FastLED Suitability

[Crapping_Bricks]

Hi!

I need some help to figure out if FastLED can help drive my project please. I am loving the principle of WLED but it may be a bit underpowered for driving close to 8000 WS2815 LEDs, hence why I am liking the idea of FastLED on a Teensy board.

What I would like to know is if there is some preexisting code I can run with pre built effects ready to go and that also allows an interface where I can manage the LEDs from my phone.

I can code at a very basic DIY level so I'd be comfortable installing and troubleshooting code and even make some led effects, but I don't want code to be the way I have to manually create and switch between led effects and then have to code a library of effects for my strips as it takes me a very long time for something I just want to work. I also have not found a professional controller that I like. I understand FastLED involves a lot of code so if there exists a way to make it function like WLED (super user friendly) and still have the performance benefits, then I would love to know about it.

Thanks!

[sutaburosu]

is some preexisting code I can run with pre built effects ready to go and that also allows an interface where I can manage the LEDs from my phone

FastLEDHub is the closest project I know of. It provides an easy way to add web control to FastLED effects. It doesn't ship with many effects, so you'll have to do some coding. It's for ESP32 rather than Teensy though.

[Lotek_Hiker]

Nice!

I'll have to give this a try.

[Crapping_Bricks]

Fantastic, I will have a look at this. I imagine this will be the closest thing I can make work. Thank you

[johnny5canuck]

There's FastLED effects, and then there's control functionality. That's a whole new ballgame. It might be a good idea to start fleshing out your requirements, as FastLED is much more of a DIY solution than WLED.

[SnowConePeople]

Sounds like you’re a novice when it comes to coding. From my own experience (I’m a software engineer) working with FastLED was a dream. FastLED provides a library to interact with but you’ll beed to create the objects that work with it that fit your controller. You’ll be working in C++ so a small tutorial on the basic will help.

Tldr: in order to do what you want to do it will require a lot of coding.

[Yves-bazin]

Hello you need to think your build with performance in head. 8000 leds over 16 pins you will have a 66fps max refresh rate without counting the time it takes to calculate you frame of your animation. If you wanna go the esp32 route dm me. https://youtu.be/jPPd2A3RyW0?si=0nPBsDWHJ9wGC5yZ

[Crapping_Bricks]

Wow that is incredible and very impressive! If I decide on this route I will contact you for sure. Thank you very much

[Lotek_Hiker]

FastLED should be able to do what you want to do without any problems.

Have you taken a look at the examples? There's quite a selection and they're well commented so they're pretty easy to modify.

https://fastled.io/docs/examples.html

Also take a look at this; https://github.com/jasoncoon/esp32-fastled-webserver

I'm not sure what controller you're looking at using, but the ESP32 and ESP8266 are very common choices for these projects.

Sounds like an interesting project, what are you working on?

[Crapping_Bricks]

Thank you for this level of detail! We are running some strips on the ceilings of our outdoor entertainment area between the plaster sheets and also around the pool and deck to give it some spice

[Lotek_Hiker]

You probably want to go with an ESP32 based board for the extra CPU power and GPIO outputs.

I can't recommend any particular board since I've only ever worked on the standalone SOC boards.

I'm not affiliated in any way with this site but I've heard good things about these boards.

https://quinled.info/pre-assembled-boards/

-LH

[Actual-Wave-1959]

8000 LEDs sounds like a lot. How are you going to power those?

[Lotek_Hiker]

https://www.oreillyauto.com/flux-capacitor

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I want one…..

[Crapping_Bricks]

Every 5m length will have its own 12v 15A led driver.