[HN Gopher] WLED Project ___________________________________________________________________ WLED Project Author : tambourine_man Score : 173 points Date : 2022-12-23 13:56 UTC (9 hours ago) (HTM) web link (kno.wled.ge) (TXT) w3m dump (kno.wled.ge) | jsjohnst wrote: | If you really want to get serious with WLED, check out the new | Quinled-Dig-Octa boards. Super affordable and hands down the | easiest way to get thousands of lights setup. 50-100A of LEDs, no | problem! You'll spend more on the power supply than you will on | Quindor's top notch boards. | | https://quinled.info | | (Not affiliated in any way except being a very happy customer) | leros wrote: | Thanks for sharing. I'm about to build a 20-30m long | installation of LEDs and I've been working out the power | distribution needs and such. This site is a perfect resource. | khimaros wrote: | +1000, we built a large scale art installation using Quinn's | DigQuad. they were easily the single most significant and | prudent technical decision made for our project. amazing | community, documentation, and high quality product. | lostlogin wrote: | Any chance of a link or photo or something? | whatusername wrote: | I'm curious -- why something small like a DigQuad and not | something beefier like a Falcon/Kulp? | | (I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "large scale" -- but | WLED/ESP32 doesn't really tick the large box for me) | semi-extrinsic wrote: | Not sure how it compares, but I've been using the Evil Genius | Labs breakout boards for Wemos D1 and ESP32. They do level | shifting and provide very convenient access for attaching | multiple LED strips and using them with FastLED or WLED. | | Currently running the Christmas lights from one of these, and | I've had another one banging around for a couple of years | running a LED strip that goes around the kids' bicycle trailer, | surviving frost and rain and salt spray, just powered off a USB | powerbank. | Abishek_Muthian wrote: | Any one new to LEDs and trying to learn some basics, Here's | 'Secret life of components' by Tim Hunkin[1]. | | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvcITqw5iDY | hexo wrote: | Very nice, I have some questions tho - did esp got better than it | used to be? I mean - all esp devices i've used had MTBF between | 1-2 weeks. And what about zigbee 3.0 - how does it compare to | this (from all points of view)? | theshrike79 wrote: | ESP boards are Wifi, Zigbee is a completely different protocol | with encryption and mesh capabilities and all that. | thewataccount wrote: | I've had really good uptime once I added a capacitor on the | power rails. This was onto one of those WEMOS boards and a few | others too. | sokoloff wrote: | I think there's some common-mode failure source in your | particular application. | | I've had several dozen of them running some in vehicles, | outside lightly shielded, in a basement, and on my desk. Some | are running right off an 18650 with no boost/buck converter. No | failures in several years , across low-end cheapest 8266 | breakouts and 32s. | hackmiester wrote: | Are you maybe overvolting your ESPs? I've had an ESP8266 | outdoors (shielded from rain, poorly) for 4 years with no | apparent issue. | | Running one WLED device is much simpler than Zigbee. If you run | more than one, they use UDP to sync over your Wi-Fi. If you | have decent Wi-Fi, this will be much easier to set up than | Zigbee; if we are talking a more industrial installation, it | may not be a good fit. | Rebelgecko wrote: | That definitely doesn't line up with what I've seen, | failurewise. One of my ESP-32s has been running pretty much | continuously for 3 years without any trouble. And in the past | I've had no trouble running multiple for months at a time. The | only failures I've had, across maybe 4 different manufacturers, | happened when I did something dumb and unintentionally fried a | board. | hexo wrote: | Thanks for a good news! | ThrowawayTestr wrote: | I've had my ESP-01 outside in the winter cold for about a week | now and one inside running a lava lamp. Remember that it runs | off 3.3v, not 5. | Waterluvian wrote: | I got this neopixel ring in a kit and as a non-hardware person it | perplexes me how I'm supposed to use it. There's no mount points. | Is the expectation that everyone can design and print parts? | | I can wire it up and program it but goodness knows how I actually | affix it to my Pololu Romi. | Marioheld wrote: | I really love this project. Very active developrer/ community and | many new features over the years. Also a very helpfull | documentation. | blockarchitech wrote: | Time to blow up a nodemcu. | | Or two. | ThrowawayTestr wrote: | The 0.14 beta just released which adds support for 2d matrixes. | Great bit of software for easily controlling RGB strips. | khimaros wrote: | WLED can also be paired with OpenRGB to control many discrete | devices over the network via E1.31. there is also an open source | spatial napping plugin for OpenRGB which can be paired with an | effects plugin supporting GLSL shaders and even GIF or video | feeds. with this combination you can approach the capabilities of | proprietary systems which cost easily 20x. | iamflimflam1 wrote: | Since it's Christmas I feel I should post my old addressable LEDs | project. | | https://youtu.be/Ic_MmhiT8qE | birdman3131 wrote: | So I had a stack of 12v pixel leds I picked up at an amazon | returns bin store a while back for $10 for 10 sets of 50 leds. | (Normally $120-150) | | This was 6 strings (Only 5 visible), a D1 esp 8266 running wled | and a 12v power supply. Worked quite well. | | https://imgur.com/a/C8BbDVI | brk wrote: | Been using WLED for a few years now, it's really a great project. | You can take the default build, flash it to an ESP device and get | started directly, or integrate it easily into other automation | systems and devices easily. | | The amount of both features and general professionalism in the | interface is really incredible for an ESP-based project. | ensignavenger wrote: | I recently started looking for something really close to this, | and found this project.... but what I really want is a PoE | controller, because my LEDs need power anyway, so why not control | them with the same cable? Unfortunately I haven't found a WLED | compatible PoE controller. | | Anyone know of such a thing? | MegaDeKay wrote: | In case you weren't aware, a long LED strip with a high density | of LEDs/m starts chewing up a lot of amps in a hurry depending | on the effect. So much so that a lot of people will inject | power into either end of the strip or even at multiple points | along a length of interconnected strips. Otherwise the current | draw causes a voltage drop that dims the LEDs and / or affects | their color at the far end. | | Lots of WLED people (myself included) run with pretty beefy | dedicated 5V supplies and use decently heavy gauge wire to | connect to the strips. | | I'd recommend going the other way around. Connect to the ESP | wirelessly and use a beefy dedicated supply to power both it | and the LEDs. | dekhn wrote: | To give an idea of what's possible, I built a "4K" display | with addressable LEDs. It was 64 strips of 64 pixels each. | There was no need to do any power injection (uniform | intensity across the whole board). I did the same as you: | beefy dedicated 5V supplies. Even then, I was a bit worried | because lighting up the entire display at full power pulled | over a kilowatt. The person I gave the LEDs to then | reconnecting them into 1 long strip and had to do power | injection,. | jes5199 wrote: | can you recommend some specific power supplies? I've got a | project that's been stalled out for long time because I don't | know the right way to power it | MegaDeKay wrote: | For sure. You don't want to get some dicey supply that | might burn your house down. I got a Mean Well LRS-200-5 | Switching Power Supply from Mouser (200W at 5V = 40A !!!). | Mean Well makes quality supplies at reasonable prices and | are a popular brand with the WLED crowd. Be sure to buy the | 25cent piece of plastic that snaps over top of the AC | terminals so you don't electrocute yourself. And get some | inline fuses while you are at it to be on the safe side | (unless you are getting something like a QuinLED board that | builds that in). You'll also want some terminal to barrel | connectors to. | | If you want some solid information, Quindor has you | covered: https://quinled.info/2018/10/01/tools-and- | equipment/ | ThrowawayTestr wrote: | Each WS2812 draws 60mA at full brightness. I have a 32*32 | array for 60A, but I only intend to run them at half | brightness so I got a 40A supply. | ensignavenger wrote: | Thank you, I was aware of this for longer strips. My first | project I want to do is my kitchen cabinets, using shorter | length led strips. I have 8 cat6 cables running to my kitchen | cabinets now for this project, which should be plenty of | power for the short runs of LED strips I will be using. | | A larger under the roof eaves display would be pretty cool | though- will have to carefully look at the power for that if | I ever do it. | brk wrote: | There are a relatively limited number of PoE ESP32 options. The | Olimax unit seems to be workable with WS2812 style strips, | possibly with a little bit of hacking. | jsjohnst wrote: | The most you can pull off a PoE switch is usually under 30W. | Given you'll also lose efficiency stepping down the voltage, | you might get say a single 5 meter strip powered at best off | that PoE connection. | sowbug wrote: | I use PoE adapters that have micro USB power-out plugs. The | thing being powered uses either Ethernet or WiFi, depending on | what it is. | MauranKilom wrote: | I have a long term project of room lighting that reacts to music. | I've gotten my feet wet working with the LED strips already, but | hadn't heard of WLED - sounds extremely promising! | | Does somebody have an idea whether "real-time" music <-> light | sync is feasible with WLED? I plan to have the audio processing | happening outside the ESP32, but then I'm still concerned about | the bandwidth requirements (driving ~300 NeoPixels), because | ideally I don't want to just trigger "discrete" effects but | retain full control. I just wonder whether WLED puts any | significant overhead in there that I wouldn't run into with | something hand-rolled... | whatusername wrote: | WLED has sound reactive plugins for built-in effects. Looks | like there's some new stuff in .14 for this as well -- but I | haven't followed closely. | | Or if you wanted to externalise it completely - it supports | DDP/E1.31 -- you could generate the required effect externally | - and just send the commands over the network. That should do | 40 updates per second for 300 pixels. Ideally send it over | ethernet - but you could probably pull it off over a good wifi | network. | dark-star wrote: | Funny, just 2 days ago I ordered two RGB LED strips and a power | supply to play around with during the holidays. I will definitely | check this out, seems to save me some programming :-) | dang wrote: | Related: | | _WLED Arduino WiFi LED Controller_ - | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29970819 - Jan 2022 (20 | comments) | RoddyRags wrote: | Made a mega comet across our living room window with 2x esp32 and | 2x 300 RGBW strips. One in a star 5 points 10 segments. The other | strip as a 2 pronged tail on the comet (2 segments) which becomes | more wiggly (turbulent) with distance. | | This project totally made my Christmas I could spend ages playing | with the settings and mixing the right colours & speeds... | | Setting the 2 to sync with each other or do their own thing is | sooo easy, even my mother in law enjoyed controlling it. | | Even a wee 24 rgb LED ring can have cool effects with this superb | software | jve wrote: | Care to share video? | ct0 wrote: | WLED got me back into programming micro-controller and soldering. | Tons of fun to be had at a relatively low cost of entry. | mmmmax wrote: | This is an amazing project and if you like WLED you'll also like | Pixelblaze which is full-stack including a coding interface: | https://electromage.com/pixelblaze | vosper wrote: | If I wanted to make a programmable LED grid in the least DIY | way possible (I know nothing about electronics), would | Pixelblaze be a good option? | hackmiester wrote: | Yes. | bombledmonk wrote: | I think the short answer to your question is yes. | | You still have to be able to hook up few wires and you'll | need to be able to power your LEDs and understand your power | needs there, but the live compilation in web based | development platform (that's served by the device, no cloud) | makes it really ideal for rapid prototyping and getting up | and running quickly. No fussing with Arduino IDE or compile | times. It's one of those things that "just works". | | If you want to see it in action: | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMKltz8ji0k | jonwest wrote: | I wish there was a way to flash this to existing hardware. I've | already got my LEDs running on ESP32s and I'd love to play with | it, but I don't want to have to wait for/pay for international | shipping for essentially the same hardware. | | Seems like a super cool project though! The effects look really | cool and more "organic" than the WLED effects (to me at least), | but I think I'll just need to live vicariously through | YouTubers on this one haha | agys wrote: | Recently we built a LED sign for a bar named "Cinque a Zero" like | a Campari based cocktail. We used a single Teensy 4.1 + a simple | custom board that we designed to drive around 10K RGBW LEDs. | | Twitter thread with some background: | | https://twitter.com/andreasgysin/status/1472943758467645450?... | poutine wrote: | I've been toying a lot with this recently. | | A tip for anyone that's interested, you can order a compatible | LED strip from Ali Express for much cheaper than Amazon, though | you're going to wait several weeks. For example, do a search for | WS2815 LED Strips and compare. | | BTW, if you're doing just single color check out COB LED strips, | they're pretty cool with the uniform lighting over the strip. Get | them in 24v to avoid voltage drop. | | LED Strips are lots of fun to play with and pretty easy to chop | up, power and control. | spookthesunset wrote: | Or look at the SK6812 LED strips. You'll get RGBW, which is | perfect for cool looking task lighting | eamonnsullivan wrote: | Not sure why this is being promoted today (new release?), but I | absolutely love this project. I use esp32 boards to power two | strips in the house and another is currently powering my | Christmas lights outside. The integration with Home Assistant is | awesome. I just this week made the outside lights do a little | dance (turn different colours and wave) when the doorbell rings. | nevi-me wrote: | I've been building a project from scratch. Creating closet | lights using an ESP32 and W2812B strips. I'm mostly getting | myself accustomed to Matter, as I'm more building something | that I'll integrate with Google Home. | | It's great that this is on HN, I otherwise wouldn't have known | about it. Looks like it can take care of the lighting control, | and then I can worry about exposing a Rainmaker interface. | MegaDeKay wrote: | Probably because of the release of 0.14 beta1. Here is the | announcement from their Discord posted yesterday by Aircookie | | ~~~ | | After a way too long time, I am thrilled to finally share the | new official beta, 0.14.0-b1, with you, just in time for | Christmas! https://install.wled.me/ | | Don't let yourself be fooled by the beta moniker, this version | offers so much more than 0.13 | | 0.14 is such a huge step forward in comparison to 0.13 that | there are way too many epic new features and improvements to | even start listing here. The two most major additions are | native support for 2D matrix panels and effects as well as | audio reactivity via usermod! | | A huge thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who | contributed to the project in the last year, especially | @blazoncek , @softhack007 , @ewowi and the WLED-SR fork team, | who together have contributed, if I had to approximate, 90% of | the new 0.14 code! | tambourine_man wrote: | Because same people let lights decorations for the last days | before Xmas. And the Google search thing might have led them | that path. Not that I'd know who said people are. | codeslave13 wrote: | Anyone recommend a "beginners starter kit" to start exploring | wled stuff? Ie. A board, pa, and smallish or various strip | options? Thanks | poutine wrote: | Check out the Athom box, available on Ali Express: | | https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003776848515.html?spm=a2... | | It's an all in one with WLED on it. You just need a strip, some | wire and a power supply. | antsar wrote: | Also available from their site with much faster shipping than | AliExpress's Jan 20 (to the US, at least). | | https://www.athom.tech/ | | Happily using this little guy to drive 100 fairy lights (from | Adafruit), all from a USB plug. | | https://www.athom.tech/blank-1/wled-2812b-led-strip- | controll... | jareklupinski wrote: | Personally a fan of Adafruit's Feather boards, their ESP32 | Feather can probably use the WLED code as-is, and there's | expansions that include all the LEDs already soldered | https://www.adafruit.com/product/2945 | spdustin wrote: | Can confirm that Huzzah32 runs WLED just fine. Really | convenient to have that LiPo battery connector and charging | circuit built in, too. | ThrowawayTestr wrote: | Search "ESP RGB" on AliExpress. There's a $2 breakout board for | the ESP-01 that makes it really easy to run LED strips. All you | have to do it power it with 5V and the board converts it for | the ESP. | jsjohnst wrote: | check out the boards made by Quindor. Very solid, very | affordable. https://quinled.info | | His videos and blog posts are super helpful too! | spdustin wrote: | I used WLED to make an RGB LED effect-laden scarf for my wife, | and then decided to add the same setup to a Santa hat. Now, as | long as one ESP32 can access the other (either over the built-in | access point or any shared WiFi network) the effects she chooses | on her scarf sync to the brim of my Santa hat :) | | I love WLED so hard. | patrick91 wrote: | do you have pictures or a write up about this? sounds very | neat! ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-12-23 23:00 UTC)