What are you lighting?
Pick the path that matches your sign. You can change it later.
Supported kit hardware
Sign info
Tell us about the sign. Numbers update as you type.
Calculations
Warnings
Details
| Item | Value | How it was worked out |
|---|
Your lighting design
What to buy, where it goes, and how the wires get out.
Sign size
Type your sign's size. Everything below updates.
1Wiring diagram
Tap any part to see what it is and how it was sized.
2Parts list
| Part | What it does | Value | Buy |
|---|
3Buy this board
4Where the board goes
Seen from the front. Pick one; the checks tell you if it fits.
5Wire exits
Each red number on the map. Print the cap and body for the wire shown.
Wiring
PLIQ-LGT snap-connect boards
Boards snap together on a keyed 4-pin bus: +V, GND, DATA, SPARE.
Snap-in mounting spec (for the sign maker)
2–3 mm printed walls: the sign maker adds a boss with ledges and cantilever clips instead of cutting into the wall.
Why we chose these paths
What each part in the wiring diagrams does, why it is there, and how this layout differs from a typical LED sign build. Use Print to save this page as a PDF.
The front end every layout shares
| Part | What it does in the circuit | Why we chose it |
|---|---|---|
| Power supply, 25 % over the load | Turns mains into the LED voltage. | A supply run at its limit runs hot and fails early. Headroom is the cheapest reliability there is. |
| Class 2 limit (60 V or less, 100 VA or less) | Keeps the low-voltage side in the Class 2 category. | Under it no electrician or special enclosure is needed: 12 V up to 60 W, 24 V up to 100 W. This is why a big sign is split into several circuits. |
| One blade fuse per circuit | Opens the circuit on a fault. | Sized at 125 % of the current but never above the wire's ampacity, so it protects the wire, the part that actually starts fires. |
| Ideal diode (LM74700 with an N-MOSFET) | Blocks current if the supply leads are swapped. | A Schottky diode does the same job but drops about 0.5 V, roughly 4 % of a 12 V rail, and turns it into heat. The ideal diode drops millivolts. |
| TVS diode | Clamps voltage spikes on the supply. | Protects the controller and drivers from switching and wiring transients. |
| Bulk capacitor | Supplies sudden current steps so the rail does not sag. | 1000 µF at the strip input on addressable layouts, where pixels switch together. |
Control
| Part | What it does | Why we chose it |
|---|---|---|
| ESP32-C3 running WLED | Runs the effects and the Wi-Fi control page. | Cheap, small, has Wi-Fi, and WLED is open source with a large effects library and a phone app. |
| 74AHCT125 level shifter | Lifts the 3.3 V data signal to 5 V. | 5 V addressable strips want a logic high near 3.5 V. A bare 3.3 V output is marginal and causes flicker. |
| 330 Ω data series resistor | Sits at the strip end of the data wire. | Damps ringing and reflections on long data runs. |
| N-MOSFET per colour channel (PWM layouts) | Switches each colour channel. | Has a pull-down so the LEDs stay off while the controller boots, and a flyback diode for inductive kick on long wires. |
Injection feeds
Voltage drop along a strip grows with the square of its length. Feeding a segment from both ends cuts the worst-point drop to one quarter, which is the same drop over twice the length. The wizard calculates where the extra feeds go and adds a fused injection tee for each.
The light engine (high-power layouts)
- Constant-current buck driver per colour. LEDs are current-driven. Voltage-only drive shifts brightness and colour as they heat up.
- Heatsink thermistor and fan with foldback. The fan ramps with temperature and power backs off if it is still too hot, which protects LED life. About 70 % of the electrical power becomes heat, which is how the wizard sizes the heatsink.
- Boost module instead of a buck when the LED string voltage is too close to the supply for a buck to regulate.
Versus a typical build
A typical build is a strip on a barrel-jack supply with one long feed, the controller wired straight to the data pin, and at most one fuse. Most single parts above are standard good practice and are cited in the sources file. What is ours is putting them together, sized for each sign, on PLIQ-LGT boards.
What is and is not verified
None of this has been bench-tested yet. The sources file marks several defaults TBD-verify, including the strip rail resistance, the ampacity of 12 and 10 AWG wire, and the addressable frame timing.
Maker log & credentials
Log your builds with part numbers, earn graded credentials, and list your own parts.
Your build list & order
Check the parts list for your sign, then choose how you want it: finished boards, a custom board, or the design files to build your own.