WS2812B LED strip with Nordic nRF52840 DK

Wiring for the WS2812B addressable LED strip on the Nordic nRF52840 DK (nRF52840-QIAA, 3.3 V logic), chosen with the same pin rules BoardPilot uses: default buses first, and no pins that are used for flash, USB, the debugger or booting.

Wiring

WS2812B LED strip pin	Role	Nordic nRF52840 DK pin	Notes
5V	Power	5V	Use 5V for a few LEDs; a separate 5 V supply for more (up to 60 mA per LED)
DIN	Input to the part	P1.03	Data in. Add a 330 Ω resistor; a 3.3 V to 5 V level shifter makes it reliable
GND	Ground	GND

Check before you power it on

Supply: 5 V from the 5V pin.
Motors, servos, relays and LED strips can draw more current than the Nordic nRF52840 DK’s pins or USB can give. Power them separately and connect the grounds together.

Test code (Arduino)

The Arduino core for this board numbers its pins differently from the chip names, so no code is shown here. Use the pin names from your core’s variant file.

Arduino board: adafruit:nrf52:pca10056. Plug USB into the port on the short edge (interface MCU, J2) and set the power switch to ON; before the first Arduino sketch, burn the Adafruit bootloader and SoftDevice once.

Questions

Which Nordic nRF52840 DK pins do I use for the WS2812B LED strip?

5V → 5V, DIN → P1.03, GND → GND.

Does the WS2812B LED strip work with the Nordic nRF52840 DK at 3.3 V?

Yes: the WS2812B LED strip runs at 5 V and the Nordic nRF52840 DK uses 3.3 V signals, so no level shifting is needed.

BoardPilot checks this wiring in 3D as you build it, and finds crossed or missing wires on the real board.

Download BoardPilot

Full Nordic nRF52840 DK pinout · WS2812B addressable LED strip: all pins and data

The WS2812B LED strip on other boards

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