Backyard Lighting project

Projects
1

Have a project that I’ve been messing around with for some time, I took 9 massion jars and build a board for each with a ESP8266 and 1 3w RGB led that is in the lid that I hang from my fence about 8 feet apart, each ESP is fashed using ESpixel stick, I program the lighting using Vixen the problem is the time to create the sequence and changing the pattern takes time also not being able to control it with a phone app. I would like to switch to WLED so my question is, is it possible to link 9 ESP…1 led pre device x 3 channels total is 27 leds to act as 1 strip so to speak.

I hope this is understandable?

2

Some possibilities -

  1. If your WiFi is good enough, you could use DDP or Sync to link the various devices as a single string.
    Might become problematic to keep everything synchronized.

  2. A little more work and you could drive everything from one ESP8266. Add RS485 TxRx pairs to each jar and one small cable to pass data between the individual jars. That will appear as a single string of 27 LED’s to WLED and you can control that.

I do something similar with a set of Coach lights near the doors of our amenities building, 6 individual lights retrofit with LED rings that each have a 5V buck converter and TxRx pair. I run 12V on the data line to each light and the buck converter supplies the LED and TXRx.

3

Wait a sec. - just reread your OP.
Are you driving individual R, G, B LED’s in each jar via 3 GPIO pins?
That means each jar is 3 analog LED’s.

So option 1 is still possible, running 3 PWM RGB LED’s on each WLED.
Option 2 (still better IMO) needs a WS2811 board per jar to convert your separate analog LED’s into one “standard” data driven device.

Or option 3 - convert each jar to use ring LED RGB(W) strips and simplify the whole thing. What’s the maximum inside diameter inside the upper part of the jar? You could probably get a 16 or 24 (or both) size ring in side the jar. That would get more light than you have now with much better control.

4

Each LED is driven from 3 GPIO’s 1 RGB led with 4 connections, common anode.
wifi is not a problem, power is not a problem. was just tring to avoid running long data line between each jar. Im thinking I might have to stay with my current setup