ESP8266 Community Forum

Hello. I'm working on my first project to program an LED strip with the NodeMCU ESP8266. I've got it working just fine for the most part. However, I'm attempting to change the light patterns with a web interface hosted from the ESP8266. I've got the code loaded to host the page and it comes up fine, sometimes. I've noticed that when I have the board attached to my PC (via USB) and with a 5v power supply at the same time, the wifi connects with no issues. When I'm done working with the code and attempt to run it standalone, the wifi has a lot of difficulty connecting. It takes a while to connect initially and when it finally does and I bring up the HTML page, the wifi cuts out and goes down. Very hit and miss (mostly miss). I suspect that the board doesn't have enough power to transmit the wifi signal since it seems to work fine when attached to both the PC and the 5v supply. Can anyone please confirm this? If so, what can be done to help this out? I figured a 5v supply would be plenty (both board and LED strip say to not use more than this), but perhaps if the board and the LED strip are sharing it, then that might be an issue? I've attached an image of how I have this wired up. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

2 things that can be the issue mentioned we don't know about, you don't mention...
1) How many LEDs in your strip
2) Amperage of 5v supply
also you don't mention what kind of LED is it? is it neopixels? I think one pixel for those takes up to 30amps?

icons wrote:I think one pixel for those takes up to 30amps?

30A is a bit much for a single Neopixel.
Neopixels can consume around 60mA at full (white) brightness, so indeed this can become a lot of current if more LED's are lit at once.

Have you tried it with a power supply that can supply, let's say, 5A at 5V (or maybe even 10A at 5V)?

what was I thinking I mean 30mA. but your are right 60mA it is.