I realize this is a super old thread, but I used a 3.7v lipo to power 3 ws2811s and a trinket inside of a wizard’s staff at 3/4 brightness.
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Found this tip a few weeks ago, haven’t personally tried it out yet, but on paper it looks to be pretty ingenious. Concept uses a diode drop to underpower the first “sacrificial” led (WS8218B in this case) to provide a mid-point transition step between 3.3v and 5v, allowing everything to remain within the manufacturer’s specs, and thus, much more reliable operation with 3.3v MCUs.
Not sure if anyone else has already brought this up… Sorry if they have… but I just wanted to share for the benefit of anyone struggling with an unreliable strip or who wants to ditch their buck / boost modules to keep their physical project size at a minimum.
Cheers