AdrianM wrote:If you do try building it, I hope you have a meter handy to check the voltage before you wire it to the poor little ESP8266!
Matzz wrote:Guys thank you very much. I hope this there will be also useful for others.
You're welcome. On the subject of dirty PSU hacks here's on I made earlier...
This solved a number of problems in one go. The WS2812 input is 5V level and the ESP is 3.3V so most people use a level shifter. Not needed here as the GPIO data line swings about the middle of the 5V LED supply, nor did it need a 3V3 regulator. Neat eh?
As it happens, and before the young EE's descend on me, the diodes are pretty much guaranteed to drop 0.7V with an average forward current of 170mA and the 1N4148's are tougher than they look. Also, the ESP8266 Vdd-GND measured out at a reasuring 3.4V due to the drop in the USB cable. The module won't release any magic white smoke at 3.601V either.