How to install WLED on ESP8266 and connect to WS2812B strip lights

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

👇Amazon BLACK Friday Deals are Live NOW: amzn.to/4fVAYfV 👇 📟 Electronics: amzn.to/4ianOxA 🎮 PC and Gaming: amzn.to/4fBQP3v 💡 Govee: amzn.to/3APrl3u 📺 TV’s & Home Audio: amzn.to/4hWySy6 🍎 Apple: amzn.to/3ZedHQO 🔵 Samsung: amzn.to/3B0QU1p 📱 Cell Phones & Accessories: amzn.to/48ZC0VO 🎧 Headphones: amzn.to/3AHHxDX 🎲 Toys & Games: amzn.to/3YYxySz 🏠 Home DIY & Appliances: amzn.to/4fx2yjI 💥 Amazon Devices: amzn.to/4fYLsv2 👩🏻‍🍳 Kitchen: amzn.to/4fBE5K3 ⚽ Sports & Outdoors: amzn.to/4fU6quU 🛋 Furniture: amzn.to/4eF2Qnt 🌻 Lawn & Garden: amzn.to/3ASKSzV 🛠Tools: amzn.to/4eODF20 ⚡ Lightning Deals: amzn.to/3Z2Q9wO ⤵ Deals Under $25: amzn.to/48ZgjFu New video: Install WLED on ESP32 board: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioCon3mBgdJsidk LED Strips Amazon: amzn.to/3W98u8C LED Strips AliExpress: s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_DdU9Nfl Spotless Regular LED Diffuser Channel 1m Amazon: amzn.to/47aIujz Spotless Regular LED Diffuser Channel 2m Amazon: amzn.to/3QoHeDb 5% Discount Code: CHRISMAHER Spotless Regular LED Diffuser Channel 1m or 2m Company Site bit.ly/3NHG5Uw Spotless Corner Diffuser 1m Amazon: amzn.to/3DFhRpf Spotless Corner Diffuser 2m Amazon: amzn.to/3Krqw2q 5% Off Discount Code: CHRISMAHER Spotless Corner Diffuser 1m or 2m Company Site: bit.ly/3D3yI4R Jumper/Breadboard wires: amzn.to/3boLdtK ESP8266 Board: amzn.to/3pSfo54 Micro USB cable: amzn.to/3KhQnus Connector Piece I used: amzn.to/3dFZ68c If you want to solder new beginning on leftover strips: amzn.to/3dChzCv ============================= Support My Channel Directly: Become a monthly contributor on Patreon: www.patreon.com/ChrisMaherDIY Buy me a Coffee: paypal.me/ChrisMaherDIY ============================== Downloads: ESP Home Flasher: github.com/esphome/esphome-flasher/releases WLED Software Download: github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/releases Drivers (if needed) If nothing shows up in Home Flasher after pugging in the ESP8266 module, you might need to install drivers. Download Drivers: www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers Link to WLED Animation Guide: github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/wiki/List-of-effects-and-palettes Link to some of my full DIY LED how-to project videos: LED Board and Batten Accent Wall: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGKWh3-fgJx0hbc LED Baseboard Trim: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5ybeaF9rcuEp5I RGB Lamp Hack: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i3-zg5Jvbd1_h7s Corner LED Light using Pex pipes: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHrFha2LeZd4as0 DIY Govee Glide using only paper: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pGqvpJyHdrd5l9U Simple Corner LED Project: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHOYeaSNnbKLhNE DIY Customizable Light Up Images: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKLCq6V7mMeLfqc LED Strip Diffuser Ideas: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmqQl5yNn7VnaLs DIY Hexagon Project: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qmrbeKx4acabr7s DIY Edge Lit Designs: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZpC3pXuhd6dmrKM DIY Black Acrylic Floating Shelves: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJTWhICqi8SippI The best way to help support my channel is to like, comment, make sure your subscribed and share my videos with as many people as you can. The other way is to use my links above as I get a small % at no extra cost to you if you buy something. Thank you all for the support!

[@daveanything]

this video and your older video too me from complete stress to finished.. i cannot thank you enough for making this so easy! Really!!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks again buddy!

[@kamenstoev1948]

Great video! This is not only cheaper than buying a wi-fi controller but also has way better effects, but I am wondering - how many leds can you connect before you damage the esp

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much and i'm glad you liked the video! I'm not entirely sure how many you can control! With only powering it the way I have in the video, you will eventually have enough voltage drop that the colors will fade as you go along the strip. With higher power, i've done a couple things with about 1000 leds and no issues at all but that is definitly not powering everything through the esp board. In this video, i go into a little bit more of different power options that have worked for me: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gXfXm5lroqlpqqM

[@olemengenge]

Read some where you can control over 2000 leds

[@Brentoramaford]

Thanks for the intro to WLED. I’ve been using FASTLED and the Arduino IDE till now so it’s cool to learn a new approach

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

I've never used Fastled but have heard good things! Does that approach require any programming knowlege?

[@kiereec]

@@ChrisMaherDIY it does, needs scripts writing for it to run

[@D.TH.87]

Thank you so much for your tutorials!!!!!! You are the best on youtube!!!!

[@HappyDude1]

Gmm interesting Is it possible to control different led strips with 1 board ? Like i want 1 strip pink And the other green and another blue ?

[@True_Muslim_Momin]

Very helpful and detailed. No fuss. Love it 🙂

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks!! Glad you like it and thanks so much for watching.

[@nestomagic]

No fuss and no fuse I don't know about that

[@chesschamp276]

Question and i hope you answer, thanks . ON the video you said to connect the DATA CABLE of the LED to PIN D4 on the ESP8266 , but in the WLED -LED SETTING you have PIn 2 on the LED OUTPUTS ???? If PIN 2 is set up in the LED OUTPUT of WLED , should you connect the LED DATA CABLE TO PIN D2 on the ESP8266 ? explain why you connected to D4 instead of D2 ?? , did you make a mistake ?

[@larryl9797]

Thanks for this !!!!! 1st time wiring up a hexa-leaf and was a little lost. this got me up and going super quick!👍👍👍

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You are very welcome! thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Appreciate it!

[@robertweekley5926]

Windows 11 is just coming out lately, but, you are using Windows 64! Amazing!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Lol what can I say, I'm old school. Thanks for watching!

[@djmoonbass]

So what board do you reccomend? This one of the ESP32? What's the difference and why do you use one over the other?

[@NewYears1978]

Update to my last 500 comments =D Well I got both setup and they've run fine for a day and still working today. The heat issue only happens if I put it at 2,000 mA it seems. I am running one at 850mA limiter and the other at 1500mA both using a phone charger (5V 2a) - I have had no issues with these. Before when I would change over 850mA sometimes the lights or board would freeze up or some diodes would change colors incorrectly and then the board would freeze up. so there was clearly either something faulty with the ESP boards or the charger. But I tried 3 diff power sources (USB Charging hub, another direct 5V power source I have, and the phone charger) and all had the same weird results. So with these new ESP boards none of those issues happened so I think those boards were faulty. The one I purchased this time was called KeeYees, 15.99 for a 3 pack so actually cheaper than the HitLego. Everything works properly here. The 1500mA is a little weak due to my channel depth but I could change the power source later..for now I am happy =D I'll give you a final report later and maybe some pics, assuming it keeps working for a few days haha.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

So glad its working better with the ones! I'll have to try them and maybe switch to those after your experience! If your experience with leds was my first experience, I probably would have quit lol. But i'm sure you can now probably flash and wire these things up in your sleep now lol!

[@NewYears1978]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Thanks brother! They are still working. I even set one of them to 2,000 mA and it still worked fine (scared to leave it at that but still)

[@NewYears1978]

@@ChrisMaherDIY You won't believe this. One of the boards died! I think it was due to setting a higher mA limiter. I had it on 1500mA for a few days no issues, I put it on 1850 just for a few hours and the board died. This is unbelievable. When I read online it says something about the USB ports on these boards overvolting and usually they will work for awhile but then die due to heat. But don't you power many of yours with the usb port? Maybe I neeed to switch powering through the pins directly instead or something..but I really didn't wanna mess with all that.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

@@NewYears1978 I'm sure powering through the pins is the better option but I've never had an issue using the usb port on any of mine. However, I also never have them turned on for long periods of time. I genereally will turn them on at night for an hour or so when i'm listening to music in my basement and then turn them off when I'm done. So maybe i'm not giving mine enough time to heat up and potentialy fail?

[@NewYears1978]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Yeah I think that might be the case. I think the USB port gets too hot and the longer they run the hotter they get. Maybe at 850mA the heat generation is limited but once you pump it higher it overheats. It also could be due to the LED's overdriving the phone charger and that generating too much heat. I ordered a normal power supply 50W 10 Amp from BTP (or whatever it's called) and I will try powering it from the pins and see if that helps. I keep seeing videos where people use a resistor on the data wire, but other videos say it is not required (so I dunno who is correct on that)

[@Dennis-qm4rd]

Perfect @Chris Maher, this one helped me out and I had WLED in a fast and simple way! Now looking for a way to connect my Govee H6110 to WLED....

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much and glad it helped!!

[@NewYears1978]

Hey Chris, I got the 5v 8 amp 40 watt driver in - hooked that up (Even just used the breadboard connectors) and set it to 4000mA, no issues. I set it to 2500mA now and am going to let it run for a bit to see what happens. I no longer feel heat with on the ESP8266 board so I think the actual issue is the USB port used for powering is just a bad idea, it generates way to much heat as I described before and read on another message board. So..I think maybe now the issues are all resolved..and my lights are of course way brighter now too (2500mA from 850 or even 1000 makes a huge difference!)

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

That's awesome it's working well and thanks for keeping me informed through all your troubleshooting! Your going to sleep good tonight now that it seems like it's all figured out!! I still have to try the chargers but my guess is if I keep them on for a long time it will probaby not work just like you experienced!

[@NewYears1978]

@@ChrisMaherDIY haha for sure! I sleep good Sundays anyway since I have to get up at like 6am - I am the first or second one in the sanctuary to start prepping for service =D My only concern now with the lights is if the breadboard wires can handle the current. I might have to upgrade..and that means soldering to the board which I really don't wanna have to do haha.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

@@NewYears1978 Early bird gets the worm! Yeah i faught soldering for a long time but then I just ripped the bandaid off and went for it. Not going to lie, I dont enjoy it but its also not as bad as I was thinking lol and the creative part of my mind does enjoy learning a new skill!

[@y2kotic4u1]

Great video! Mine would not show up on the flasher until I installed the driver you provided. Thank you!

[@johnnguyen685]

Hello Christ... You are the best... Everything are working fine while I do followed all your directions.,.. Many thanks...

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Awesome!! Thanks for taking the time to comment. Glad it worked. Hope you have a great day!

[@jerryreescano2934]

All of your vids have been super informational. Thanks!

[@jkahne9]

Excellent video. Helped this NOOB tremendously. Next question...Whicpins do I use for an external power supply rather than the micro usb. Sorry if you covered this already.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! So for an external supply, you would connect the power (positive) to to the VIN pin and ground (negative) to the GND pin on the esp board. Then you would not need to plug the micro into the esp device. Then the led strip would need the power and ground to it from the power supply and then the data from the eps device to the data pin on the led strip. Hope that makes sense! I go over this in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioCon3mBgdJsidk and even though I use an esp32 instead of 8266, its pretty much the same!

[@jkahne9]

Thanks for the response. I had an idea that was how to do it but wanted to be sure.

[@mikewurlitzer5217]

Very well done video. I have a ton of these LED strips from a megatree that I no longer use. This will recycle those strips. Using your Amazon code, I also bought 6 of the ESP boards, Thanks.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and for the support! That means a lot! Glad you liked the video! That's the good thing with led strips, in my experience they are pretty durable and last a long time so you can keep reusing them!

[@olemengenge]

Thank you so much. Your video are very COMPREHENSIVE. Now I can set up My HyperHDR + ESP8266+ WLED + SK6812 everything on wireless

[@LaMisto]

Hello! I have a white only led strip. Can I also connect it to this and be able to use it on my phone to start it? I just want remote access to turn on and off

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! There is a way to control just your basic white led strip but its something that I have not yet tried doing so i'm not sure on how it would be done. Maybe someone else reading the comments can chime in if they know for sure!

[@LaMisto]

@@ChrisMaherDIY ok, no worries! I'll go with trial and error! I got a new hobby thanks to you, I hope you are happy, cuz I am :) I love your creativity more than your work! great job, great content, great guy! Soon, you will have 1M subs!

[@bullguy112]

Very well explained, and the noob like me understood very well, thank you very much for providing the software, May god bless you

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much! Glad you liked the video. Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment. God bless!

[@pnorgate]

Very helpful video. Can you control this with Alexa or any of the other smart home brands?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much! You can control it with Alexa and I believe Google home. It may work with others as well. I honestly have never tried doing this so I'm not sure how it's done or if it's super easy or requires a few steps. This is certainly something I need to look into! Great question and thanks again for watching!

[@stevemoening2205]

Great info. I am new to LED controllers and need some to the point and simple instructions!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@cristijurcan4616]

Can you power the esp via usb port and the strip from the power source ? Thank you for your answer

[@MajorFrenchy]

Very Good Tutorial , Thank you for taking the time to make it.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thank you so much for watching and thanks for taking the time to comment! I'm glad you liked the video!

[@justmag9055]

How many lights can you connect on one board? Great tutorials by the way!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much! I'm not sure if the information I found on the WLED information is just a guide to go off of or if its actually the max but here is what they say: ESP8266 There is a maximum of 3 strips supported. It is highly recommended to use two specific LED pins, GPIO1 (TX) and GPIO2 (D4), since they allow for hardware driving. It is recommended to use 512 LEDs/pin for good performance for a total of 1024 LEDs. 800 LEDs/pin for a total of 1600 has been confirmed working, but is not recommended for good performance and reliability. Using GPIO1 will disable serial debugging. If you need it, you can't use a strip on this pin. GPIO3 is the third pin that allows hardware driving on ESP8266. However, it uses 5 times as much memory per LED as GPIO 1 and 2, so use it only for low LED counts (recommended

[@ynotochouno]

My light would not light at all until flashed. This was amazing and helpful and I appreciate your work and dedication to us. My only question is do you put this in a case or anything? I have to figure out how to mount this to my couch and table. Thanks again!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much!! I really have not put these in a case but i've seen others use travel soap containers like this to house it: amzn.to/3wNx6d2

[@the_nene_feo7671]

HELLO I HAD A QUESTION ABOUT THE ESP8266 IS THERE A COVER FOR IT SO NO ONE CAN DROP SOMETHING ON IT LIKE A PROTECTOR THANK YOU THIS VIDEO I LOVE IT I CANT WAIT TO TRY IT

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment. I don't know if they make anything specifically for this but I've seen some people use plastic travel soap boxes that you can get on amazon amzn.to/3Nbt4kI to give it some protection!

[@the_nene_feo7671]

@@ChrisMaherDIY you know what it didnt even cross my mind but thank you im going to try it some time this week

[@elieeid8865]

Thank you for showing and explain this to me.. i have a strip needs 12 volts, how can inject 12volts if i wanna use this ESP2866 SHIPS OR ESP32. please explaint it how and thank you for your efforts

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! It depends on what led strip you have. I did make this video of how to get a 12v led strip set up (ws2815) with WLED and powered. Let me know if the video helps! kzbin.info/www/bejne/sJPLlXtjprh0hMU

[@elciano6599]

Good job. I have a question. Is it possible to program a light sequence inside the ESP8266 to be able to execute it without the need for a computer? Tnx

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I'm not sure if that's possible with WLED but I believe their are other programs that would allow for more of a manual programming. I'm not sure what would be the best option for that though. Maybe someone else reading the comments might know and can chime in. Thanks for watching and great question!

[@robertrobert5583]

thanks for a really clear and excellent tutorial.

[@EngrMdMahfuz]

Great jobb. Really helpful and properly explained. 👍🏻

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and glad you liked the video!! Appreciate the support!

[@JadonD123]

love your wifi name!! XD

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks buddy! Its really the only thing that matters in life :) Hope you have a blessed day!!

[@yarin3750]

if i want to do the led light project do i have to buy/use the controller to change coors and staff?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

If you use these type of led strips you need some type of controller. There are a lot of different options out there but what I use in this video is probably my favorite option!

[@revistaamericandream]

Great tutorial. I am stuck with the pins. I can’t figure out which is the power and DATA pin. Also, it will not turn the WLEDs. I cut a small strip with ten lights to test it first. No success. My board looks like the one in this tutorial. I used your link to buy it, but the pin markings differ from those on your board. D4 does not exist in mine. The board is ESP-32S. What am I missing?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I googled the esp32s. Does yours have markings on the back side of the esp device? The picture I found online made it seem like there was. I saw a 5v pin and the gnd pin next to that and there was a pin labeled P2 I believe. If there is nothing, I would search online to see if there is a diagram of the pin layout. As far as the data, in the WLED program in led preferences next to GPIO you can tell the program what pin you are using for data. Let me know if you ever did figure things out!

[@revistaamericandream]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Hi Chris, thanks for your reply. I figured it out after reviewing a bunch of material I found on many sites. And I finally got the correct pins for the task. I burned an entire LED roll before finally getting it to work by trying some power supplies. The good news is that The 5V and Ground are next to each other, as you pointed out, and the correct Pin is P16. I am rebuilding it, and I will send you a picture when I finish. Thanks, your video inspired me to cultivate a new hobby working with wood and LED.

[@Chriscx]

Hey, are all these wires 18 gage? I’m wondering if can detach my existing led strip from my existing 18-5 wires in the wall and then solder this new LED strip to said existing wire, and and then let those wires carry back to my controller cabinet. Thanks!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching! The wires that they come with I believe are 20 or 22 gage. Pretty thin. I however in most of my new projects and videos use 18 gage. But that's a good question and i's no expert on all the electrical wiring of the house so I don't want to pretend to know and give you some bad advice. Maybe someone else reading this might know the answer and can chime in?

[@HmoobCobFabKaraoke]

Very helpful vdo and i love it. thanks. Not sure why my led lights strip of 29 only light up two led 😪😪☹☹

[@tutwirata8956]

Hi Chris appreciate if you could share on how to copy segment, preset, playlist from Wemos D1 to other wemos device. Thanks

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and that's a great idea! at the moment I'm not even sure how to do that. Maybe once I learn I can make a video on it down the road. thanks!!

[@boocoo28]

After watching just about every video you posted I decided to I build a 5v LED cloud design with some cotton and a metal frame for my daughters ceiling. My question is how long can the power cable be from the power source to the ESP 8266 before it becomes a problem? I want to try and hide the cable in the corner of the wall with a piece of trim. I am brand new to this DIY thing but im hooked immediately. Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and the comment! I just send you an email but basically my advise is try it and see what happens! I have not tried something that long so please let me know if it works as I'm curious as well! Thanks so much buddy!

[@tharealmb]

I don't know the details, but often it's recommended to put a fuse near the power source(to be safe) and a resistor close first led on the data line (often green, the data one). That way it will work best.

[@rusty718_]

What’s the best way of getting the leds brighter would it be a different strip or swapping the bread board wires and if it is what would I swap to?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

The strips I use in this video are very bright. If you want to run them at full brightness (i never do because its way too bright for what I am wanting to use them for) but you would just need to make sure you have enough power to run them at full brightness. Depending on the number of lights you have, you may need to inject additional power along the led strip. I would also use the 18 gauge wires that I use pretty much in all my new projects now as that will help! The initial setup looks similar to what I did in this video:kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioCon3mBgdJsidk

[@northstar5405]

Very instructive video, can I use more than one output for multiple LEDs strips on a single esp32 for different light effects?, ty.

[@zoeyboy1215]

Great video, 1 question, i am planing to make a led costume and i want the led to be sync to the music for example a 5mins music is there a way i can program the led to colors or pattern i want and sync to the music, can you please help with this 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 thank you in advance, and 1 more thing can i use a 12v battery to power it up?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

I did make a video going over how to hook up a mic to an esp board to use with WLED: kzbin.info/www/bejne/lZu9g62NqNxrndU which does provide some good customized options in regards to color! You can use a 12v power supply but I believe you would need a step down converter to convert to 5v. I don't have any experience in this but its on my list of projects I would like to do someday!

[@ziggybombers1563]

Oh man you are a lifesaver, thank you 🙏.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You are very welcome! Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment!

[@notgesund]

Great tutorial. Can you pls do it with a ws2812 or a led strip that has 4 pins

[@tuitam2880]

Great video. Could someone share link to store where to buy this kind of connector?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! What connector are you wondering about?!

[@lavahawk]

@@ChrisMaherDIY maybe his LEDs did not come with a connector. In that case he should probably solder the wires to breadboard pins or directly

[@terencesilorey9190]

Very helpful could you possibly make a video showing how to setup sync interfaces

[@a.n_u.r_a.g_]

Can we use this outdoor , with connecting our own mobile wifi ??? Or we have to use house wifi ???

[@AndreasInGreer]

Can one ESP8266 control multiple straps from multiple pins? E.g. three strips or control wires connected to three different output pins on the ESP8266 board.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and great question! You can run multiple strips from different pins! Here is what the official WLED page says: ESP8266 There is a maximum of 3 strips supported. It is highly recommended to use two specific LED pins, GPIO1 (TX) and GPIO2 (D4), since they allow for hardware driving. It is recommended to use 512 LEDs/pin for good performance for a total of 1024 LEDs. 800 LEDs/pin for a total of 1600 has been confirmed working, but is not recommended for good performance and reliability. Using GPIO1 will disable serial debugging. If you need it, you can't use a strip on this pin. GPIO3 is the third pin that allows hardware driving on ESP8266. However, it uses 5 times as much memory per LED as GPIO 1 and 2, so use it only for low LED counts (recommended

[@findakp]

Hello, I have a doubt- I have a led strip of 1m length having 144 leds. Obviously it can't be powered using the wifi module itself. So if I need to power it externally using a 5V/4A source, can I use the remaining two wires that you left in the beginning of video at 4:12? Do I still need to specify current in the led preferences page?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You can for sure use those 2 power injection wires to provide power! I think the current is set to 850ma so you can certainly go in and change that if you have a need for things to be brighter but I think that is all you would maybe need to play around with as everything else should work just fine. Thanks for watching!

[@WHATEVER956]

So there's no need to wire the extra white and red wires? Thanks!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and great question! That is correct. There is no need to do anything with them if you dont want to. They are there in case you want to inject power. Having those extra red and white wires makes it easy to do that. Hope that helps!

[@CHA1RMANsmoug]

Hi will I be able to use this set up in my campervan?? Or would I need a permanent WiFi?? Thanks ✌️

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and thats a great question! I'm not 100% sure but I do believe they need a wifi signal to operate. Maybe someone else on here can chime in if they know for sure! I just know that whenever my wifi is not working, I cannot control the lights.

[@currentlylive_ec5768]

Love this, always looking for cool led lighting options. Not sure if you already have a video on this but would love to see, the board used in a project as to where you hide the board and how you wire the light strips to it in said project.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! In this video I go into a lot of the wiring and soldering. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2fLZp2JgbKIfpI but I really have not focused anything on where I hide the components yet. Good idea for a future project!

[@currentlylive_ec5768]

@@ChrisMaherDIY yea I’d definitely love to see how you hide the board and power supply. As an electrician I’d love to be able to offer this type of lighting to clients but would have to be able to put the board into an enclosure and maybe even use old work boxes or something to cut into walls and hide these boards then with a blank cover. For instance when I do undercabinet lighting jobs I try and hide my transformers and such behind draw bases of lower cabinets. Then using a 14/2 in wall wire I can fish up to the bottom of the upper cabinets and solder to my led lights. So I’d love to be able to maintain sleekness and keep everything hidden if I were to start offering smart lighting like this as well.

[@graphguy]

Thanks Chris!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You are very welcome! Thanks so much for watching!

[@daviecampbell5215]

ive got the same development board as yourself loaded with WLED please can you tell me what pins i connect 2 ,, the LED strip has 4 wires blue green red and black Many thanks

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! Do you know what kind of led strip it is? WLED is built for the digital led strips. If you have an analog led strip, I'm not sure if it would work.

[@DennisWarner]

Hey Chris, great video. I wander if you could point me in the direction on how to get these lights controlled with HomeKit?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thats a great question and I'm not very familiar with HomeKit. I did a quick search and this guys video seemed pretty good so maybe it will be a good jumping off point! Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! kzbin.info/www/bejne/nImqnIWvoNWsgpY

[@DennisWarner]

@@ChrisMaherDIY thank you so much. The HomeKit lights are limited in features and I love your videos.

[@techfulgoodies]

Hey Chris, your videos are super helpful so thank you. I set up an ESP8266 WLED strip and it is connected to my 2.4ghz network. I typically have my phone connected to the 5ghz network. The one thing I can't seem to find info on is - do I need to switch my phone to the 2.4ghz network ever time I want to control WLED from the app? This seems cumbersome and I was wondering how I would control my smart home items from my 5ghz network - or is that impossible. I could get a hub or an alexa or google device and control things that way, but I would love to control through my phione. Any thoughts would help, thx!

[@techfulgoodies]

Annnnd never mind. I just tried it again and it worked just fine on my home network. Not sure why it didn’t work at first!

[@saulramirez4639]

Thanks, can you make a video how to connect a potentiometer encoder

[@bentaylor5550]

I may have missed it in the other comments - the link to the LED Lights says the page cannot be found. Have they been discontinued or are there other ones you'd suggest? Great video!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching! It looks like they are still showing up as available in the US. What country are you in? If they are not showing up, the ones that I used are these: BTF-LIGHTING WS2812B RGB 5050SMD Individual Addressable 16.4FT 60Pixels/m 300Pixels Hope that helps and thanks so much for the kind words!

[@almerpresco7155]

Hey Chris, can I also use it on my Ws2811 led pixel 50pcs.5v light strings,,,tnx

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! Yes you should be able to use this on those!

[@aalexisa14]

Hey Chris. I was following your instructions and I'm getting tripped up. When I wire everything to the nodemcu and i plug it in, i don't get the soft yellow default color. i get a sporadic rainbow pattern, where some are on and some are off. Do you know what i'm doing wrong? Is some setting off?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I've had something similar like that happen and it was from one of two things. 1, make sure in led preferences you have the led strip your using selected. I know if i'm using a sk6812 strip but ws2812b is selected (or the other way around), what your describing happens. The other thing is if the data line coming from the controller is long before getting to the first led, that also can cause the led strip to do random things. When that happens I use a small resistor on the data line near the controller and that clears it up. This generally only happens if the data line is like 5 feet or longer. Let me know if you figure things out as i'm curious what it might be!

[@BrandonGross]

Can't thank you enough for this video man!!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Your very welcome! Glad you liked it!

[@srijancoolyo]

Hello Chris! Amazing video first of all. Help me setup wled on my NodeMCU. I have a question though. Should I run it using my TVs USB port?(LG C2 OLED) I have plugged it in, it works fine and helps me turn it on and off with the TV remote (as it is connected to the USB port). I am just concerned about the long term effects on my TV. I have limited the brightness limiter to 500mA

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! I don't think you have anything to worry about in regards to the long term effect on your tv. I think everything should hold up just fine. Nice tv by the way!! Do you love it?!

[@macielnascimento1363]

Thumbs up for Jesus Loves You and also to be from many other videos, the solution for my board. God bless you bro. Salute from Brazil

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Amen!! Thanks so much and I appreciate the love! God bless my friend!!

[@milutzuk]

Is there a way to pull the code for a specific animation and use it as lambda in ESPHome?

[@emadatalla6992]

Thank you so much I have Mac I couldn't set up ESP home 12 or 14 even the weld doesn't open for me what should I do ?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Ohh man! I'm very mac illiterate as I've never owned one. Maybe see if doing it this way works on a mac since its going through a web interface vs installing a program? kzbin.info/www/bejne/ioCon3mBgdJsidk

[@emadatalla6992]

@@ChrisMaherDIY are you planning to make any videos for program LED matrix ?

[@joeygunzilla6878]

Hi Chris thanks for the upload! i've been following your channel for a while now.. i finally pulled the trigger on a wled project im having a issue and was wondering you could help me out.. my lights act crazy lol. i assume they are "flickering" the weird thing is that when i touch and hold the ground wire (barehanded) they function correctly. i dont know what to do. any help is greatly appreciated. edit: i have a 12v power supply going to 12v btf2811 lights (11feet) and a phone brick powering an esp32d board.. bridged ground between board and strip

[@jordanhermant659]

Hi, this has been a real education for me in the past few hours, so thank you! Is there a COB, RGBWIC LED strip available? I'd like to use something with a dedicated white and the COB just looks much better than anything else. Thank you!

[@Verminator151029]

Hey Chris....thank you for this video. Although I've watched most of your videos, I FINALLY got around to programming my first MCU today and loaded WLED onto an ESP8266 following your instructions here. Worked perfectly. I have just 2 questions if you happen to get this and are able to respond quickly. Are the same three pins that are used on the 8266 MCU the same pins you use for an ESP32?? If not, which pins do I use on an ESP32? And second, is there an advantage to run an ESP32 over an ESP8266 MCU for WLED? If so, what are those advantages? Thank you!!!

[@tamino3777]

Amazing tutorial! Keep it up.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much!!

[@NathanStrapazzon]

Great content! Can u show us how u power like 4 meters (or more) of a LED strip and still use the WLED plz?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Yeah thats a good idea for another video. Do you by any chance know how to solder?

[@NathanStrapazzon]

@@ChrisMaherDIY i do, i think with things like LED strips is pretty easy to do. there is some adapters for not soldering, but i thinks thats better to sold everything for a little more security... dont know if u need to explain how to solder in this video

[@RahulMRox]

@@ChrisMaherDIY even i want to see the video where you can teach how to calculate the voltage and how to power up a large strips

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

@@RahulMRox thanks buddy! I'm hoping to get to that video soon!

[@Jinman65]

Yes Please! I bought the supplies in this vid on black friday sales and just tried it out. This is so awesome but definitely need more power for 16 feet. Thank you for this video, made jumping into this much easier :)

[@TheAydinnet]

Thanks for the awesome content, Chris. Keep it up. I powered my LED's with an external 5V 20A power supply, but after watching this and the "Power LED Lights + Injection. Complete Walkthrough" video, I also wanted to use a phone charger(5V 2,4A)/USB to power my LED's. But when I connect VIN (NodeMCU) to the red cable (SK6812) + GND to the white cable, the LED's doesn't light up. The data cable is also connected to the right GPIO, since it worked with an external power supply before. Do you have an Idea what I'm doing wrong? Would be cool to get rid of the huge external power supply and just use USB Edit: nevermind. I realized that I have a newer version of the NodeMCU. The V3 from Lolin. There you have to usw the VU pin, which outputs 5V coming from the USB

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much! I'm stumped on what could be wrong! I know the ws2812b are very similar to the sk6812 so i doubt that would be the issue (even though I've never tried the phone charger method on the sk6812 I assume it would work the same) The only time i've had nothing light up was when I had a bad esp8266 board and another was when the first led was bad on a strip. I cut that off and then everything worked just fine. I wish I had a better answer. Probably will have to just keep trying different things to see if you can pinpoint what or where the issue is.

[@razthelizardking86]

Thank you very much for the update info, I'm a complete newbie in this world of wled and making your own led proyects but I was encouraged by Chris' videos since he makes it look so simple and here I am with a bunch led strips and node mcus and wires, etc. I had the same problem with my esp2866 (v3 ch340) and a ws2812b led strip and I was like what the heck? , I'm doing the exact same thing :( I was using the VIN pin but not a single led turned on, so I finally found the solution here in your comment, thank you very much sir!

[@varnamq3]

@@razthelizardking86 it won't work because it needs more current than what your board can offer, connect it directly to the 5v supply regulator. Also the "NORMAL electronics convention is to connect RED wire to +ve, BLACK is reserved for GND or -ve"

[@lukalukaluka7000]

Thank you so much for this edit

[@kap2424]

Absolutely amazing content and simplified for me as a newby. Thank you. Does WLED let us program which lights are which color (static color, not a moving affect)? I want to make a logo/sign. e.g. first 50 LEDs will be Red, the next 20 LEDs Blue, followed by another 10 LEDs Green maybe. How do we setup that segmenting in WLED?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and great question! WLED does let you do exactly what your describing. You can easily create different segments with whatever leds you want in them and then you can select a specific segment to be a certain color or run a specific animation. Hope that answers your question!

[@IMEllison]

Straight to the point and very informative! Just subscribed

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for the sub!

[@codtn5360]

if we have a 12 volt rgb led strip, what is the difference in the wiring and thank you: D explanatory electrical diagram please

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and the great question. I did make a video where I connect some 12v govee led strips using WLED and an esp8266. All the wiring is shown in that video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/omHWg3pnjKaVp5I Hopefully that helps explain. There are other ways you can do it than what I did in the video but for me that was the easiest way. Thanks!!

[@joshuadickson4862]

I know this is an older video but I need help. When adding power does there not need to be any resistors or capacitors anywhere? Most videos don't mention it but I see some diagrams using them. Thanks for the help, love all your led projects!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and great question! This is a question that I still am not sure on. I also see a lot of videos that have them and a lot that dont. It also seems like a lot of the videos that have them never really explain why you need it or what it provides. I wish I knew the answer but i'm just as confused as you are. Let me know if you ever find a video that does a good job explaining it and I'll do the same. There has to be some benefit or reason but I have no idea what it would be lol.

[@bl8demast3r]

Thanks so much for this!

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You are very welcome! Thanks so much for watching!

[@dipchit02]

Is it possible to set this up with a strip that has a power terminal, R, G, and B? Basically my strip has 4 connection points not 3 but I have never seen a video that sets this up with 4 instead of 3.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thats a good question! I'm pretty sure you can (there are a lot of different types of strips that you can choose from in WLED) but I have yet to try it with the type of strip you have. I've found that there is a lot of good information on Reddit so maybe have a look over there to see if you can find any information or maybe someone reading this comment might know and can chime in!

[@stordal1153]

Hi Chris! Do you know what the max length / leds pr ESP?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching! I've never tried maxing things out so i'm not 100% sure but here is what WLED recomends: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#:~:text=For%20good%20performance%2C%20you%20can,a%20total%20of%204000%20LEDs. Hope that helps!

[@Garage_gg]

can you please do a video on how to DIY ambilight with the esp board?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

I would love to make a video on that at somepoint but I would first need to learn how its done myself! I'll put it on my to do list and hopefully I can get around to it sooner rather than later!

[@Garage_gg]

@@ChrisMaherDIY please bring it upto no 1... that should be a video that nets you some of the most views on the channel i bet ;) Edit: i religiously watch all your diy videos..the branded ones not so much

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

@@Garage_gg I think it would be popular as well! Appreciate the support buddy! Yeah the branded ones help support the channel since views (at least the amount of views that I get and the niche of my videos) unfortunately don't add up to much in terms of revenue :(

[@abhijith390]

Hi, do we need a computer for one time setup only..? Can I use the strip for back of my TV once setup is made…? Thank you..

[@tansanite09]

So for every led strip you ned one 8266 chip? I would put them behin 10 wall panel so i need 10strips 1m and 10 8266 chips? Thanks a lot

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! You don't nessesarily need a chip for every led strip. Here is what the recommended number of leds you can run on an esp8266 or esp32 running wled. kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#:~:text=For%20good%20performance%2C%20you%20can,a%20total%20of%204000%20LEDs.

[@tansanite09]

@@ChrisMaherDIY thanks a lot 👍

[@scoopiezz]

Very cool. Thanks!

[@saamihamid]

Agreed

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much!! Glad you liked the video. Hope it helped!

[@milosgagic4820]

Nice explanation. Thanks!

[@carlosescamilla3897]

hey Chris, love all your videos. wondering if you can help me, im having some issues installing WLED to my window PC. for some reason i can see WLED in my network. Thanks Carlos E.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! That's a bummer its not working. Did you install WLED on the device but you cant connect it to your network? I remember one person a while back saying he was having trouble connecting to his network because for some reason wled did not like some of the special characters he had in his password. He changed it and then it connected. Not sure if that's what's goin on but just thought I would throw that out there. Also maybe watch this guys video to see if he is doing anything differently that might help! kzbin.info/www/bejne/oGKYoZ2LaL6NnMk

[@carlosescamilla3897]

Thanks for the reply I’ll watch the video

[@KethKeo88]

Hi Great video got mine working in minutes, but do you have this problem. When I turn off power to esp8266 (light on a timer switch) it goes back to the amber lights it does not keep lights settings, I’m using WLED app with 0.12.0 version. Thanks for the help.

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Yeah mine does the same. I've tried doing some googling to see if there is a way to not have it do this but have not found out a way so far. Let me know if you figure out if its possible! Thanks for watching!

[@tazmahv]

hello good video a question is only possible to use ws2812b or you can also use rgb led

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

I'm not entirely sure but i think this method is only for the ws2812b led strips. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I have pretty much no experience with the basic rgb strips so unfortunately I'm not much help on this one. Thanks so much for watching though and taking the time to comment!

[@mauriciocarranza7514]

Huge question, how does this pairs with Google assistant? Or cannot be done?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

WLED does work with alexa and I know there is some functionality of google assistant through homeassistant but I don't think its supported natively.

[@dip_art]

Hi Chris, I am gonna design a desk lamp including about 120 ws2812b leds, that will just have an on/off button and one of that built in lighting options that suits to me. So i want it just powers on and off with a built in setting. Is it possible to make that with any of these control cards, or maybe with arduino nano etc? Any suggestions?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching and sounds like a fun project! So I know you can do a lot with wled and adding buttons like you are wanting to do but I have yet to dive into that. Something that I want to do at some point. I would recommend searching on youtube for "buttons for wled" and there are some great videos that come up. Here are a couple that are for sure worth watching from people who are a lot more smart than I am: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g2WwaKSlrZetfM0 kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJamdmV4pbGUi7M kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKjdo6CgmJqjnJo

[@dip_art]

@@ChrisMaherDIY oh Chris thanks so much for your effort, you made my day! And i feel a little ashamed that i havent search for it 😊 at least youre smarter than me though 😆🙈

[@rickwalker909]

Hi Chris, love your videos. Do you know, can I install WLED on a ESP8266 using a Chromebook?

[@emirkan9338]

hi mate cool video ! i appericated for this helpful video also i have quick question i'm so new and im wonder can we controll these led strips with bluetooth instead connect with wifi ? many thanks cheers .

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

I'm not 100% sure but with the specific setup I used (WLED on an ESP8266 board) I don't think Bluetooth is one of the features. However you can certainly get different controllers that work with these lights that are Bluetooth. Here is an example of one: amzn.to/3xhEAUU Thanks so much for watching!

[@emirkan9338]

@@ChrisMaherDIY thanks a lot mate for your helpfull comment here , appericated!

[@MrProkaryon]

when you unplugged the board and then plug again to the power source, do you need WLED app to replay the patterns you have before you unplug the board? Does the board store the patterns you have configure?

[@Sebaste22]

Hello ! Very good stuff, I am making these toddler dino lamp on thingiverse and would love tu use them as a sleep trainer. The arduino solution look very daunting and complicated to me, this look way easier ! I was wondering , with WLED can I program the light to turn red for the night and then set them to turn green at a given time to help my toddler understand when it's okay to get up ? Thank you

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and I'm glad you enjoyed the video! You certainly can do exactly what your wanting to do with very little effort. Here is a good video that goes over how to do just that. You create some pre set animation/colors and then set what time you want things to turn on/off. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2jHhGCejdWpf7s

[@Sebaste22]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Amazing ! Thank you !

[@rees1906]

Can I use this to control 600 lights? How many power injections would you recommend and all that of the come from the same power supply?

[@randomshorts7191]

Hi Chris, can you please tech me how do i get the blue light 1:21 time stamp, when I connect my node mcu to my p.c it just blinks and turns off

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks so much for watching! I actually think if its the first time using the board, it might blink and then the light turns off. Once WLED is installed I think it remains lit when plugged in. See if you can get wled installed on it even if the light is off.

[@jbragg2493]

Awesome tutorial! If you want to add different segments of LED strips like not one continuous run, what pin would you connect to on the node?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

I could be wrong but I don't know if you can hook up multiple different lines to the same controller via a different pin. I'm not an expert so maybe someone else might know for sure on here. However if you get another controller and hook up the led strip to that, the WLED app will let you control all the lights at once via the sync function. It's super handy! Thanks for watching and the comment!

[@jbragg2493]

@@ChrisMaherDIY Thanks, I’m in the process of wiring them up and installing them right now. So far I’ve got 4 sixteen foot strips ran from the one D4 pin so we will see!

[@jbragg2493]

So here’s my answer…. You can only use one pin (as far as I know) and the longer the run of LED’s the more likely you are to have data issues the further you get from the controller. After running all mine from one pin even having 4 different segments of 6 strips total and even with power injecting on both sides of every strip the longer ones would just blink rapidly random colors. So how many can you run together or how many segments can the one pin effectively operate? It really depends on what effects you are trying to run, how long your wires are to each strip etc. So in my case I ended up using 3 nodes and it works flawlessly. I could be wrong but this is what happened in my case. Hope this helps anyone in the same situation.

[@khoshabamenshaya4756]

@@jbragg2493 hi mate, so I’m doing something similar to you and hope you can help me to get it right. My run about 25M and I know that need a minimum 3 power injection as I’m using 24V led strips. My question how many data pin need for this run? And let’s say need 3 data pin where about to connect them in led strip light?

[@jonaswiegmann4905]

Heyy, great video!! It helped me a lot. But I was wondering why the ESP8266 was able to power the 5V LED Strip (because I read that the ESP works on 3.3V). My second question: I want to power 252 LEDs for my project. Is it possible to use a 5V 5A power source with micro USB into the ESP (exact setup like the video)? Or do I have to use an external power source?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and for the great question! I think that even though the esp is 3.3v, its still able to take the 5v signal with no issues that I have ever seen on my end. I would say 252 is a bit much for a standard phone charger (a fast charging phone charger is generally 2amps) But if you are able to find a 5amp, It might just be enough! I would say its for sure worth trying it to see how it looks and if it will pass your level of expectations before trying a larger power source!

[@kaislate]

Is there a way to make this work with a stream deck? Are there any hotkey options in the software?

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

That is something i'm not sure. Maybe someone else will on here will know? I've never used stream deck unfortunatly. I'm not aware of hotkey options but i've also only scratched the surface of the WLED software so I wouldn't be suprised if there was. I'll let you know if I find out any of the answeres and let me know if you do as well since i'm curious myself. Thanks!

[@muhammedaliozkarabulut549]

Thanks for the detailed instruction. By the way can we supply 2m(total 120LED) ws2812B leds from esp8266 vin pin? with 5v 2A phone charger? Thank You...

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

You are very welcome and thanks for watching! The short answer is yes you can. In this video I made, I'm controlling 200 leds with only a 5v 2a phone charger: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5ybeaF9rcuEp5I However, If I put all the LED's at white, there was definitely a very noticeable color drop. I also had to keep the brightness pretty low in the video. So depending on what you are using them for, it may or may not be good enough. My advice would to be just try it first with the phone charger and see what you think.

[@jabbarhajiyev3052]

hello. what is the difference between ws2812 and 2811 and 50? which one has the brighter color and more features? I want to buy for TVs in the ps club game room

[@ChrisMaherDIY]

Thanks for watching and great question! I have not worked with the 50 but the 2812 and 2811 are similar in performance but the 2811 is 12v vs 5v. The 2811 requires less power injection if you are doing a bigger display which is one of the benefits. I have mostly worked with the 2812 and have had no issues with the leds at all so I can speak to their durability. Cant go wrong with either one!

[@jabbarhajiyev3052]

@@ChrisMaherDIY I have 42-inch diagonal TVs and 220 volt sockets, which one is right for me?