How To Install WLED on an ESP32 Board and Connect / Control Addressable LEDs

so the first thing you're going to do is open up a web browser and type in install.wled.me [Music] at this point you can plug your esp32 board into your pc but make sure the micro usb cord you use does support data transfer next click install and you should see the module show up to select for me it showed up under my com5 port now if you don't see anything show up when you click install you might need to update your drivers or you might not be using the micro usb cord that supports data if you do need to install the drivers they provide a link right here for you to do that and as a quick reminder i'll leave links in the description to everything i use in this video so make sure to take a look alright so going back let's click install again i'll select my com5 port and then connect and now you can click install wled now one thing i want to point out is that some esp32 devices will require you to hold down the boot button on the module before selecting the final install icon [Music] and at this point you can release that button as it was able to connect [Music] once the installation is complete it'll have you entering your wi-fi information so that the device can connect to your home network once connected i recommend going to visit device configure wi-fi preferences and changing the address to something you can remember so you can easily access this web interface again [Music] now that we have wled installed on the esp32 module it's time to connect it to some led lights so these are the wires i have connected to the beginning of the first led strip i have everything color coordinated so red will be my power green data and black ground i'll show you how to get things wired up using what i would categorize as a big power supply as well as what i would consider to be a medium one so here's our esp32 module you can see i've already soldered three wires to the board i'll leave a link in the description to my soldering for beginners video where i go over the easy steps of getting this set up i'm first going to strip and twist the ends of the wires that i have connected to the board next i'm going to take a red and black wire and strip and twist both ends [Music] now you can take the red wire and insert it into one of the positive terminals on our big power unit [Music] next take the black wire and insert it into one of the negative posts [Music] i'll set that aside so we can prep our medium power supply do the same thing with the new set of red and black wires that we just did the red will be inserted into the plus terminal and the black will go into the negative [Music] there's many ways you can connect everything together at this point but the method i found to be the easiest is using these wiggle connectors first insert the red wire from the power supply into one of the three sections on the connector and push down on the lever to lock it in now you can do the same with the black negative wire [Music] i'll quickly repeat the steps for the medium supply unit [Music] from here it's very simple i'll put the red voltage wire that goes to my led strip into one of the two remaining openings on the lego connector that already has the red wire from my supply box i'll then do the same thing with the black ground wire that goes to my lights the third and final spot still left on the lego connectors is where the red and black cables that are connected to the esp32 module will go [Music] and finally i can use a two piece wiggle to connect the green data wires together [Music] now that everything is connected i'll quickly swap out the big supply unit with our medium one i'll start over from scratch so you can see it again in case i went too fast the first time [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] i'll use this setup for the quick wled tutorial so at this point you can plug in the power supply to your wall outlet now go to your phone or tablet and download the wled app and once it's installed open it up go ahead and click the plus icon near the top right and then hit discover lights and when the scan is done hit the check mark at the top it should find any controllers that you have around your house the one that we just set up is at the bottom so i'm going to go ahead and delete the others to make it easier to follow so there's so much you can do with wled but i'm just going to go over a quick introduction to the basics to get you up and running let's first click on the configure button near the top right and then go into led preferences now you can certainly play around with the automatic brightness limiter but i generally have this feature turned on and set for 2 000 milliamps further down is where you'll select what type of led strips you have since i'm using some ws2812 lights i'll have the ws281x selected this is also where you're going to input how many total leds you have for my setup there's 360. and if the colors aren't matching what you're selecting in the app you'll have to play around with the grb order until it's correct and if you want to change the name that's displayed on the app you can go into the user interface and type in what you want [Music] now that the setup is complete let's go over a few of the features right here is where you can turn the lights on or off the slider at the top is where you can adjust the brightness and you can use the color circle to change all the leds to whatever you want [Music] now what i usually end up doing is hitting the dark circle here which will set all the leds to no color i'll then scroll down and select from one of the many palettes you can choose from i'll then go to my effects tab and select an animation which will then display whatever color pattern i chose [Music] from here you can play around with the many different effects you can choose from and switching from one color scheme to the next [Music] now some of the animations do let you control the speed which is adjusted by using this slider [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the last thing i'll quickly go over is segments this is where you can separate your leds so that you can control them separately i'll create two segments for this example and each one will have 180 lights i can then control each half independently of each other [Music] [Applause] [Music] so that about does it for this basic introduction to wled i hope you enjoyed the video and as always let me know if you have any questions

Channel: Chris Maher

Views: 359,491

Keywords: wled, esp8266, ws2812b, getting started wled, wled led strips, wled on esp8266, neopixel, esp32, esp32 led strip control, esp8266 led control, wled controller, wled to esp8266, wled to esp32, ws2812b controller, ws2812b led strip lights, getting started esp32, wled esp32, esp32 led, esp32 wled, esp32 nodemcu, connecting led lights to esp32, connecting leds to esp32, flash wled to esp32, control led lights, how to control led lights, programming led, control led light strips

Id: TOEnFKLm9Sw

Length: 9min 21sec (561 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 14 2022