I’ve just started researching into WLED, and it sounds great. I’m looking forward to trying it out. Reading through the documentation I came across something that made me wonder about the solution…
According to the FAQ, “750 is the recommended maximum” number of LEDs. For my project, my plan was to cover about 520feet of house. Even with the lower 30 bulbs/meter light strips, that puts me at close to 5000 bulbs. I do have some easily separable locations (detached garage, etc), but the main house still would be over 3000 bulbs.
What have people found to be the best solution for handling this many bulbs? Do I just wire the house with 4 entirely independent ESP8266/Power/LED systems? Does WLED provide easy methods for keeping all of these in sync? Or is there a proper/convenient way to extend beyond the 750 bulb limit?
Yes, you will need multiple isolated instances and they can then be synced in WLED or better yet use WLED as the controllers but drive them with xlights for a proper display.
For just having simple lights having the controllers synced will do the job well.
Also but mindful that you may need multiple power supplies for each isolated instance and power injection along the run. Lots of info out there on this.
As of the release of WLED v0.12.0, your ESP8266 can control up to 3 data pins. If you want to put 750 LEDs on each data pin, that’s 750*3 = 2250 LEDs.
For the better solution to your particular question, the ESP32 can control 10 data pins.
If you put 750 LEDs on each data pin, a single ESP32 can control ~7500 individually addressable LEDs.
If you rethink your solution, you can triple your light output by using LED strips which only address every 3rd LED, meaning LEDs 1-3 are at 1st address, 4-6 @ 2nd address, and so on.
For 750 unique addresses, that’s 750*3=2250 LEDs worth of light output. Around the eaves and outlining of a house, having 3 LEDs act as one is probably a good way to get light coverage without the added expense of 3 times as many LED drivers and all the processing power to control the other 2/3 of the LEDs that are just doing playing follow-the-leader.
[Note: On a dry evening with no rain in the forecast]
My recommendation:
Mock up the following on a thin but tall board that you can temporarily mount to the house.
Install 12V individually addressable strip.
Install 12V every 3rd addressable strip.
Mount 12V supply behind the board.
Run 12V to both strips.
Run the ESP data pin line to just one LED strip, but make it easy to connect to the other LED strip’s data pin.
Run temporary power to the supply.
Power up WLED and verify LED configuration turns on all the LEDs on one strip, then to the other strip. You can set LED count to something like 500 to save time (it’s a test after all). You can disable overcurrent protection if the LEDs are too dim when white is displayed at max brightness.
Mount to the house before sunset. Place it on the house to a conveniently low overhang.
After sunset, turn on one strip, then switch to the other strip. See if you really notice the 1:1 and 1:3 differences.
– OR – just press the [imaginary] “I believe” button the 1:3 LED strip is probably just fine for my outdoor needs.
Hmm… The 1:3 LED option is clever. I don’t think my programming is going to get complicated enough that that would be a problem. What model number strips have that feature?
For a fantastic centralized “all-things-LED”, consider visiting this web site (I have no financial connection or incentives…) https://quinled.info, and navigate via top menu bar to digital led articles, and select the top link. Your answer is in there. In fact, that site probably has answers to many LED-related questions you didn’t know you had!