Basics

How WLED works

Three parts, one network, one interface. What is behind it, at the depth you need.

The three parts

Power supply: converts 230 V to low voltage (5, 12 or 24 V) and delivers the power for all LEDs.

Controller: contains the ESP32 running WLED. It joins your Wi-Fi or LAN and generates the control signal.

LED strip: digital (individually controllable) or analogue (all the same). Its voltage must match PSU and controller.

Basic circuit: positive and ground from the PSU to controller and strip, data from the controller to DIN. The strip's datasheet states from which length to inject (1 to 10 m in the range).

Pixel (digital) or PWM (analogue)?

The most important decision before buying. It determines strip and controller.

	Pixel / digital	PWM / analogue
What lights up	each LED or segment individually	the whole strip the same
Chips	WS2812B, SK6812, WS2815, WS2811, TM1814	none: single colour, CCT, RGB, RGBW, RGB+CCT
Wires	usually 3: V+, data, GND	1 positive + 1 per colour channel
Strengths	chasers, animation, music, matrix	general and task light, high colour rendering
Controllers	4336-015, 4336-310, 4336-USB, 4336-616, 4336-116-RF, 4321-WL4	4336-211, 4336-611
Both	4336-620 (1 × Pixel + 2 × PWM)

For DIYers

On 24 V pixel strips with WS2811 one chip controls a group of LEDs: 10 pixels/m at 60 LEDs/m, or 48 pixels/m at 336 LEDs/m. In WLED you enter pixels, not LEDs.

For developers

WS281x: single-wire NRZ, 800 kHz, 24 bits per pixel = 30 µs. 800 pixels per output ≈ 24 ms per frame, so at most about 40 fps. SPI chips (APA102, SK9822) use a clock line.

5, 12 or 24 volts?

For the same power, a higher voltage means less current. Less current means less voltage drop along the strip and thinner cables. That is why a 24 V strip in the range runs up to 10 m on one feed, a 5 V strip only 1 to 5 m.

Voltage	Good for	Feed (range)
5 V	fine effects, every LED, short runs, USB	1–5 m
12 V	medium runs	5 m
24 V	long lines, coves, stairs, facades	10 m

Safety

Strip, controller and power supply must share the same voltage. A 5 V strip on 24 V is destroyed instantly.

Operation: browser, app, buttons, smart home

WLED has its own web interface, in the browser or the free WLED app for Android and iOS. Pick colour, effect, palette and speed and save scenes as presets.

Without a phone, use buttons, motion sensors, the ESP-NOW remote or schedules. Home Assistant discovers WLED automatically; Alexa, MQTT and a documented JSON API are built in.

For beginners

After setup everything stays on your Wi-Fi. No account, no cloud, no subscription.

For business

Local operation: no dependency on third-party servers and no data in someone else’s cloud.

Sources: kno.wled.ge Quick Start · Home Assistant · README

What WLED 16 brings

Released on 3 May 2026 after about one and a half years of development with 59 contributors. Highlights from the release notes:

Segment layering

Stack and blend effects; segments may overlap.

New transitions

Shift, push and more blends between presets.

Particle system

Many new particle-based effects.

Palettes & fonts

Palette editor, over 100 custom palettes, fonts for scrolling text.

HUB75 & DMX

HUB75 panels (dedicated build), serial DMX input.

Stability

Boot-loop detection, bootloader update via OTA, pin info page.

For DIYers

Before updating from 0.15 to 16 back up configuration and presets and read the collected breaking changes. For simple strip effects 0.15 is fine too.

Sources: Release-Notes 16.0.0 · Releases · Milestone 16.0.1 · Adafruit: WLED 16

Terms explained briefly

Term	Meaning
Segment	Section of a strip with its own effect, colour and brightness.
Preset	Saved state (colour, effect, segments), recallable at the push of a button.
Playlist	Sequence of presets with duration and transition.
Palette	Colour gradient an effect draws its colours from.
ABL	Current limiter: WLED estimates current by calculation and dims if it exceeds the set value. Measures nothing, is no substitute for a fuse.
GPIO	ESP32 pin an output is connected to. Listed in the controller's datasheet.
DIN / DO	Data in and data out on the strip. The controller connects to DIN.
Pixel/m	Individually controllable addresses per metre. Not always the same as LEDs/m.
Power injection	Additional power feed at further points against voltage drop.
mDNS	Device name on the network, e.g. wled-kitchen.local, instead of an IP address.
OTA	Firmware update over the network, without a cable.
ESP-NOW	Direct radio between Espressif devices without a router, e.g. for remotes.
E1.31 / Art-Net / DDP	Lighting protocols from event technology for real-time control.
PWM	Pulse-width modulation: rapid switching to dim analogue strips.
IP20 / IP65	Protection rating: IP20 dry indoors only, IP65 protected against water jets.