วีดีโอ

You can definitely give it a shot. I'm not sure of your particular setup, but if there are electrical components near those points it might help. Speaking of sheaths, my last data line was a sheathed coaxial cable I have lying around from the olden days of cable.

@@BytesOfPi Yea I have my ESP32 S3 in a Rack with alot of other gear and powersupply and above the rack is my Piano with all the lightstrips. So the ESP and Cables are around other devices closed in a metal rack. I will try it with the sheath current filter an see if the small higgs of lights every 30-50 sec will be todally removed. ;) I tried everything else of this video. 14AWG Cables, Level Shifter, Ohm Resistors to cleanup the signal, sordered the cables directly and checked with an multimeter all connections and even polarity check for the power outlet and the power supply to put it in in the right polarity (what I do for all devices, yup EU outlets suck) xD Still I have every 30-50 sec a small higgs of flicker for a sec. So this will be my last option I know 😅✌

@@marcusunivers oof.. if it's in a rack with a lot of other equipment, probably a lot to give it the jitters. Is there a way you can turn off everything else in your rack except the lights? If you can turn off everything but your powersource, ESP32 and lights, and get a stable connection, you can isolate your problem. Turn on one thing at a time till you get the jitters again. Also, Is there any way you could shorten the distance between your controllers and the lights? The closer you can get your ESP32 to the lights, the better.

@@BytesOfPi I tried it with the sheath current filter and it worked perfectly. No flicker anymore. 👍 And not really I cant shut down other Equipment in the rack because there are Mic Pres and Interfaces to use my Music Devices while doing Lightshows 😅✌

@@marcusunivers that is great news! Congratulations!

Glad you liked it! Thanks for the feedback

Hope you did well on your exam

That is a good question. I assume that it supports Unicode characters. Have you tried opening the WLED UI in a browser and putting the unicode Cyrillic letters in the box?

I've not used buck converters in my builds, but I bet they give off a lot of electrical interference. If you can keep the converter as far away from your data line as possible that may help. Also just a shot in the dark but you could try a makeshift faraday cage by surrounding the converter with some tin foil

@@BytesOfPi I've used buck converters quite successfully with some types of strips. Muzata 3535, for instance. These FCOB strips are quite sensitive, however. Clever idea on the home-made faraday cage. I tried it but must have shorted out a couple of contacts because smoke started emanating from one of the components. I think I fried the ESP32 board because I can no longer connect to it. No biggie, I have spares and they are easy to program. Before introducing tin foil into your enclosure, ensure you have all of the contact points correctly isolated!

Hey, I'm using a WS2811 in my current project and it won't stop flickering, I'm using the ESP32 as a controller too, do you have any idea why this is happening, thanks in advance.

@@omarelabasery7101 Ensure that one of the ground pins from ESP32 is connected to the neutral from your power source. If that is the case, you may need to incorporate a level shifter into your circuit.

@@jeremymercer665 okay thank you 🙏❤️

Did you download the correct driver for the USB UART? I think its called CP210x_Windows_Drivers if you are using Windows.

@@pixelkedjan yes. Absolutely. Thinking that I was installing the driver wrong somehow is what started this frustration spiral I'm currently in.

What program are you using to flash your board? I may be mistaken, but I don't believe I had to download drivers when using vscode with platform io. While running the app, the adapter was recognized and used I'll concede that I downloaded drivers for an esp32 wroom board years before but it didn't need the ttl converter. I'll try to use a clean PC to confirm

@@BytesOfPi I'm using the WLED install website which should work if the USB module will be properly recognized by the computer.

Gotcha. I guess that's another reason I prefer using PlatformIO plugin for VSCode to install WLED besides the ability to customize the build.

Sorry about that. I try to jam a lot of info into a short space so some of it goes fast. I'm glad you caught the segment switch

Thanks! Actually in the last few years it's been getting cheaper and easier to get started. I've got a ton of videos about how I put it together. High level: -) Microcontrollers flashed with WLED -) Show composed with xLights software -) WS2811 Bullet pixels or WS2812 strips Start small with xLights on your PC, a strand or 2 of 5v lights and a WLED controller. You can run show and music off your computer. If you find you enjoy it, you can start: -) building props, -) run using a raspberry Pi FPP player -) use professional grade meanwell power supplies Start small and cheap and then build on: A few videos to check would be: Behind the scenes th-cam.com/video/GeJxolPpiE8/w-d-xo.html Flash WLED th-cam.com/video/nvM-QI4Z_M4/w-d-xo.html WLED, xLights and FPP th-cam.com/video/LkGCo9Gi8mk/w-d-xo.html Setup th-cam.com/video/mkRKVinVuM4/w-d-xo.html

@@BytesOfPi awesome 👍 I'll definitely review them 😀 thanks a lot 🙏

That's awesome! I'm glad you got your show off the ground. Good luck on building your light show up.

Yep. That's where it started. I wanted a cheap entry into a display of individually addressable lights and spending $15 on a controller really beat out the $300+ Falcon controllers available at the time. Since that video, so many engineers have capitalized on WLED and microcontrollers (Quindor, Kulp, Forkineye, etc...). They build PCBs with preassembled components like level shifters and fuses that undercut the larger players for $40-$50 a pop. It's exciting to see how much has changed in the last 4 years and how many newcomers have gotten started since

There's definitely multiple ways to attack the problem. I have a few older defunct desktops that could donate a power supply that may be more reliable. The issue I was trying to address is that on a cold startup of my Chinese 5v power supplies to power the WT32-ETH01 board and lights, the board would not start up. I had to go physically disconnect the board from the power supply, wait a few seconds, then plug it back in. It's a hack for sure to use the NE555 timer to delay until the supply could provide a steady 5v, but it's worked in every build out since. All of my Chinese power supplies pooped out in a few years time and I've since moved on to meanwell supplies which haven't failed once. I might be able to take the delay out with better power supplies. I'm a big fan of keeping designs simple. Less points of failure. If there's a better supply that can spin up a board and lights reliably every time, I'd say go with that.

Thanks!

Thanks! That's a good question. Almost. One port goes to the Pi. The second port goes to one of the WT32-ETH01 inside the garage. A third port goes to an 8 port switch out in the yard. The box is positioned centrally in the yard to minimize the distance to the 4 additional exterior WT32-ETH01 boards running the rest of the show. That central box also provides power outlets to the rest of the yard. I have enough to be able to expand to an additional 3 controllers in the future. The power going out into the yard box is always on, keeping the switch constantly powered. It also has a home automation switch that powers the other outlets so I can schedule when the props turn on or off or manually turn them on/off via my phone.

@@BytesOfPi Many thanks for the detailed reply. The use of an additional 8 ports for future controllers is a great idea. It's amazing how the WT32 performs for such a low cost when comparing it to commercial controllers. I have successfully run around 1500 pixels before on a single pinout with an ESP32. The frame rate wasn't too bad either considering I was probably approaching the controllers limits. I believe there are at least 5 usable pins on the WT32, meaning as many as 4000 pixels at 800 per output could be used per controller.

@@modelmanmark Yep, that's definitely true. The most I have running off of one WT32-ETH01 is my latest matrix of 2365 pixels using 3 output ports. It doesn't handle the canned WLED 2d patterns well, but it handles xLights 40FPS sequences like a champ. WLED has a page talking about their recommendation on performance for ESP32s kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#esp32 For perfect performance, it is recommeded to use 512 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 2048 LEDs. For very good performance, it is recommended to use 800 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 3200 LEDs. For good performance, you can use 1000 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 4000 LEDs. For okay performance, you can use 1000 LEDs/pin with 5 outputs for a total of 5000 LEDs. For okay performance, you can use 800 LEDs/pin with 6 outputs for a total of 4800 LEDs.

In my setup, I run the xLights show from a standalone FPP Raspberry Pi that doesn't control any lights. If you are running some lights off of your FPP controller, I think it would be the IP address of your FPP. You'd need to set up your controller as an FPP controller

@@BytesOfPi do you have a link for a FPP raspberry pi?

@@WooderBoyProductions You don't need to buy a raspberry Pi to run your show. If you use the xScheduler software bundled with xLights, you can run it off your computer for free. If you want to use a dedicated FPP controller to run your show, you can purchase a Raspberry Pi and a micro SD card flashed with FPP. The best place in the US to purchase a Raspberry Pi that I've found has been Adafruit. www.adafruit.com/product/4292 You can get more information on flashing FPP from github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp falconchristmas.github.io/ There are a few good videos on how to flash FPP on TH-cam.

@@BytesOfPi in the future I am looking to try and not use my computer to schedule my show.

@@WooderBoyProductions Gotcha. Yeah it's not too bad to buy a $45 dedicated Raspberry Pi and a $10 micro SD card and flash FPP on it to run your show

I think you're referring to the matrix video and unfortunately I've not looked at it yet... If I get some free time, I'll need to download the latest and check out the code

@@BytesOfPi Thanks for your reply I'm not good at English, so I'm using a translator. Please understand even if the grammar is incorrect. I am following along step by step while watching TH-cam videos. There are more things I don’t understand, but I’m always grateful.

Awesome! That common ground issue is easy to fix and easy to overlook especially if you use 2 different voltages like 12-24v lights.

Awesome! Funny enough I have a lot of family birthdays in December as well. Hope the text overlay works for you.

That's a good point. A similar thing happens with xLights and FPP. If two machines are broadcasting data , the controllers get confused and flicker

That's a tough question. Most likely you did not damage your other strands. If the only thing you did was tie a strand of strings backwards, but you kept ground tied to ground and power to power, then they should all be good. The data goes one way, but doesn't cause damage if you connected them backwards. What usually causes damage is connecting a higher voltage than your strand can accept or touching ground to power. Was the backward strand at the end of your run or at the beginning? Are you assembling it all on the ground or in the air? If you can assemble the pieces on the ground and test them, it's worth it before you hang them up on a permanent installation

No problem! I'm glad you found the videos helpful. I like the idea that we can start with cheap components just to see if we enjoy the hobby and want to go deeper. A lot of the marketed boards are over engineered and have a lot more components than most really need which makes it expensive just to start. However, having said that, the marketed boards do have a lot of safety components like fuses that are necessary and useful components like level shifters that are really useful. They also come in custom PCB boards that make it really compact to fit in a small space. I hope you have a good season and that your matrix works for you. My family and I found the Matrices were the centerpiece to our show and we can do a lot of fun things. Happy holidays!

Were you able to get what you were looking for? You can still use this for a single strand as well as props

Thanks!

Thanks! I built these boxes a few years ago when WLED had just caught on and there weren't many commercially available all in one WLED boards. I still prefer my setup, especially with the ethernet connection, but I'm exploring new options now and seeing if Wi-Fi options can hold their weight. More to come!

Thanks, I appreciate that! The flashing lights issue is the most frustrating problem and it's a struggle sometimes to know where to start troubleshooting.

Are you looking for the WLED sound reactive sequences to react to songs you create on your DAW? I haven't had the opportunity or need to try SAC, but there are 2 things that come to mind if you want WLED to react to custom songs Audio reactive WLED If you hooked a mic up to your ESP32 there are sound reactive sequences that will react to the music it hears. kno.wled.ge/advanced/audio-reactive/ xLights sequences I prefer to have tighter control on how my light show reacts to music, so I sequence my lights to music using xLights and then use DDP to deliver light data to my individual WLED controllers. One place you might find solution to your problem is the r/WLED Reddit page. There are a lot of guys there that maybe able to provide more insight. If you do go down the SAC protocol path and get it to work, it may be worth posting your success on that page so others can follow in your footsteps.

@@BytesOfPi xLights, that’s interesting. i haven’t heard of that. also DDP, what is that? is that a lighting protocol like art-net?

@@eross21 xLights is an open source tool that the lighting community has used for years. High level, it allows you to model your display area with all of your light props and controllers and create "sequences" that will fire DMX based packets using the DDP protocol. I have another video that demonstrates connecting xLights and WLED. The video doesn't show the music sequence because of YT policies, but you can see my current light shows on the channel synced to music th-cam.com/video/LkGCo9Gi8mk/w-d-xo.html If you're interested in DDP protocol or xLights, here are a few links xLights: manual.xlights.org/xlights/ DDP protocol: www.3waylabs.com/ddp/#Efficiency

🤣 That's happened to me a couple times... Luckily those issues are really easy to fix.

Thanks! I'm all about finding ways to stretching money so you can do more with less. I saw a few videos of vendor created netting for bullet pixels and thought there has got to be a cheaper way to do it. The vendor based Matrix stuff is at a fixed length so you got to know how much you want to space it. I figured a grid gives you the ability to place a matrix at whatever spacing you want. Most of the plastic chicken fence is diagonal pattern with holes just a little too big for pixels, but the grid style fences are just big enough. Two things I'll caution you. First is to be gentle because the squares are snug. It is plastic and if you try and force it too much the square will snap. Secondly my 2365 pixel matrix is very heavy. You'll get that with any solution probably so If you have a really dense matrix it'll try to sag in the middle. I would suggest having one or two braces in the middle of your frame to support the weight

That's a great way to get started cheaply to see if you want to get into the hobby or not! WLED has a lot of patterns that will work without music to sync with. You probably have enough around the house to get started. Looping the lights around a Christmas tree may be challenging since xLights needs to model the position of each pixel as it spirals around your tree, but you can get an approximation. If you're ok with quick and dirty, WLED has an audio reactive configurations and patterns if you have a microphone component. You don't have to sequence anything, but just let the controller kno.wled.ge/advanced/audio-reactive/ If you really are ambitious, I got started with just regular Christmas lights, an 8 channel solid state relay board, and custom coded a program to read E1.31 Analog data to turn the relays on and off. That was before smart pixels really took off and

Sure, I'll give it a try... The zip doesn't have the music, but it has the sequence and images. github.com/BytesOfPi/xLightsWLED/blob/main/xLights/sequences/Holly%20Jolly%20Christmas.zip You can purchase the MP3 on Amazon Music or another music selling site.

@@BytesOfPi that works i have the file now to learn how to use it. thanks

Thanks! In the xLights layout, You can group your models together. One of the groups I have is the entire show. Apply the fan effect to the entire show group and it will cover it as if it was one big prop

There was a time where I wanted a mega tree in my display. I watched the videos, saw the different ways to secure the base, and figured out the materials needed. After some thought, I realized I didn't really want a tree. Out of all the home light shows, mega tree failures are the most common. There's a whole xLites video on common issues with mega trees. Get it high enough, and it could fall on some children or become a liability. The mega tree is basically a matrix that is pinched at the top. I can do a lot more animations on matrixes than I can on mega trees. If anything, I'll probably add more matrixes to my show in the future. Don't let me discourage you from building your tree. There is a good video out there you should view before building th-cam.com/video/zL4oorPcp5Y/w-d-xo.htmlsi=uKnEpIsN23YQe8Lk Good luck on your builds!

Thanks! Appreciate the comment! A lot of the credit goes to my wife and the Matrix animations

Awesome! Glad to hear it

For sure! Amazing that something so small controls so much.

Hi @@BytesOfPi do you make DIY controllers on ur own show? Im just using pre-assemble ESP32 -- like QuinLED-Dig-Quad, Wasatch Pixels Advanced Eight Controller and Wasatch Pixels Quad+ Controller for my entire show. I have Kulp F8-B+ but I accidentally destroy the BBB Cape cuz [the stray positive wire was touching in some expose GPIO pins]

@@acrixiacelestia7689 Ouch, sorry to hear that your Kulp got fried. It is very easy to mix up a couple of wires and cause havoc. To answer your question, yes, my show is controlled only with WT32-ETH01 boards. When I started a few years back, I wasn't sure I wanted to drop hundreds of dollars on falcon controllers and $50 per receiver just to find out that I didn't want to pursue the hobby. I had already built a light suit for my daughter and coded it up using FastLED. I had built a Proof of concept board that received E1.31 data from xLights and was trying something larger when I found out about WLED 0.11.0. Quin boards didn't exist so I went down the DIY path. To be honest now it's sheer stubbornness that I only use microcontrollers now instead of prepackaged controllers. I bought my first cheap ESPPixelStick this year hoping to find the Holy Grail of wireless controllers without lag. More to come 😁

@@BytesOfPi yep the boards are (little bit) expensive, when u do this kind of hobby😅 I want buy some boards but since I'm from Philippines. Shipping cost plus currency conversion. It kills me.😑

I have only needed to use up to 4, but like most ESP32 chips, you can probably get to more than 8. I just saw someone on Reddit who built a board for the WT32-ETH01 which used the following 8 GPIO pins for outputs: GPIO2, 4, 5, 14, 15, 17, 32, 33

When you select the scrolling text effect on the effects tab, one of the sliders is a font size slider. You can change the font size with that slider to make it thicker.

@@BytesOfPi I already have the slider as large as it goes. I'll try playing around with the height of the matrix with segments to see if that does it. It is a 31 x 31 matrix and I already have split it into two segments but it didn't change the thickness of the text so I'll make it much more rectangular.

@@damon20r WLED has a few canned font sizes. I think the max font is a thin font. Try slightly smaller for thicker fonts. If you really wanted to tweak your fonts, I can show you where in code You can modify the font sizes to whatever you want. I usually flash my controller is using VS code so I can modify the code to fit my needs. You can tweak the font sizes here in code and then flash your version onto your controller github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/blob/1dab26bcbcac051f2b7be47a2d5c757a9938bf1f/wled00/FX.cpp#L5909