WS2812B Addressable LED

Operating Voltage

3.5 to 5.3 V

Data Rate

800 Kbps

Color Depth

24 bit

Scan Frequency

400 Hz

Input Capacitance

15 pF

Operating Temperature Range

-25 to 80 C

Interface

Single-wire NZR cascadable serial

Package Types

5050 SMD

Runs on 3.5-5.3 V (per the datasheet specs) and uses a single-wire timed serial protocol. At 5 V supply a 3.3 V data line is marginal — level-shift it.

• Addressable RGB LED strips and matrices
• Ambient / status lighting and signage
• Wearable and prop lighting

• Add a ~300-500 Ω series resistor on DIN and a big cap (e.g. 1000 µF) across the supply.
• Shift a 3.3 V MCU's data up to 5 V (e.g. 74HCT logic) for reliable first-pixel timing.
• Budget ~60 mA per LED at full white and inject power for long strips.

• ESP32 DevKitC (WROOM-32)Espressif · ESP32-WROOM-32
• Raspberry Pi PicoRaspberry Pi · RP2040
• 74HC595 8-bit Shift RegisterSN74HC595 · Texas Instruments

Community starter examples — minimal, unofficial, and provided to get you wiring fast. Verify against the manufacturer datasheet before relying on them.

// WS2812B addressable RGB LEDs — community starter example
#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

#if defined(ESP32)
  #define LED_PIN 5
#else
  #define LED_PIN 6
#endif
#define NUM_LEDS 8

Adafruit_NeoPixel strip(NUM_LEDS, LED_PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

void setup() {
  strip.begin();
  strip.setBrightness(60);
  strip.show();
}

void loop() {
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++) {
    strip.setPixelColor(i, strip.Color(0, 150, 0));   // green
    strip.show();
    delay(80);
  }
  for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS; i++) strip.setPixelColor(i, 0);
  strip.show();
  delay(300);
}

# WS2812B addressable LEDs (ESP32) — community starter example
# uses the built-in `neopixel` module
from machine import Pin
import neopixel, time

NUM = 8
np = neopixel.NeoPixel(Pin(5), NUM)   # DIN on GPIO5

while True:
    for i in range(NUM):
        np[i] = (0, 60, 0)            # dim green
        np.write()
        time.sleep_ms(80)
    for i in range(NUM):
        np[i] = (0, 0, 0)
    np.write()
    time.sleep_ms(300)