I'm trying to build myself a cool looking little Pi cyberdeck. I've already got it working with an HDMI to USB alt adapter, so it uses a pair of XReal AR glasses as its display, but I wanted to add a little Neopixel ring around the base to light up different colors based on different criteria (battery life, RAM usage, CPU, etc.)
So the LED ring I've got is 24 LEDs at 5v and 0.6A per LED (0.2 X 3 for RGB) so it's 1.44A. More than the Pi's 5V GPIO output can provide, I'm told, so I need to provide a separate power source for the LEDs.
If this were a desktop device, I'd just plug em into a powered USB hub, but it's actually mobile. I'm using a Waveshare 3S UPS (https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/UPS_Module_3S) that uses three 18650s to power the Pi and does so admirably. But it's only got one 5v output for the Pi, as well as a separate 12V output. I would prefer not to add complications and extra parts to the case by using a 12V to 5V DC buck converter to the mix, though I have one.
You may be able to cleverly ascertain from this post that I'm a web developer with an amateur understanding of hardware engineering and you would be stone cold correct.
So: how do I power both the Pi 5 and the LED ring from that power supply? Do I split the 5V USB-C output for the Pi and use that to power the LEDs, or do I try to power them from the Pi's USB output rather than the GPIO, or do I use a buck converter to power the LEDs off the 12v output on the UPS, or do I just scrap the entire idea of having cool LEDs in the base?
So the LED ring I've got is 24 LEDs at 5v and 0.6A per LED (0.2 X 3 for RGB) so it's 1.44A. More than the Pi's 5V GPIO output can provide, I'm told, so I need to provide a separate power source for the LEDs.
If this were a desktop device, I'd just plug em into a powered USB hub, but it's actually mobile. I'm using a Waveshare 3S UPS (https://www.waveshare.com/wiki/UPS_Module_3S) that uses three 18650s to power the Pi and does so admirably. But it's only got one 5v output for the Pi, as well as a separate 12V output. I would prefer not to add complications and extra parts to the case by using a 12V to 5V DC buck converter to the mix, though I have one.
You may be able to cleverly ascertain from this post that I'm a web developer with an amateur understanding of hardware engineering and you would be stone cold correct.
So: how do I power both the Pi 5 and the LED ring from that power supply? Do I split the 5V USB-C output for the Pi and use that to power the LEDs, or do I try to power them from the Pi's USB output rather than the GPIO, or do I use a buck converter to power the LEDs off the 12v output on the UPS, or do I just scrap the entire idea of having cool LEDs in the base?
Statistics: Posted by jzellis — Sat Aug 23, 2025 11:22 pm