wled
Contents
About
A fast and feature-rich implementation of an ESP8266/ESP32 webserver to control NeoPixel (WS2812B, WS2811, SK6812) LEDs or also SPI based chipsets like the WS2801 and APA102!
There are 6 GPIO pins that may be used for buttons, sensors …
Usecases
- Ambiente indoor/outdoor lighting
like Family Griswold
- TV biaslight
- Audio-reactive lighting
- …
Hardware
Controller
QuinLED-Dig-Uno Board Dimensions ~40x50x25mm
QuinLED-Dig-Quad Board Dimensions ~100x50x25mm
Power supply
- You need a power supply that can deliver the necessary current!
- It might be necessary to inject power in regular intervals (like every 2m) to avoid voltage drops and thus allow uniform brightnes.
Cabling
Chose the right cables between the power supply and the board/LEDs and between the board and the LEDs.
Resistance
Resistance transforms energy to heat, reduces efficiency and therefor may cause fire.
- The electrical resistance grows linearly with length and quadratic with the decreasing radius.
- It depends heavily on the material with its specific electrical coefficiant of resistance. So make sure you have the right material like copper (instead of copper coated aluminium).
- These coeffients are growing slightly with temperature.
- As a side note it also depends on the frequency (skin-effect).
- Voltage is dropped over the cable, once you fall below a critically low voltage (like 4.2V), the controller may no longer respond to your commands.
Cables
- 10m 3x 2,5mm²-6mm² (13-10 AWG) 3-core flexible cable
- Between the power supply and the board/LEDs better use a thick cable to keep the system in a acceptable low thermal range. You may even double or triple the cables in parallel to increase the area. With high loads please consider using thick cable, but you may still double it up.
- 25m 3x0.75mm² (20AWG) 3-core PVC-insulated, white or black, flexible cable
- Between the board and the LEDs use a lightweigth to medium cable to ensure a
Kopp H03VV-F 3Gx0,75mm2 - Light plastic insulated cable, 3-core, colour: white
- You will most probably prefer the flexible stranded wires (Litze) over solid ones. In this case please make sure to use wire end sleeves/ferrules to ensure a fine connection using all strands instead of only a few.
Housing
- Waterproof junction boxes (Verteilerdosen), maybe with a transparent cover
- Waterproof cable glants (Kabelverschraubungen) for junction boxes PG7
LEDs
LED connectors
- 3-pin JST SM connectors with 22/20AWG cables are most common
- M8 3-pin waterproof connectors may be used outdoor (metric 8mm thread 60°)
- Industrial standard
Connector Tips - M8 vs. M12 Connectors: How to select and implement
- E27 Quick wire connectors (light bulb to cable)
- 3-pin 10mm LED strip to wire connectors (IP20)
- 3-pin 10mm LED strip to wire connectors (IP65)
Tube diameters
To get the LEDs perfectly alined vertically, when wrapping them around a tube, the diameter of the tube must be well chosen. Therefor this little formula:
1 s … distance between to LEDs
2 ρ … linear LED density (count per meter) = {30 m⁻¹, 60 m⁻¹, 144 m⁻¹, …}
3
4 n … number of LEDs on one round (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, …}
5 h … height of the LED strip
6 d … diameter of the tube
7
8 s = 100cm / ρ
9
10 d = sqrt( (s²n² + h²) / π² )
11 d = sqrt( ((100cm/ρ)²n² + h²) / π² )
12 d = sqrt( ((100/r)^2 * n^2 + h^2) / pi^2)
Table of results
n |
d [cm] |
Tube |
2 |
1,108 |
|
3 |
1,623 |
EN-16 |
4 |
2,146 |
EN-20 |
5 |
2,672 |
EN-25 |
6 |
3,199 |
|
7 |
3,727 |
|
8 |
4,256 |
DN-40 |
9 |
4,785 |
|
10 |
5,315 |
DN-50 |
11 |
5,844 |
|
12 |
6,374 |
|
13 |
6,904 |
|
14 |
7,434 |
|
15 |
7,964 |
|
16 |
8,494 |
|
Apps
Flash WLED to device
Unmodifed WLED
Flash with browser
Open the following site in Chrome or Edge
https://install.wled.me/
Flash with esptool
Install esptool
Debian has a version in the repository
1 aptitude show esptool
2 Paket: esptool
3 Version: 2.8+dfsg-1
4 Zustand: nicht installiert
5 Multi-Arch: foreign
6 Priorität: optional
7 Bereich: electronics
8 Verwalter: Milan Kupcevic <milan@debian.org>
9 Architektur: all
10 Unkomprimierte Größe: 231 k
11 Hängt ab von: python3, python3-serial, python3-pyaes, python3-ecdsa
12 Beschreibung: create and flash firmware files to ESP8266 and ESP32 chips
13 Communicate with the ROM bootloader in Espressif ESP8266 and ESP32 chips to fash firmware files, create firmware images or read OTP ROM or flash memory content such is manufacturer or
14 device IDs.
15 Homepage: https://github.com/espressif/esptool
16 Markierungen: field::electronics, hardware::embedded, implemented-in::c, interface::commandline, role::program, scope::utility
Install esptool from repository
1 aptitude install esptool
To get the latest version install esptool from pip
1 pip install esptool
Powering the device
Please make 100% sure that you have the correct polarity or you will grill the device.
Connect to device
SSID |
WLED-AP |
Password |
wled1234 |
Name: |
wled.me |
IP |
4.3.2.1 |
You'll get redirected to a captive portal to setup your device.