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Topic starter
2025-09-29 3:28 am
We’re making LED Strips dance to the music with WLED and an ESP32! Get started right away, no code required!
WLED is an incredible open-source project that turns an ESP32 into a sophisticated LED strip light controller. Capable of working with virtually any type and size of LED strip, this versatile product can be installed and configured without requiring a single line of code. And even better- you can control it with an app, a web-based interface, or even use it with Home Assistant and Alexa!
Today, we will learn everything required for a successful WLED project. We’ll determine the best type of ESP32 for our situation and learn how to select the correct LED strip. Then we will install WLED using its web-based installer and configure it to drive both a NeoPixel LED Strip and an 8x8 addressable LED array.
We’ll also add “Audio Reactive” capability to our setup using a small and inexpensive I2S microphone. Perfect for dancing to the music!
Here is the Table of Contents of today's colorful episode:
00:00 - Introduction
01:11 - WLED
03:06 - Selecting an ESP32
06:40 - Installing WLED on ESP32
10:23 - Selecting LED Strips
18:34 - Hooking Everything Up
25:32 - WLED Setup & Demos
30:32 - Audio Reactive WLED
34:00 - Audio Reactive WLED Demo
35:33 - Conclusion
Whether you want to control a single strip or thousands of addressable LEDs, WLED is up to the task. I’m sure you’ll have fun with this project, and I hope you enjoy the video!
Bill
"Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window." — Steve Wozniak
2025-10-03 11:34 am
Hi there, I've always wanted to start with wled but never got time. This video is a great starting point!
I just have a question: I have a led matrix based on MAX7219. This is an horizontal matrix with 8 times 8x8 modules, each of them running its own MAX7219.
I checked the wled github but it looks like this project is not suited for MAX7219 driven led matrix.
Can someone please confirm it?
In the meantime time, the closest project I have found is this : https://github.com/widapro/wledPixel
But the last release is 2 years old, I am not sure it is still maintained (I would like to integrate my led matrix in Home Assistant).
Thanks!
Eric
This post was modified 7 months ago by erich
2025-10-03 3:02 pm
Hi eric @erich,
I have no personal experience of this particular device, but I wondered if you realised the MAX7219 was the major feature in one of Bill (@dronebot-workshop)'s excellent workshop video/blogs.
https://dronebotworkshop.com/led-displays/
Perhaps that will be helpful?
Good luck with your project and best wishes, Dave
DroneBot Workshop reacted
2025-10-03 3:16 pm
Hi Dave,
Thanks for your message.
Yes I watched this previous video from Bill and I already experimented using dedicated MAX7219 libraries but here I was looking for a more advanced project like wled with built-in Home Assistant support.
Of course I can develop it myself but this video on wled encouraged me to try an 'off the shelf' solution but unfortunately it seems that it is not supporting MAX7219 driven led matrix.
I will still have a look at the wledpixel project and report here
Eric
Topic starter
2025-10-03 3:24 pm
To use this with Home Assistant, you'd need to build a project using ESPHome. You can then use this guide to using ESPHome with the MAX7219.
I'll be doing a series on Home Assistant & ESPHome very, very soon (i.e, I'm filming it now), and this actually sounds like an interesting application. I might take a stab at it myself!
😎
Bill
This post was modified 7 months ago by DroneBot Workshop
"Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window." — Steve Wozniak
2026-03-03 9:59 pm
LEDs for every occasion. I'll be putting them in my next Home Assistant project.
2026-04-17 7:53 pm
After seeing Bill's video and a few others I decided I needed to play with this so I got a few WROOMs and a few LED strips and matrixes and set it up. It literally sets up in a snap, with no bugs or anything. It just works flawlessly every time. If you haven't played with it yet, I guarantee you'll enjoy it and start thinking up applications for it.