WLED/Nodemcu - LED's not working

Hello all,

I hope this is the correct spot for this issue. I’m new to Home Assistant and most things attached to that subject (basic Raspberry Pi/Arduino projects in the past). I recently received the following:

NodeMcu: V3 with ESP8266
LED: ALITOVE WS2812B
Power Supply: 5v 20amp
*I can send links for the exact product if that helps

I’ll start with the obvious/key issues I’ve noticed. The wifi doesn’t work if I boot the NodeMcu while the D4 pin is connected. I’ve seen other issues similar online however they either have no solution or I tried and it didn’t work. I’ve used a multimeter on the other end of the LED strip and I’m getting around 4.9 volts so I don’t think its a current issue (could be wrong). Direct output from the PSU is 5.7volts.

Wiring: The LED and NodeMcu are connected to the PSU (NodeMcu Vin/Gnd). Not my original configuration, however, I tried to eliminate some jumpers.

I’ve tried 2 different versions of WLED but same results. I’m not using a resister, however, I’ve seen this work without the use of one. I’m hoping I’m overlooking something simple. The LED’s worked for my last project (running off a Raspberry Pi) so I wouldn’t imagine they are bad. I can test them if needed, I just would have to set all of that back up again. Any advice would be appreciated and I’m sorry if this is either a dumb or already answered question (I promise I did research first, lol)

Thanks!

If you are pulling D4 low, it won’t boot. See https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp8266-pinout-reference-gpios/

Thanks for the quick reply! I’ve read something similar but I’m not sure what to do about that. How would I make it “pull high” and if I can’t, why do some tutorials not need this extra step? I’m asking this not only to get my project working, but just for general information as well because I’m really enjoying working with Home Assistant.

Do you realise you put this in an esphome thread when you are using wled?

Wled has its own forum too. https://wled.discourse.group/

Yup, that’s why I wasn’t sure if this was the right section. I searched for WLED but it came up blank (new to forums/posting/home-assistant). I do understand this ties in with ESPHome so it was the closest match so I looked for help here. Thanks for that link though and I will repost there.

Good luck, cheers.