I have WLED strips underneath stair railings which are set up with this scenario:
My ESp8266’s have died and even the replacements are not working with the 5v and WLED firmare or any version now. ChgatGPT was suggesting I get Quinled ESP32’s, but I am a big believer in shelly and isn’t there a shelly product that can replace the ESP8266 i this case, or shall I just do the upgrade to the ESP8266 to Quinlen ESP32’s which will allow me to just keep the wiring the same way?
I just downloaded WLED to an ESP-12F (ESP8266). Its web page comes up so I don’t see why that isn’t working for you.
Please give more detail on what you mean by “not working” Note: Powering an ESP8266 with 5V will kill it. So I must assume that you’re using a board that has a regulator on it.
The KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method will be the easiest and most straight forward. The QuinLED (I think this is what you meant) will work just fine. So go with that.
A DIY solution could be an ESP-12F (ESP*266), AMS1117-3.3 low-dropout (LDO) linear voltage regulator (5V-3.3V), 10kΩ (GPIO15-GND) and capacitors on the power rails. You would need a programmer, or at least a USB to serial adapter that has a 3.3V output.
Shelly doesn’t do WLED to my knowledge
. They have a custom ESP32 ship.
That is what happened, the 5v killed the ESP8266’s. So I have ordered a couple ESP32’s instead because I don’t want to spend that much - and I believe they have a 5v power input (in addition to 3.3 input), so that is the direction I am going - thanks
??? Then you did something wrong.
If you connect 5V to the 3V3 line, then yes, you will release the magic smoke.
You still haven’t said which ESP8266 board you are using and how you wired things.
The QuinLED board is a good design, but their support is on Discord. So, a non-starter here.
Evidently not right away, no magic smoke, just magic stopped working after about 9 months 
If you look at esp8266 you can get maker/model and order exact part.
If you replace with another it will likely fail in similar time. If it lasted several years maybe it’s not concern but if it fail after few months its problem.
Need to see circuit to understand issue honestly. You can buy cheap WLED controller from Amazon or alibaba. $15usd or so