After some support in discord, I would now connect them to GPIO1,2,3 (with the shortest string on GPIO3).
I now want to control these stripes independently via API (Homeassistant and SignalRGB). Is this possible? Do the three strings show up in HA/SignalRGB as if they were three different controllers?
The alternative setup would be to connect string (3) to the end of (2). This would have the advantages:
i) that the longer distance to that string is covered with 5V instead of the ESPs 3.3V.
ii) that I do not need to use the “compromise” GPIO3 of the ESP8266.
In case this alternative “daisy-chain” setup is preferable: can I still logically control them as three different devices?
Control of the different sections does not matter how they are physically connected to the MCU.
In WLED they will appear as 1 long strip of 140 LEDs no matter whether you use 3 GPIOs or physically daisy chain the data lines.
The way you address the different sections is by using segments.
Segments have a start LED# and a length, so assuming you have them in order 1-2-3:
Segment “A” would start at 0 and have length 41
Segment “B” would start at 41 and have length 49
Segment “C” would start at 90 and have length 50
You can choose each segment separatley or combined to set colours, effects, etc.
You can save presets that also affect each segment individually as you choose.
There is only one set of LEDs, that’s defined in Config->LED Preferences by the number of GPIOs and the length of each.
Segments are something you create to reference parts of the full LED set.
You can definitely reference them via the API, checkout segments in :JSON API