Hi guys I’m new to all this. I got a esp32 board flashed with wled on it. I connected a 5v, 5 metre led strip with 60leds per metre. I’ve connected the board with a Samsung charger and used DuPont jumper cables to connect the pins. When I’m on the app I can’t seem to control the lights and all that works is the last led and it stays on permanently (can’t switch on or off). The light on the esp32 devkit board is on aswell. I’ve checked the ground wires and all the cables are in the right pins. Any help would be appreciated. Cheers.
Many issues here:
Those dupont wires can’t supply hardly any power and will for sure melt if you try to run much power through them.
You can’t power 300 pixels from the micro usb port on the Esp. The usb interface/Esp board is not designed to have that much current running through it.
If you want to see if they work you could set the total LED count in LED Preferences to something like 10 or 20 and leave the brightness limiter enabled and on it’s default value.
To power 300 5v pixels you will need another larger 5v power supply and will at the very least need to connect power from it to the beginning and far end of the LED strip. (and raise the brightness limiter in LED Preferences)
*300 5v LEDs can draw up to like 12Amps at full brightness when set on white.
I would also look at adding a level shifter after the Esp to raise the data output from 3.3v to 5v.
https://kno.wled.ge/basics/getting-started/
So Start with the LED count set to 10 or 20 @ 50% brightness and see if you can get those working…Then move on to better wiring/power.
Hi thank you for your prompt reply. I have set all the settings as you have mentioned and still no luck. I moved the pins from d2 to d4 still not working. The light just switches on and stays on permanently as you can see from the pictures. I even put the lights to lower to 5 LEDs total and nothing seems to budge. The wires seem to be ok and connected alright as they switch the led off when I take off the ground or the power cable. I am trying these out to see how to set them up and then I’ll inject more power using a bigger power supply like you mentioned. I’ve even changed the 900ma to lower settings still no luck.
That’s all that comes on the last light and the arrow direction I started the connection from so the flow is righ
You have to set the correct GPIO in LED Preferences.
If you want GPIO16 you likely have to use d16 on your Esp32 
-It depends on if those ‘d’ pins on the Esp directly correlate to their GPIO # (most times on Esp32’s they do)
Hi jinx thank you once again. On my board I don’t seem to have a d16. So what other option would be available. Can I connect to d15 and put in gpio15? Cheers
16 would be RX2 on your board.
You should basically be able to use any of the pins that are green ‘ok’ from the table @ ESP32 Pinout Reference: Which GPIO pins should you use? | Random Nerd Tutorials aside from the ones listed as input only. So safe bet is to pick any Green OK’s that don’t have anything listed in the notes part of the table.
Hi jinx. Thank you for your patience and time. I have done all that you told me step by step and still had no luck, but finally I had another set of led strips that I connected and followed all the instructions you sent me and voila, started working with a Samsung charger and all the 300 LEDs. The fault was in the led strip which I think was burnt out until the last led, which just stayed on permanently. Just another quick question, I’m putting 2.6 metres strips on the wall and will have 4 times 2.6 metres in total I’d say 640 LEDs. Will it be possible to control all the LEDs from one single esp board and one power source unit? Also what’s a level shifter and how would I connect it? Would it be on each of the strips or just one running from the board. Which is a good power source unit to run 900 LEDs at 5v. Thank you so much and I really really appreciate your time in helping me. Cheers
For 900 5v pixels I would look at: Amazon.com: MEAN WELL LRS-350-5 300W 5V 60 Amp Single Output Switchable Power Supply : Electronics
I would add fuses on the + power wires to the LEDs close to the power supply.
You can run up to 8 (10 really) data outputs from the Esp32
If I were controlling 900 pixels I would split them into 2 data outputs.
640 should be ok on 1 output.
A level shifter is used to take the 3.3v data output from the Esp and boost it to 5v to put it into the correct reference voltage that the IC chips on the LED strip are spec’d for.
Sometimes things will work fine without one and sometimes not. Many factors play on that. The safe bet is to use one, though you may find your lights work just fine without one. It’s up to you if you want to add one or not. You can find recommended ones and their wiring diagrams in the KB link I posted in the above comments. 
Hi jinx thanks for the reply and information. You talk about the fuse. What kind of fuse would I need? Can you send a link to one please. Also about the data connections you were saying you can use 2 data pins, doesn’t that affect the control i.e having 2 different gpio’s but only able to control one from the app. Cheers.
There are lots of options for fuses.
Here are a couple:
(you may find a better price but the one linked here is not a bad price)
-Make sure the wire size of fuse holder can handle what you intend to send through it. I linked to 14 gauge and that can handle up to 15A… I don’t care what values of fuses they come with. Just because they include 30A fuses does not mean the wire on that fuse holder will handle that current.
Or
If you would like a fuse block this is a good deal for Prime Day(s) (I ordered 5 of them lol):
Amazon.com: 6 Way 12V Fuse Box, Waterproof Fuse Box Holder with LED Indicator Waterpoof Cover, Waterproof Boat Fuse Panel with Negative Bus Fuse Box for 12V-32V Automotive Truck Boat RV Van Vehicle : Automotive *You will not find a better price on Amazon for this fuse block (I looked through all 20 pages)
-Note: If you use this fuse block with 5v the LEDs on the block will not light showing that the fuses are good but it will still work.
Data Pins:
Data pins do not define how you control the LEDs in WLED. Segments do.
If you have 50 LEDs on pin1 and 50 on pin2, WLED would create Segment0 and it would include 100 LEDs. Say if you were running a chase effect it would chase from 1-50 (first string pin1) and continue onto string2(pin2) Leds 51-100.
If you want each string to do different things or parts of strings, you would create more segments from the main GUI segments settings.
Cheers for the info. So in my case I should be ok to run 600 LEDs from one data pin as I want to have 4 lines of led strips doing the same effect for now because they going on the wall in between wooden slats. I’ve ordered some wago clips to make it easier to connect quickly and in a bit of a tight spot. Also ordered a level shifter as you said which would help. Spoke to my brother he has a small fuse as you can see from the pic which I think should be ok. Trying to get everything together before I start my project and I think your help has been very helpful unlike the YouTube videos which make it look simple but don’t tell you half the stuff you need to do. Cheers for the help.
No prob. That fuse block should work fine.
Always better to be safe than sorry. Just because ‘it works’ for some of those youtube people does not mean it’s the safest and best practice.
I would also test your setup before you stick it all up on the will and see if you run into any problems that would be easier to sort out before everything gets mounted.
If you can share a drawing of what you intend to do, everyone could maybe give you some ideas.
-If you are just running 4 straight sections of 150 LEDs I would split the setup to 2 data pins. Something like this:
I would put 5A fuses in the holders with this setup.
Hi jinx. Thank you again, and for the diagram. It actually looks like a good plan, but only problem I’ll have is the connect one strip to the second because there is no gap and if I do decide to cut a bit of the slat off the wired will be visible, but you never know i might stick to it, if my plan doesn’t work and you think it’s rubbish and not achievable. Lol I’ve tried to draw it out as best as I could. As you can see from the drawing my plan is to connect all 4 of the led ground pins into 1 wago connector, all the 4 data led cables to 1 wago connector and all 4 5v cables to 1 wago led connector. From then on 1 cable from the data wago connector will connect to the esp board and another to the PSU. Also 1 cable from the data wago connector will run directly to one data pin on the esp board. Finally 1 cable will run from the 5v wago connector to the fuse and direct to the PSU. The esp board will also be powered by the PSU. I’m sorry I’ve just blabbed on and might have not made sense but I’m sure you’ll get the jist of what my idea is. Feel free to swear lol as I know it might be load of sh*t. Lol
