I am rocking a CLracing F4s flight controller. I got a massive roll of addressable LEDs and can find very little on how to tell how many pixels is too many for the 5V joint to handle. I would like to install about 16 of these (4 on each arm).

Find the amp draw for each led and multiple that by 16. Then see how much your supply 5V can handle.

If it's the most common kind of addressable LEDs - WS2812B - then the maximum current of a single LED on white color (RGB 255, 255, 255) and full brigthness is 60mA.
Multiply that by 16 and you get 960mA draw for all the LEDs.
CLracing F4s seem to have a 2A rated regulator, so depending on the other devices powered by the FC (especially camera and VTX can consume quite some), you might or might not be good.

(30-Aug-2019, 01:28 PM)izzy26 Wrote: If it's the most common kind of addressable LEDs - WS2812B - then the maximum current of a single LED on white color (RGB 255, 255, 255) and full brigthness is 60mA.
Multiply that by 16 and you get 960mA draw for all the LEDs.
CLracing F4s seem to have a 2A rated regulator, so depending on the other devices powered by the FC (especially camera and VTX can consume quite some), you might or might not be good.

This is why I started powering my camera from my VTX and the VTX from VBAT.  No strain on the FC at all.  I have been hesitating adding LED's to a couple of my craft because of excessive draw concerns.

(30-Aug-2019, 01:28 PM)izzy26 Wrote: If it's the most common kind of addressable LEDs - WS2812B - then the maximum current of a single LED on white color (RGB 255, 255, 255) and full brigthness is 60mA.
Multiply that by 16 and you get 960mA draw for all the LEDs.
CLracing F4s seem to have a 2A rated regulator, so depending on the other devices powered by the FC (especially camera and VTX can consume quite some), you might or might not be good.

Thanks for the info!

My LEDs appear to be WS2811 which I assumed didn't make much of a difference, but still checked and they're for sure 60mA

I'm having a hard time figuring out the amp limit on my CLracing F4s LED pinout. There's a post in a different forum about the regular F4 AIO having a 500mA limit. Hoping this isn't the case, or I'll have to cut it down to a meager 2 pixels per arm rather than 4. Is there a good way to measure this amp limit myself just to be sure? Might there be a way to do it with a multimeter? (Which could be a really far off base question from my limited knowlege, only having tested continuity with a multimeter)

The FC has a 5V 2A limit. So that means everything you power off the 5V has to be below 2A. If you power both VTX, camera and receiver, you probably only have 5000mah-1000mah for LED. But if you run VTX and camera off lipo and Satellite receiver off 3.3v, then you have all 2A for your LED.

You can measure amp draw with a DMM. A YouTube video on the subject will show you how. If you have a DMM with two probes, you will run the current through the DMM. If you already have everything wired, you will have to desolder the LED circuit and splice the DMM into the circuit. If you have DMM with a current clamp, then you don't have to desolder anything. Just put the clamp over the positive or ground wire of the led circuit.

(05-Sep-2019, 04:22 PM)nintendude7cubed Wrote: Is there a good way to measure this amp limit myself just to be sure? Might there be a way to do it with a multimeter? (Which could be a really far off base question from my limited knowlege, only having tested continuity with a multimeter)

my tutorial on this https://oscarliang.com/multimeter-fpv/#current