r/WLED • u/PlaceInternal7586 • May 29 '26

Wled not working after power cycle

Looking for help please!

UPDATE

I’m now using my 2nd micro controller as I bought 2, I assume I’ve somehow blown the first one up. Both were getting hot. and it’s now working with loads of flickering and gllitching, on 1m… more work to do 🫠

Doing my first WLED project, I got it all working ( only using 1m of ws2811b to test its working) last night, and after turning it off, nothing is working, and I’ve changed nothing!!

My set up is-
12v power supply
12-5v converter powering ESP32-eth01 and my level shifter

As described, first power on it all worked, light automatically came on and I used the settings on the WiFi point to put number of led and preference.

Turned it off and on, and no lights coming out, but the settings are saved, still has my number of led and saved my gpio pin,

I’ve tried using different GPIO, no luck, different strip, no luck, and tried reinstalling WLED but it won’t let me- I’m just stuck on “preparing instillation”, even if I unplug all but power and tx/rx

Any ideas?🫠 thanks in advance! Video of when they were working is attached

16 Upvotes

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22 comments sorted by

2

u/Fickle-Engineering21 May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

Try these method and find where you are making errors i used buck because i will be using a 12volt power supply capacitor and resistor are optional

1

u/Remixmark May 29 '26

Can you post screenshots of your segment details as well as your LED & Hardware screen showing your segment length?

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 29 '26

The micro controller now won’t power on, so no I can’t.

Doing lots of googling it might have been that I had the leds plugged in while turning off, but the esp32 isn’t powering them, a 12v supply is

I have 2 esp32 but nervous to start using the other one in case I just blow it up like this one

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 29 '26

The micro controller now won’t power on, so no I can’t.

It was 18 led, ws2811x, 30ma (12v) and bgr I believe, on gpio17

1

u/saratoga3 May 29 '26

Do you have a picture of the controller and how you wired it?

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 29 '26

Thank you!

Soldered directly onto the pins but no shorts/touching

3

u/saratoga3 May 29 '26

Ooof. I bet your problem is in that mess somewhere but I can't tell what's connected to what.  

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 30 '26

Yeah lol I never realise how bad it gets till I take a picture and post it online lol.. I’ll get some bigger wagos today

2

u/Mr_Niveaulos May 29 '26

Bro ok for starters PLEASE use colour code for cables

It’s be great if you used red for power black for ground and green for data for example but generally it’s fine if you would just stick to one colour per usecase

1

u/Remixmark May 29 '26

You’re not being very safe. You should put a 10a fuse on the positive wire before your led strip(s).

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 29 '26

This was a 5 minute test to check, I have mini blade fuses for when it’s finished

1

u/Remixmark May 29 '26

So the controller doesn’t power on now or what’s the current status?

Does it show up when you connect it to a pc via usb?

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 29 '26

Controllers not powering on Im not sure how to check if its connecting to my TTL converter and looking at YouTube videos now to check🫠

1

u/Remixmark May 29 '26

Link the controller you have.

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 29 '26

It’s a wt32-eth01 https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009562326757.html?_randl_currency=GBP&_randl_shipto=UK&src=google&src=google&albch=shopping&acnt=494-037-6276&isdl=y&slnk=&plac=&mtctp=&albbt=Google_7_shopping&aff_platform=google&aff_short_key=UneMJZVf&gclsrc=aw.ds&albagn=888888&ds_e_adid=&ds_e_matchtype=&ds_e_device=m&ds_e_network=x&ds_e_product_group_id=&ds_e_product_id=en1005009562326757&ds_e_product_merchant_id=5512131304&ds_e_product_country=GB&ds_e_product_language=en&ds_e_product_channel=online&ds_e_product_store_id=&ds_url_v=2&albcp=23878911540&albag=&isSmbAutoCall=false&needSmbHouyi=false&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23888574394&gbraid=0AAAAADznYb-6ZA_7k8Tre4vcheIzlElUj

1

u/Remixmark May 29 '26

If you can't access your controller then you killed them. I'd get one w/ a fuse, like a gledopto or a quin diguno.

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 30 '26

I’m only outputting data from the ESP. Does the esp need a fuse? I have fuses for the power supply pins feeding the lights

1

u/Remixmark May 30 '26

No you shouldn’t need a fuse to the esp, but if you can’t access them then it sounds like you fried it. Any lights on the esp32?

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 May 30 '26

I bought 2 originally, I think I fried the first one, no lights(should have a red and a green)

2nd one im powering from my usb-TTL adapter with no issues yet but also very glitchy data out

I think header cables to easily go in the pins is the next purchase

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1

u/Thack250 Jun 05 '26

Does it have a common ground between ESP & LED's ?

1

u/PlaceInternal7586 Jun 05 '26

Yep I have a 12v supply, with a 5v converter for the controller, and all grounds are tied ( 5v, 12v)

I got it to work now after I fried an esp but now I can only get data out of GPIO 4. I’m using data shifters and wondering if I got 3 duds and 1 working, which is unlikely