Can anyone tell me whether these strip will work with WLED?
Alexa LED Lights Strip,TECKIN Smart Light Strip 16 Million Color Changing Strip Light with Remote Control, 16.4ft SMD 5050 Tape Lights Apply for TV, Bedroom, Party and Home Decoration https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07YSB3242/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_EzGvEb7AAKCS4
I think I could use them with esphome but I’m reading that WLED is better?
No they wont.
WLED uses addressable LED strips (WS2812B, WS2811, SK6812, APA102). Those are RGB LED strips.
More on the difference here: https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/led-strips
And yes WLED is very good.
I think you can. After reading
Some electronic skills is needed though.
Even if that analog led strip might work, it beats the purpose of WLED as the entire strip will be of the same color.
Look for a digital strip as @tom_l advised if searching for individual addressable leds effects.
Any suggestions on an off the shelf strip I could buy and flash?
Of the recommended led strips by the github (WS2811, WS2812B, SK6812, APA102) I’ve used WS2812B and APA102 but only with logic level converters (although some use it without, I’ve seen some strange artifacts sometimes that the converter eliminated).
WS2815 (upgraded version running on 12 V) should also work and even better as a long, high density led strip at 5V would need additional powering, otherwise the voltage drop would bring unwanted levels of brightness (likely this won’t be a problem at 12 V).
I’m sorry, maybe I’m misunderstanding, but is there an off the shelf strip I can buy that I can flash this to or do I have to make everything myself?
Is WLED similar to Tasmota?
Not that I’ve know of (I’ve seen ESP8266 based controllers but for analog led strips); however, I didn’t specifically searched for digital led strips + ESP boards as I’ve done most of the projects myself.
If thinking that soldering would be a problem, then it should be of no concern (you can connect led strip to ESP using du Pont connectors, without any soldering whatsoever). You might need to look for a case for the ESP, however this is mostly dependent on one’s creativity.
I assume the question is about whether the two projects can be flashed similarly to blank or to pre-flashed ESP boards (Tasmota can, in fact, be flashed over all sorts of devices mostly featuring ESP8266, support for ESP32 is not yet at the same level) and not about software differences, on which I cannot comment. You can also find Youtube videos explaining the flashing process of different software projects and boards.
No. It’s dead simple though.
Buy an addressable LED strip.
Buy an ESP32 board.
Buy a power supply rated for your LED strip.
Flash WLED to the ESP.
Hook the data in line of the LED strip to pin to GPIO2 of the ESP.
Hook up the power to the LED strip (at more than one point if it is really long).
Profit or Pretty lights.?
Thanks! Seems like this would be for long, possibly outdoor, runs?
Yes, as long as the wifi signal reaches the ESP board, there are waterproof options for the addressable led strips that work with WLED.
Then, you need to insulate the ESP board alongside with the power supply and connectors between them.
I love the idea of built in “Christmas Lights” on the house but this seems above my pay grade. 