I am working on a QLC+ project on my Pi 4 that uses the SPI bus with a 160-led WS2801 strip. I am controlling the strip through OSC/UDP from a PC. I have the MOSI, CLK and GND lines wired to the Pi from the LED strip and I have a separate 10A 5V power supply powering the LED strip. Everything is working alright thus far, but I notice that some animations I am trying to do become choppy, and some of the LEDs begin to drop out. In general, the refresh rate on the lights looks noticeably choppy and not as smooth and quick as I'd like it to be.
My first thought was to try and increase the SPI clock speed- but when I raise it past 2MHz something with the clock timing fails and the LED patterns become scrambled. The WS2801 datasheet claims that they can handle clock speeds up to 25MHz, so even an SPI clock speed of 8MHz shouldn't be an issue in theory. So why does it become scrambled...?
Anyone have any suggestions on how to get faster refresh rates on LED Strips using QLC+ Pi and the SPI bus? Any advice is much appreciate- thanks so much Massimo Callegari for the work you've put into this interface!
Cheers,
Amina