Next we'll tell WLED about our physical setup. We'll give our project a name and easy-to-remember URL, and tell the software how many LEDs we have set up on each pin.
WiFi Setup
Head to the WiFi Setup screen under Config. This is where your network credentials live, so you can change them if needed. Scroll down to the mDNS field and create a good URL so you can control your project from any web-enabled device. Call it something you'll remember, that's easy to type into any web browser on your WiFi network in order to connect to your project.
In this example, I'd go to my web browser on my phone, ipad, or computer, and type in "http://projectname.local" to open up the WLED interface on my screen. Your device must be on the same WiFi network as your board.
LED Preferences
Next, head to the LED Preferences tab under the Config menu.
Scroll down to Hardware Setup. The Sparkle Motion board has 4 spots to attach LED strips: the screw terminal uses GPIO 19, 22, and 21 and the through-hole solder pads to the left of the screw terminal is GPIO 23.
WLED allows up to 4 strips to be connected at once. The strips can be of different types, lengths, and color order. Select your LED type, length, and GPIO pin. If you have multiple strips connected, click the + button and enter the additional strips in the same way.
Click "save" and if you've done everything correctly, your light strands should come on in a warm, cheerful yellow color. Success! Time to start making pretty light animations.
Troubleshooting
If your lights didn't come on, here are a few things to try:
- Head back to WLED and check your pinout configuration under LED Preferences. Be sure the pin number is the correct GPIO for the attachment point you used.
- Check your wiring! Be sure you connected to the IN end of the LED strip. These strips can be inconsistent so this is a pretty common problem. Use an alligator clip to try connecting the data wire on the other end (the power and ground wires should work from either end).
- Try re-uploading the WLED software.
- If the lights come on but you can't control them: i.e. you type in "projectname.local" into your browser and it won't connect, make sure you're on the correct WiFi network. If you're on a different network than the one you set up the sofware on, you won't see the WLED connection.
- If your lights came on in blue or green instead of yellow, your color order is wrong. See below to fix.
- If only half your lights came on, be sure you've got the correct number in the "length" field under LED preferences.
- If your lights came on in a variety of weird colors and looking like a 1950s diner interior, you may have the wrong LED strip type selected. RGBW strips and RGB strips are not the same, so be sure you've got the correct strip type or you'll get very odd behavior.
- If your microcontroller hangs or keeps rebooting, or gets really hot, you may have the power and ground lines switched. Unplug right away and check: this is a fast way to brick your controller.
If your lights have come on in any color other than a warm yellow, there's one more setting to change. LED strips and pixels are not all standardized, and sometimes the red, green, and blue LEDs inside are connected in a different order.
In the main interface window, choose "solid" as your effect and red as your color from the color picker.
If your lights come on in any color other than red, your color order is set incorrectly. This is an easy fix. Head back to the LED settings tab and find the Hardware Setup section (this is where you set up your pin number earlier). Choose BRG from the dropdown, click save, and see if your pixel colors match your color picker now. If not, try another combo until the lights look correct.
Page last edited January 28, 2025
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