WS2812B Addressable RGB LED Strip
Individually addressable RGB LEDs — each pixel controllable via a single data line.
A single-wire addressable RGB LED strip — each pixel individually controllable — used in everything from ambient lighting to LED matrix art.
Specifications
| LED type | WS2812B — driver chip integrated into each individual LED |
| Operating voltage | 5 V DC |
| Interface | Single-wire, timing-critical protocol (~800kHz NRZ) — not I2C/SPI |
| Current draw | ~60 mA per LED at full white — a 1m/60-LED strip can draw ~3.6A at full brightness |
| Cascading | DOUT of one strip feeds DIN of the next for longer runs |
Pinout
| Pin | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5V | Power — use an external supply sized for the full strip length, not the MCU board's 5V pin |
| 2 | GND | Ground — must be common with the MCU's ground |
| 3 | DIN | Data in — connect to a digital GPIO on the first segment of the strip |
| 4 | DOUT | Data out — feeds the next strip's DIN when chaining multiple segments (present on some strip variants, not all) |
A 330Ω resistor in series on the DIN line and a large (~1000µF) capacitor across 5V/GND at the strip's input are cheap insurance against corrupted first pixels and power-on glitches.
Variants
The WS2812B is the default choice for most addressable-LED projects thanks to its library support and low cost, but its protocol is timing-sensitive and can glitch over long wire runs or when interrupts stall the microcontroller mid-frame. If a project needs longer cable runs, faster refresh rates, or more forgiving timing, an APA102/DotStar strip's separate clock line solves that at extra cost; if true white output matters more than either, look at an RGBW SK6812 strip instead.
| Variant | Price |
|---|---|
| WS2812B strip (this listing) | ~$5-15 per meter (30-144 LEDs/m) |
| SK6812 / NeoPixel RGBW | ~$6-18 per meter |
| APA102 / DotStar | ~$8-20 per meter |