NEopixel has no lights when connected to Rpi / Pico

Support
1

Hi, i have wired up a set of Neon-like RGB LED Strip with Diffuser (NeoPixel/WS2812/SK6812 compatible) as per the various instructions i found to a Rpi4 (i also tried it on a PICO): checked that i have data going in at the female connector end, checked that i see 5v coming out at the other end, use a separate power supply to the pi and having shared GND. I have used the 4 pins that are shown as usable (board.d18, board.d21, board.d10 and board.d12 . in every case i see no lights, not a flicker or a flash. No errors reported from the basic code i am using to test with:

import board
import neopixel
pixels = neopixel.NeoPixel(board.D21, 30)

while True:
pixels.fill((255, 0, 0))

used raspi-config to enable i2c and spi

Are there any other settings i need to make to ensure that they will work ?

are there any other ideas as to what i can try to check out the PI / neopixels are ok ?

thanks in advance for any help

2

if anyone finds this with a similar problem, the instructions on the product page are incorrect. the strip should be connected to the pi at the male end NOT the female end.

3

It was this end of mine that was the data in end - was yours different?

image
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4

hi, thanks for the response. the problem is that the details on the product page are incorrect, they state it is the female end to use not, as you show, the male end. cheers

5

Aha! This connector has sockets not pins - so I referred to it as the female end. Appreciate this is not very clear when the connector itself is a plug that fits into a socket - I’ll try and improve the description (and add a picture showing the correct end) :)