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Troubleshooting Guide

cookbook/troubleshooting/README.md

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Troubleshooting Guide

Difficulty Level: ⭐ Beginner Time to Complete: 10-15 minutes (reading and understanding troubleshooting resources available) Prerequisites:

You'll Learn:

  • How to navigate troubleshooting resources to quickly find solutions to common LED problems
  • Using the quick troubleshooting checklist to verify basic setup before detailed debugging
  • When to check common-issues.md for quick fixes vs debugging.md for systematic diagnosis
  • Identifying hardware problems (wiring, power, signal integrity) vs software issues (code, configuration)
  • Where to find help when problems persist beyond the troubleshooting guides

This section provides comprehensive troubleshooting resources for FastLED projects, covering common issues, debugging techniques, and hardware problems.

Contents

Common Issues and Solutions

Quick fixes for the most frequently encountered problems:

  • LEDs not lighting up
  • Wrong colors displayed
  • Flickering and instability
  • First LED issues

Debugging Tips

Techniques and code examples for debugging your LED projects:

  • Serial monitoring and diagnostics
  • Test patterns to verify setup
  • Memory usage checking
  • Color and frame rate debugging
  • Data corruption validation

Hardware Problems

In-depth guide to hardware-related issues:

  • Voltage drop and power injection
  • Wiring best practices
  • Signal integrity issues
  • Platform-specific problems (ESP32, etc.)
  • Power supply selection
  • Comprehensive hardware testing

Quick Troubleshooting Checklist

Before diving into specific guides, verify these basics:

  • Power supply voltage correct (5V for most strips)
  • Power supply capacity sufficient (60mA per LED at full white)
  • Data pin in code matches physical wiring
  • LED type correct (WS2812B, APA102, etc.)
  • COLOR_ORDER correct for your strip (try GRB if RGB doesn't work)
  • Ground shared between microcontroller and LED strip
  • FastLED.show() being called in your code
  • Brightness not set to 0
  • Strip not physically damaged

Getting Help

If you're still stuck after reviewing these resources:

  1. Double-check your wiring against the diagrams in Hardware Problems
  2. Run the comprehensive hardware test in Debugging Tips
  3. Check the FastLED community forums
  4. Review the main FastLED documentation