Animation Presets
Once your lights are working, it's time for the fun part: creating light animations using WLED presets. This is easy and intuitive in WLED. Choose a color palette and an effect, then play with the sliders at the bottom of the Effect Mode column to customize the effect.
When you find something you like, click the +Preset button in the Presets tab and give your preset a name, then save it. You can reorder them using the "Save to ID" field.
You can create hundreds of presets using the preprogrammed effects, so take some time to play around and see what looks good on your LED strip.
Timed Light Setup
For outdoor garden lights, it's lovely to have them turn on automatically when it gets dark, then turn off again at a set time so they don't stay on all night. Your garden will illuminate in the evening automatically, and it's easy to change or override this setting if you want to be out later in the night time.'
Turning On at Dusk
Open the Time & Macros config tab. Right at the top you'll see a checkbox titled "Get time from NTP server". Be sure that box is checked, then set your time zone from the dropdown.
Further down under the Time & Macros config tab, scroll to the Time-controlled presets section. I want my lights to come on and play preset 1 at 15 minutes after sunset so here's how I set that up.
Turning Off 2 Hours After Dusk
Under LED preferences, look for a section titled Timed Light. Here you have the ability to turn the lights off a set number of minutes after they turn on.
Syncing Multiple Areas Together
WLED has a fantastic sync function where you can sync multiple nodes / controllers across your wifi network.
To sync your lights together, pull up the controls for the "master" controller (the one you want as your sender) and click the "Sync" button. By default, the other controllers will automatically sync up the next time the animation changes.
If you want more control over which instances are syncing with which, head to the Sync Settings page. There are 10 different groups you can choose for send & receive, which gives you a lot of control over your environment. Very cool.
The sync feature works surprisingly well.. until it doesn't. If you're having trouble syncing across further distances, here are a few things to try:
- Get a dedicated WiFi router for your installation and put it smack-dab in the center of your garden. The router doesn't need to connect to the internet, it just needs power. Set up a network -- this is easy to do with most router setup apps -- and connect your WLED controllers to that network. You'll need to switch your phone to this wifi when you want to control the lights, but this is a great way to go when you're installing away from your home network or if your network doesn't reach the back yard very well.
- Use a Feather V2 with w.FL antenna instead of a standard Feather Huzzah V2 or the QT Py Pico. Using a w.FL antenna gives you a lot more range for spread-out projects.
- Give your boards static IP addresses (find this under WiFi Setup). This can help stabilize your environment if you have more than 2-3 WLED boards you want to sync.
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