WS2815 experience/opinions

**Glycerine** · 09-16-2022, 07:42 PM

Looking for experience/opinions on the ws2815. Are they worth the extra $ over the ws2812B. Do they use the same protocol, or better question I guess would be, will they work with FPP and xLights?

Personally, I think they would be worth the extra money simply for the continuous break-point feature. But I have no experience with them, so just asking around... Thanks!

**Glycerine** · 09-20-2022, 03:45 PM

Is anyone using the ws2815?

**MartinMueller2003** · 09-20-2022, 09:02 PM

They use the WS2811 protocol, aka WS281x. So far, all of the WS2811 through 15 use the same protocol and are interchangeable in a string.

**1pet2_9** · 09-20-2022, 10:14 PM

I'm running ws2815 this moment. just put it out for Halloween, and it is working fine, picking up from where it left off last year. Sequenced in Xlights and all. Seems I can run 300 pixels from the nearest 12v power injection point on the LED strips.

I would say the biggest pain is that the 4-pin connectors don't just work coming off the 3-pin controller headers. But for me it's not a big deal, because i use a mixture of 12V and 5V anyway. The controller's running at 5V, so for me, it's all for the best.

**Glycerine** · 09-22-2022, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by MartinMueller2003

They use the WS2811 protocol, aka WS281x. So far, all of the WS2811 through 15 use the same protocol and are interchangeable in a string.

Awesome! Thank you.

**Glycerine** · 09-22-2022, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by 1pet2_9

I'm running ws2815 this moment. just put it out for Halloween, and it is working fine, picking up from where it left off last year. Sequenced in Xlights and all. Seems I can run 300 pixels from the nearest 12v power injection point on the LED strips.

I would say the biggest pain is that the 4-pin connectors don't just work coming off the 3-pin controller headers. But for me it's not a big deal, because i use a mixture of 12V and 5V anyway. The controller's running at 5V, so for me, it's all for the best.

Thanks. So is this your second year running them? No failures yet?

**1pet2_9** · 09-22-2022, 11:05 AM

This is my second year going all-out on the ws2815. The closest to a failure I got was weather-related: some wet mud got stuck in the PEX arch and caused a power-ground short.

**Glycerine** · 09-22-2022, 01:09 PM

Originally Posted by 1pet2_9

This is my second year going all-out on the ws2815. The closest to a failure I got was weather-related: some wet mud got stuck in the PEX arch and caused a power-ground short.

Cool, thanks. Just placed an order for some!