I recently bought a WLED controller based on the ESP32-C3 microcontroller. It has a button and a 3-pin connector for NeoPixel-style LEDs (WS281x). Once connected to Wi-Fi, this device gives you full access to the configuration, colors, and effects via the WLED app. My goal is to update its code to the latest version of WLED… and maybe connect it to CheerLights.
WLED Installation on Windows
- Download ‘esptool.exe’ app from the esptool releases area.
- Download the latest release of WLED for the device that you are using.
- Plug in the device and note the COM port.
- Open the Command Prompt and enter this command:
esptool.exe -p COMXXXXX write_flash 0x010000 WLED_0.14.4_ESP32-C3.binNote: Change COMXXXXX to the actual COM port that your device is connected to. If your ESP device is on COM 9, then this would be COM9.
Here’s what it looks like when everything works successfully on Windows:
WLED Configuration
This device’s button is on GPIO 9, and the data pin for LED lights is on GPIO 10. I need to set these in the WLED configuration for the lights to work.
- From WLED, select Config -> LED Preferences.
- Under LED outputs, enter ’10’ into the GPIO box.
- Scroll down the GPIO button sections.
- Select 9 for Button 0 and set to pushbutton.
- Scroll to the bottom and select Save.
CheerLights Settings (optional)
If (and when) you want to connect this WLED controller to CheerLights, just add the CheerLights MQTT server address to the Sync Interfaces. For MQTT to work, you will need to cycle the power going to the board (i.e., unplug and plug back in).
