Board Choices
WLED runs on several different boards in Adafruit's collection. There are different benefits to each, but the installation process is largely the same. This page contains instructions for multiple boards -- be sure to use the pinouts and installation instructions for the one you're using,
Sparkle Motion
This is our flagship ESP32 board, designed with WLED and Xlights in mind. It has 4 outputs and is set up to drive either 5v, 12v or 24v pixels. It's a workhorse of a board and for larger projects it's the clear winner. It has an onboard microphone for instant sound-reactive support, and an IR sensor built in, to make it easy to control your project with an infrared remote. It also has a couple stemma ports so you can add your own sensors or peripherals.
Sparkle Motion Mini
The Sparkle Motion Mini is a smaller version of the Sparkle Motion board. It has two LED outputs, a microphone, and two stemma ports that make it easy to add an IR sensor or other peripherals. It's got an onboard NeoPixel and a small footprint, making it perfect for wearables or smaller projects. It will power a whole lot of pixels through the onboard USB port: it's safe to draw up to 4A through this port, giving you plenty of power for most wearable projects.
At this time, the Sparkle Motion Mini works best with WLED 0.15.1 -- the extra GPIO for the microphone pins are not supported in WLED 0.15.0. This should be fixed with the release of version 16.
To get mic support now, the following combined .bin file can be used. Get it by downloading this zip file:
To install, extract the .bin file from the zip and then follow the same ESB Web Flasher process used for installing CircuitPython. At the "Programming the Board" step, choose the .bin file and leave offset as 0x0.
QT Py Pico ESP32
The QT Py Pico is small and affordable, so usually my go-to for smaller costumes or wearables. It also has a range of BFF add-on boards that add functionality. Here's a guide with more QT Py info. The QT Py will drive up to around 30 pixels through the onboard USB port, so if you have more LEDs than that you may want to consider the Sparkle Motion Mini instead, or you can power the board through the +5v pin.
Note: WLED works on the QT Py Pico but NOT on the S2 or S3 versions, at the time of writing.
Feather Huzzah ESP32Â
The Feather Huzzah ESP32 the top of the line. It's a great choice for projects where you want to add sensors, interaction, or drive a whole lot of LEDs. It's the most reliable as well -- I've run these for two months straight with no power cycling and they just keep on truckin. Adafruit has a very wide selection of Feather Wing boards that connect to the Feather microcontroller line. The sky is the limit with these boards.
It also comes in a version with a high-powered WiFi range extender! If you're trying to sync multiple instances across distance, check this one out. Feather Huzzah ESP32 V2 w.FL Antenna
Feather Huzzah ESP8266
The Feather Huzzah ESP8266 will run WLED as well, but won't drive as many pixels: the ESP32 limit on WLED is around 1000 pixels per input, but the ESP8266 tops out at around 500. It's about $5 cheaper though, so for smaller projects it's a great way to save a little money and still have access to all the Featherwing options in the Adafruit store.
Driver Update
Some versions of our controllers have a new serial chip which needs a driver installed before we can install WLED. Head over to our How to Install Drivers for WCH USB to Serial Chips tutorial, and download and install the new driver.
If you have an older QT Py with CP2102 USB-to-Serial bridge, use SiLabs’ driver instead.
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Install WLED
These next steps require a Web Serial-compatible browser. As of this writing, that means Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge or Opera “desktop” browsers. Other browsers (Safari, Firefox, Explorer and anything mobile) won’t work.
Visit https://install.wled.me/
Plug your microcontroller into your computer with a known good USB cable. Click "Install" and select the port for your board.
Depending on the USB-to-serial bridge chip on the board, you might see one or two serial ports. On Mac, for instance, there might be both “/dev/cu.usbmodem[number]” and “/dev/cu.wchusbserial[number]”. Use the “wchusbserial” one.
After successful installation, enter your WiFi network name and password when prompted. This must be a 2.4 GHz WiFi network; ESP32 does not support 5 GHz networks. If it can’t connect, then as a fallback WLED will create its own 2.4 GHz WiFi access point.
Sometimes the "Connect to Wi-Fi" prompt doesn't show up. Don't panic, just see the step below on connecting your computer or mobile device to the WLED-AP access point created on the microcontroller itself!
If you don't see the "Connect to Wi-Fi" prompt, you'll need to set up your WiFi network using AP (access point) mode. Open up your WiFi settings and look for a WiFi network called WLED-AP. (Note, this access point can take up to 30 seconds to appear sometimes.) Connect to this network using the default password wled1234. The WLED interface will pop up in its own captive browser window.
From here, go into Config/Wifi Settings and enter your WiFi credentials for the access point you normally use near the top.
Give your project a name in the mDNS field a little further down the page. Now you can type in "projectname.local" (where "projectname" is your mDNS name) into any web browser on the same wifi network to access your microcontroller.
You can also scan the QR code below to open access point mode.Â
For more help and troubleshooting tips visit the Getting Started page on the WLED knowledge base.
WiFi Setup
Head to the WiFi Setup screen under Config 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 Safari or Chrome on your phone or computer, type in this web address to access the WLED interface: http://projectname.local (where "projectname" is whatever you put into this field).
Check out the Additional Settings page for more info on accessing your project. WLED has an "access point mode" that doesn't require a WiFi network for when you're out on the go. It's also helpful to download one of the WLED apps to help manage and organize your projects.
LED Preferences
Next, head to the LED Preferences tab under the Config menu.
Scroll down to Hardware Setup. Put your total number of LEDs into the "Length" field, and change GPIO to the pin number associated with the pin you soldered to. Check the pinout diagram for the board you're using (it's the number in yellow).
Now you can use any computer or handheld device to control your LEDs.Â
Make sure your device is on the same WiFi network as your board. Navigate to your custom URL (projectname.local/ ) in a web browser. You'll see a color picker above a whole bunch of color palette choices.
Choose a color, choose an effect, and watch your lights animate and glow!
Save your favorite combinations as presets, create playlists, control the speed and intensity of the animations, and lots more. This web app is incredibly intuitive and easy to use.
Head over to the WLED wiki at https://kno.wled.ge/ to delve into all the particulars.
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