Seeed ESP32S3 and WS2811 issues

ESPHome
1

I can’t get my Seeed ESP32S3 to correctly control my LED strips in ESPHome. When I initially turn on the lights they come on but none of the other controls work (dimmer, change colors, effects, etc) not even the power off. Once they are on they stay on I have to unplug the power to the LED strip. I have tried both neopixel and RMT Led. Below is my configuration. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

esphome:
  name: esphome-web-75e200
  friendly_name: Living Room ESP
  min_version: 2025.11.0
  name_add_mac_suffix: false

esp32:
  board: seeed_xiao_esp32s3
  variant: esp32s3
  framework:
    type: arduino

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:

# Allow Over-The-Air updates
ota:
- platform: esphome

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password

#light:
#  - platform: esp32_rmt_led_strip
#    rgb_order: BRG
#    pin: GPIO1
#    num_leds: 100
#    chipset: ws2811
#    name: "XIAO LEDS"

light:
  - platform: neopixelbus
    type: BRG
    variant: WS2811
    pin: GPIO1
    num_leds: 100
    name: "NeoPixel Light"
2

Figured out my issue. I had read that you should have a resistor between the GPIO out and the data line for the LED strip. Can’t remember what the rating was at the time but I think I matched it. Finally decided to try with out the resistor and everything worked as expects, all colors, dimmer, on/off. Going to play around with the effects but assuming it should work fine.

Anyone have thoughts on a resistor between the GPIO and LED Data line?

3

Just leave it without.
The problem you have is that when LED is powered at 5V and data signal from esp is 3.3V you are already out of specs. That resistor makes it worse. If you really want to do it correctly, you need level shifter for the data line to raise the signal to 5V.

4

Thanks for the additional details.