Diguno ESP32 lags with XLights

Last night was my first test with xlights. All the lights are moving to the music but 2 of my new diguno boards lag real bad. Wifi to the boards is around -65 but in the wled app I see 0fps but I see that on all of them is that ok? How can I make this better and is a falcon controller way better?

I think WLED has to be in control for the fps to be calculated. You can test that theory by simply turning off E1.31 and check the fps, then turn E1.31 back on (with xLights not actually sending anything).

If you got the board from @Quindor, ask him for suggestions for improving signal strength. If you have an ESP32 with external antenna option, get an external antenna and try to place the antenna 100cm away from the board to see if the signal strength and xLights performance improves.

If you did not get the esp32 from @Quindor, your ESP32 antenna connection may not be making great contact, or could have a crack in the PCB around the antenna. There are many ESP32 knock-offs that I tend to think of as the ESP32’s that Espressif scrapped for signal strength but otherwise generally booted ok. Probably not true, but that’s how I think about them.

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Yes, doing it over WiFi will make it very WiFi situation dependant, for instance disabling deep sleep IN WLED is often a good first test to take.

Then, test with a strip on your desk and see how it does. If that works fine, but out in the garden or wherever you are using it, it doesn’t, then indeed it’s likely WiFi range related.

External antenna version can help with that or, very soon available, the Ethernet version of the QuinLED-ESP32. Then you can stream 1200+ LEDs without any issue (from my testing).

Thanks, Quindor. I placed an external antenna unit last week. I forgot about the Wifi sleep so I’ll try that. Would multicast help? Someone said it fixes alot of lag. It would be cool if you could make the new ones POE. :slight_smile:

SWEET its all working great. I turned off the wifi sleep and turned on multicast not sure if that did anything.
But now the last 5 leds in the string are not showing up while playing xlights but they work fine in wled.

How many LEDs? Is xLights hitting the right start/stop points?

It’s only 55 lights and it’s missing the last five at the end. I have it set on its own universe. the biggest string I have is 76 lights for my garage door, that one is fine.

If you change (for testing) WLED to 60 LEDs and xLights to 60, does that suddenly start working for xLights?

Well, it’s all fixed. Last night I deleted the polyline that makes up the window and remade it. Then I also removed the multicast in wled because it seemed fine without it on before. I just tried it before doing what you recommended and it’s all good.
Here is the link to my first song :slight_smile: My First Display

That’s great! Glad you got it figured out.

Awesome that it’s all working now! Ethernet is coming very soon and POE is a very simple add-on, especially if you are only running a few lights per board like you are: Can you run LEDs over POE? - quinled.info

So no need for a POE board, if you want it you can add it on for a few bucks! :smiley: