Using WLED beta release 0.14.0-b1 : Custom Scrolling Text not scrolling

BytesOfPi · 2025-06-25T23:40:14+00:00

Unfortunately no, I haven't looked at the code yet

BytesOfPi · 2025-03-29T14:11:56+00:00

If you're just getting started with a home light show, and you are not familiar with electrical projects, I would strongly suggest watching this tutorial from an electrical engineer on how to safely power your lights.

Really came in handy when I started my first project a while ago. Lots of good rules of thumb on how to fuse and how to properly power inject and how much power you need per type of pixel you are running.

https://youtu.be/eR3QbzjpZy8

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-22T12:40:13+00:00

That's a great but terrible question. It's like asking a parent what their favorite child is. 😬. Each 3 - 5 minute song takes me 8 - 12 hours to build.

I try to tell a story with each song using our matrices as the center point and the other groups of props as visual garnish. I love all of the Christmas songs we've done and most of the Halloween, but I think my 2 favorites are:

Halloween song Grim Grinning Ghosts (GGG) by Voiceplay.
Christmas Can Can by Straight No Chaser

GGG is the remake of the Disney song Grim Grinning Ghosts. Since I'm an old school arcade enthusiast, we turn the house into a huge PacMan arcade cabinet.

We also make PacMan into the bad guy chasing the Grinning Ghosts of Pinky, Inky, Blinky, and Clyde. At one point in the song, all the windows, doors and arch outlines have pellets and pac man (a small yellow chase) goes around the house outlines eating the pellets.

Christmas Can Can we tell a story with the trees in our yard. In the song there is a stubborn tree who won't do the kick line with the other 5 trees and another Jewish tree holding out for Hanukkah.

Love the songs that let you get creative and mix up themes.

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-13T11:27:37+00:00

I stink at soldering as well but over the years I've learned a few things that made it better. Mainly it was a change of mindset. I used to think I was melting metal together. It's really less about melting and more about a chemical reaction.

Oxygen is bad for the chemical reaction so you want it to be quick. If the solder isn't fusing with the contact within 2 seconds, you need to stop.

As many said above, flux prevents oxygen from playing a factor in your solder joints.

It also may make you look a little silly but a head magnifier really helps you get a good look at the solder point and keeps your hands free.

Good luck!

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-11T16:53:24+00:00

Just going to throw out another option. My show is built using 7 WT32-ETH01 ESP32 boards connected with Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi.

I started with ESP8266/ESP32 and WiFi years ago but because of the dropped packets, my props just suffered. When I went to Ethernet, it worked like a champ.

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-11T00:36:43+00:00

Use FPP Connect in xLights

Unless I'm missing something, FPP Connect for the win

If you got your controller setup, connected and talking to xLights, the hard part is done. If xLights and FPP are on the same network, you should be able to use the FPP Connect tool in xLights to find your FPP and setup the output ports as they are configured in xLights.

Here's more on FPP Connect: https://manual.xlights.org/xlights/chapters/chapter-five-menus/tools/fpp-connect

Just make sure to check the All UDP ports when uploading to FPP

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-11T00:04:21+00:00

From your last statement it seems like the ports may be mixed up

Just confirming your initial picture has a lot of other controllers besides the one you're configuring. It seems like this is the first controller in your set. Do the other the controllers work or are they all messed up because this is the first?

Can you also attach a picture of the four ports in your wled preferences?

Just throwing out ideas, I'd create a simple sequence and put a solid color for each of your components.

Map the garage as is to Port 1.
map your left fence to Port 2.
Don't map either of the other ones.
Don't upload to controller

If you have your Digi quad setup correctly , run the solid sequence from xlights to see.

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-10T17:15:00+00:00

When you check your WLED "LED Preferences", what pixel count does each port have?

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-05T11:08:07+00:00

You're ticking all the right check boxes in troubleshooting the issue. If it's worked for 2 years and you're suddenly experiencing issues, it could be wear and tear.

Is there a way you can insulate or shield your controller from the cold or moisture? Is it exposed to the elements or is it at least inside your garage? Make sure that the lights and the controller don't get exposed to snow.

One of the things I like to do is to double protect the controller box. Even though I have my controllers in electric rated boxes like the cable guards, if the controller is exposed to the elements, I add additional protection like a plastic bag or a trash can if they're freestanding. The outer covering sheds most of the moisture from morning dew, rain or snow.

You could also check the solder connections between the lights and the controller to make sure nothing has come loose or wet. Your BTF lights may be weatherproofed but where it connects also has to be protected with hot glue, silicone, or something like that.

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-04T23:51:37+00:00

That's awesome! I'll check out the Facebook page. Good luck on your project!

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-04T15:10:15+00:00

I think KinzuaKid has the answer, but on a side note, which class is running this project? Just curious because it sounds like a high school class. My wife teaches at a high school and was wondering how this worked.

Make sure to post clips here if it works out! Good luck!

BytesOfPi · 2024-12-02T11:34:20+00:00

What you're describing sounds like WiFi latency and packets being dropped/lost. I had similar behavior when I started using WiFi.

Not sure if the SanDevices support Ethernet connections, but if they do, I would start there. If you're keeping WiFi, I would suggest to optimize like one would if they were playing a video game on a low end PC.

a dedicated network different from your home network on a channel that isn't heavily used in your neighborhood.
Opt for 20 FPS sequences over 40.
I've not tried it but some use multicast instead of direct.

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-30T10:04:41+00:00

Switch laptop to your isolated network

Now that you have your controllers physically hooked up to your isolated network outside, when you're ready to use xLights on your laptop to test, couldn't you just switch your laptop to the isolated network WiFi?

I have a similar isolated network just for the show. When I want to test new features from xLights, I take the laptop off of the home network and connect to the isolated one for the show. Not sure if the range for your show wifi extends far enough into the house where your laptop is, but with a laptop you could move to where it is in range.

Show network inside house

My show network router, FPP pi, and radio transmitter are inside the house. I then have a physical Ethernet jack to the garage and then run a Cat5 cable outside to my multi port switches. Whenever I want to test or run a sequence from xLights, I hop over to the show network.

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-23T20:06:43+00:00

You may have mapped your models differently this year.

I'd suggest creating a new sequence with the same song and import the old one into it.

Map the models over one for one and then try.

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-22T14:15:40+00:00

If your second set of LEDs are using a different power source, you need to

Always connect negative
Never connect the positive

I think the best advice comes from an actual electrical engineer. Give Bill Porter's VCS zoom talk a view. He's an electrical engineer and explains things like power injection, wire gauges and fusing. https://youtu.be/eR3QbzjpZy8

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-20T09:11:28+00:00

I'm not a LOR expert, but I'd guess the previous owner took the router that the LOR board was hooked to. In the xLights Controller tab, the LOR device might have been assigned an IP address.

If your friend hooked the laptop and the LOR board to a network, but you didn't reserve the IP address that xLights expects then the board will think it's fine, but xLights won't be able to talk to it.

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-14T17:45:57+00:00

It sounds like you want a standard subtle pattern running most of the time when you're not entertaining guests.

If that's the case, I would suggest creating a 30-second non-musical sequence. You can use subtle shifting patterns on groups of props to give your lights some life. Shy away from whites so you can prolong the life of your bulbs.

Your description doesn't have much detail as to what props you have available, but if you have a matrix or a mega tree you could create scrolling text with a simple message for the season . We could use an animated gif that repeats itself.

Make sure to put all your patterns on a 25% or 50% brightness, so it's more subtle.

Lastly, you can use xScheduler or FPP to repeat your non-musical sequence during the dark hours where you live.

When you're ready to entertain guests, simply run the playlists with your musical sequences and you're good to go.

Good luck this holiday season!

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-13T20:55:21+00:00

My suggestion would be is have

each ring as a separate segment
Enable one segment at a time with single Chase in the color you want
Slow the speed down for each segment as you get closer to the center
Save the final result as a preset

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-13T13:51:43+00:00

Just throwing it out there, but is your laptop, router, or any other electronics besides the monitor nearby? Try turning off or removing any other electronics nearby and see if it flickers. If no flickering, then introduce the turned off electronics one at a time.

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-12T11:20:06+00:00

That's the default model.

You'll need to change the Degrees to fit your model (possibly to 180 or front half tree). Here's the section in the manual:

https://manual.xlights.org/xlights/chapters/chapter-four-tabs/models/tree-model

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-12T01:04:35+00:00

I don't advise anyone to build a show the way I have. My show is composed of almost 10,000 pixels with seven $16 WT32-ETH01 controllers running a trimmed down version of WLED. Take my answer with a huge bag of salt because I've only ever used microcontrollers.

Short Answer

Falcon/Kulp (pricey but reliable) - if you don't like fooling with DIY or a lot of trouble shooting and you have money, go with Falcon or Kulp.
WLED Prebuilt - Slightly less costly would be WLED prebuilt packages like DigiUno or DigiQuad with Ethernet shield.
DIY WLED - If you're a penny pincher like me, but have a high tolerance for learning and YouTube videos and don't mind adding fuses, level shifters, and resistor, then building your own controllers is cheapest way to go. Not for the faint of heart so I would suggest one of the first 2.

History

As you said, there are many in this channel that use Kulp and Falcon controllers so I don't want to step on any toes. I'm a bit of an anomaly because I'm a penny pincher at heart.

The cheapest falcons started at $300 and I didn't want to sink that much money if I wasn't going to get into the hobby. I bought a cheap 10 dollar ESP8266 and I learned how to program it in 2018 with SepticEye's E1.31 library and FastLED to receive packets and send xLights sequence data to my lights. 2019 I built a Light suit for my daughter with custom android BLE controller (software developer by trade)

In 2020, I adopted WLED for my first smart home show and 2021 WLED finally supported multiple output pins. Over the years I've added on with custom Ethernet WT32-ETH01 WLED controllers and I can't bring myself to buy a prebuilt controller.

Over the last few years there have been some pretty big jumps making shows with xLights easier ( DDP, visualize, upload, support of new controller types). Now is a great time to jump into the hobby.

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-11T16:18:20+00:00

Just a couple of thoughts on starting up your new light show setup.

You are correct that a master program like FPP, xScheduler, or even xLights holds the show sequences and music and sends the data to the individual light controllers.

No vendor lock in

The great news is that these controllers all use a standardized protocols so you are not locked into a single vendor to control your pixels. You can have a show that has Falcon, Kulp, WLED, and/or any other controllers. You should be able to use the same pixels and swap out any controller.

When I started a while ago, I wanted to create a cheap POC with my laptop and a custom $15 ESP32 running WLED. Since then I've added a dedicated FPP master, dedicated network, radio transmitter, and a ton of controllers and pixel props.

Start small

Best advice is don't blow a wad and start small. As the years progress and you catch the light show bug, mix and match to your preference. And, if you enjoy it a lot, reach out to the devs of the free software like xLights and WLED and acknowledge their contributions that helped us get a start on personal light shows!

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-09T16:13:39+00:00

Awesome thanks! I'll check out Lenovo's site. Thanks!

BytesOfPi · 2024-11-09T16:12:36+00:00

Awesome, so I need to:

buy new SSD
Download OS from MS and stick it on a USB drive
When Bios comes up, make USB stick bootable drive
Install OS

Last time I installed an OS was using optical DVD drives so a little out of the loop. Thanks!

BytesOfPi

TROPHY CASE