I love my smart home for many reasons. One of the reasons that gives me the most joy is my functional and decorative lighting. I use WLED-powered addressable LED installations throughout my
I love my smart home for many reasons. One of the reasons that gives me the most joy is my functional and decorative lighting. I use WLED-powered addressable LED installations throughout my home for year-round decorative lighting. Over the years I’ve used various WLED hardware for different purposes. In this article, I’ll use that knowledge to map out the different WLED hardware you should look into as you start your WLED-powered addressable light journey.
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Editor’s Note: Just getting started with WLED? Check out the easy way to get a beautiful WLED-powered installation up quickly.
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QuinLED-Dig-Uno with external antenna
QuinLED controllers
Fortunately there are a lot of good WLED controllers out there. The primary purpose-built controllers that I use are from QuinLED. They have a variety of prebuilt controllers with options such as longer range antennas, ethernet connections, cases, etc. I’ve purchased a few “Dig-Unos,” some with the longer range antenna attachment the works well further out in my yard.
They have many other controllers that can control more than one set LED strips or strings at a time, which can be very useful. These devices simplify power injections, work with 5V, 12V, and 48V LEDs, have overvoltage protection, and onboard USB-C ports for updating or changing firmware. If you are unsure of which model to buy, checkout this explanation and recommendation page. These controllers are affordable and generally run from $25-$70 depending on the options you want. The ones I’ve bought tend to be around $30.
Athom controllers
Athom also makes inexpensive and reliable controllers powered by WLED. When compared to the QuinLED controllers they look more like mased produced products and less like something a techy would put together. Like, the QuinLED controllers, most of the controllers are powered by an ESP32 chip. They work pretty well. I have a couple of these in my house.
Various Amazon WLED controllers
There are a ton of inexpensive controllers with WLED installed on them available for purchase on Amazon. All of them feature either the ESP8266 or ESP32 control chip and they all pretty much the same thing. The primary differences are in build quality and form factor. Some of them are sound reactive as well.
Preview
Product
Price
Compact Mini WLED Controller With Mic,DC 5~24V Addressable Led Controller Digital RGB IC Wled Ws2811…
$23.99
$22.59
Buy on Amazon
GLEDOPTO WLED ESP32 Mini LED Strip Controller RGB IC Digital with Mic Music Sound Mode DC5V USB…
$19.99
Buy on Amazon
GLEDOPTO ESP8266 WLED LED Controller Dynamic RGB IC Atmosphere DIY Lighting App Control Work with…
$21.99
Buy on Amazon
GLEDOPTO ESP32 WLED LED Strip Controller Mic UART Download Music Sound Dynamic Mode RGB IC DIY WiFi…
$29.99
Buy on Amazon
GL-C-012WL Waterproof LED Controller,ESP32 WLED Strip Controllers Via WLED Project for Pool Boat…
$28.99
$25.99
Buy on Amazon