Hello i'm a compsci undergrad and for a small project i have to drive a led strip using the Nexys4 DDR board.
My question is very simple and while the VHDL part of the project works alright I have a doubt about the intergraton with external hardware. As the title says I have to drive a led strip using the board, the led strip is composed by a series of WS2811 IC led controllers each connected to 3 5050 RGB LEDs. According to the WS2811 datasheet the chip needs 12V in but the board can't provide such high voltage so I have to use an external PSU for it. At the moment I'm just using the 5V USB to power the board, I'm unsure if it's okay to power the LED strip with an external PSU and the board using my PC and just connect the serial data pin OR if both the led strip and the board must be powered from the same source (eventually using a step down converter) with common GND.
The board is pretty expensive and I don't want to break anything so I figured out it was a good idea to ask here ahah thank you for your time
