right???
Proto boards are a thing. Then again, you might get better cooling with the parts spread out like that 
You should look at getting some of these: solder pin connectors onto any board that doesn’t have them, then solder everything to the board.
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As for me… I am now officially out of connectors. I have half the segments for the house done. More connectors should be in today, but my evening is already filled with activities.
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Eeehm, yeah. That’s exactly what it is… Not… 
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You might want to look into the ESPixelStick.
Has all the ports for lights and programmable. I use xLights software for my Christmas display.
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I’m using the ESPixelSticks currently. They’re ok. I have some issues with the WiFi performance on them and not being able to connect to them easily. If you decide to use them, I’d recommend flashing with WLED for easier management.
I have not had any issues with the Wifi on them. There has been a lot of progress in the design and firmware over the las year. I have 2 or 3 in my show that are about 40 yards away from the router.
Here is the web flasher…..
I have 4 of the v3’s. I will admit my software has not been updated in probably 3 years. My FPP ‘loses’ my devices constantly.
I used espixelstick a lot as mentioned above, in combination with FPP and vixenlights or xlights. When you build a coordinated/synced show with them your wifi network topology becomes very important. I have some special accesspoints for them and I have connected nothing else to that network, because that creates lagging in the lightshow.
When just using 1 color, or when there is no -synced-to-music-lightshow- that is not important.
Nowadays when i build non coordinated lights I use wled, when coordinated i still use espixelstick firmware on my homebuilt pixelsticks.
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How it’s going…
I guess my soldering was bad, the data cable was wobbly, maybe I didn’t solder the resistor right, maybe some other problem occurred. But I just don’t have the time to learn proper soldering.
I might need to go back to those boards above, but no idea how those work either.
I picked up a set several years ago that had a variety of sizes. I was looking at smaller project then so didn’t need a full breadboard size, and it was nice to be able to tuck a smaller board into an enclosure with some other components.
Amazon links to similar sets - This is a smaller kit, and here’s one with more pieces.
Proper soldering is a bit like proper welding. It takes a long time to get right. But it should work way before that. Unless you are doing something very challenging, very terrible solder should still work. I didn’t see anything that terrible in your work. I would have done things a little differently, but only to make it easier.
I would suggest keeping that project for a while. Debugging electronics is a very good skill to have and if you end up with a free half hour, it would be good to put a multimeter on it and see what is connected to what. You probably have a wire open that should be shorted or a short that should be open. The continuity tester on your meter can debug almost all of that.
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Thanks! I am pretty sure it’s the green cable with the resistor, I might get back to this thing when I’ve got the time. 
There are other projects that are more fun.
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yeah. I have a few sets of boards with various sizes. I only showed the one link because it looked like it’d fit everything he’s working with right down the middle.
Right now I’m in the process of 3d printing a bunch of mounting brackets to hang the j-channel with. I need around 40 of them to hang everything. I think this is the first time I’ve ever ran both 3d printers with beds of parts to batch something. The MP3DPv4 is twice as fast as the older bed slinger.
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This thread has convinced me to jump on the bandwagon. Ordered a 24v power supply, espixelstick, 15 ft of ws2812 leds, and buck converters to test things out. Hopefully I can get a strip up for Halloween and a full house light up by Christmas. Thanks for all of the info!
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