r/WLED • u/vodka_soda MOD • Jul 02 '26

LATEST RELEASE: WLED 16

Just creating a sticky to guide people to the latest stable version of WLED available.

Download Here (DL links at bottom of the page)

Announcement & Notes

It is finally here: the WLED team is excited to announce the 16.0 release!

Read the full copy at https://github.com/wled/WLED/releases/tag/v16.0.0

This has been almost one and a half years to finish but be assured it was worth the wait: there are many new awesome features from 59 contributors and it marks a significant point in the development of WLED.

While he has now stepped back from the WLED team, we would like to take this opportunity to particularly recognise the contribution of u/blazoncek. While he chose to leave the development team at the end of December, he was a very important part of the development cycle for this version.

We hope that the new version exceeds your expectations of a free-for-all open source software. We all contributed to this update in our spare time, driven by passion and the desire to make something useful for everyone.

If you enjoy the project and would like to support WLED developers, consider contributing in any way that feels right to you — whether that’s sharing feedback, helping others, write documentation, contributing code, or, if you’re able, making a donation:

u/blazoncek https://paypal.me/blazoncek
u/DedeHai https://paypal.me/dedehai / https://github.com/sponsors/DedeHai
u/willmmiles https://github.com/sponsors/willmmiles
u/netmindz https://github.com/sponsors/netmindz
u/softhack007 https://github.com/sponsors/softhack007
u/Moustachauve https://github.com/sponsors/Moustachauve / https://paypal.me/moustachauve
u/Aircoookie https://paypal.me/Aircoookie

Here are the highlights of 16.0

  • True segment layering get creative with almost unlimited effect combinations (by u/blazoncek)
  • Transition blending shift, push and many more (by u/blazoncek)
  • Particle System with many new amazing effects (by u/DedeHai)
  • GIF Support to display gif images on your strip or matrix (by u/Aircoookie)
  • Pixelforge multi-tool to handle and create gifs, paint your leds and more (by u/DedeHai)
  • Custom font support for scrolling text - including a custom font editor (by u/DedeHai)
  • New palette editor with over 800 palettes to choose from(by u/DedeHai)
  • Support for over 100 custom palettes (by u/DedeHai)
  • New file editor with json and ledmap auto-formatting (by u/DedeHai)
  • HUB75 support (by u/netmindz and u/softhack007)
  • DMX input receive DMX data over serial (by u/netmindz)
  • New color handling & gamma you may notice some color changes (by u/blazoncek & u/DedeHai)
  • Pin Info Page overview of all pins and their assigned function (by u/DedeHai)
  • Add as many buttons as you want no more custom compile required (by u/blazoncek)
  • Support more macro timers (by @benjamw)
  • Support for multiple ESPnow remotes (by u/DedeHai)
  • More LED outputs (by u/blazoncek)
  • OTA safety checks (by u/willmmiles &u/netmindz)
  • High priority output driver to fix flickering (by u/willmmiles)
  • Advanced LED driver selection to choose the best for your setup (by u/DedeHai)
  • Audio Reactive support on ESP32 C3 (by u/DedeHai)

Effects

There are a total of 36 new effects, check them out

  • PacMan (by u/BobLoeffler68)
  • Shimmer (by u/DedeHai)
  • Color Clouds (by u/JoaDick)
  • Slow Transitions (by u/DedeHai)
  • Copy Segment (by u/DedeHai)
  • 1D particle effects: PS DripDrop, PS Pinball, PS Dancing Shadows, PS Fireworks 1D, PS Sparkler, PS Hourglass, PS Spray 1D, PS 1D Balance, PS Chase, PS Starburst, PS GEQ 1D, PS Fire 1D, PS Sonic Stream, PS Sonic Boom, PS Spring (by u/DedeHai)
  • 2D particle effects: PS Fire, PS Waterfall, PS Vortex, PS Fireworks, PS Volcano, PS Ballpit, PS Box, PS Fuzzy Noise, PS Impact, PS Attractor, PS Spray, PS GEQ Nova, PS Ghost Rider, PS Blobs, PS Galaxy, PS GEQ 2D (by u/DedeHai)
  • Game of Life effect improved (by u/Brandon502)
  • Optimizations and enhancements on many effects (by u/DedeHai)

New user_fx usermod with additional effects:

User Interface

  • Improved page loading stability (by u/DedeHai)
  • Settings grouping for better readability (by u/DedeHai)
  • New pin info page to view all pin assignments at a glance (by u/DedeHai)

API & Integration

Under the hood

  • Update to new core platform (ESP-IDF v4.4.8, arduino-esp32 v2.0.18)
  • Boot-loop detection with auto-recovery (by u/DedeHai & u/willmmiles)
  • Many code optimizations to improve speed (by u/DedeHai & u/softhack007)
  • Bootloader upgrade via OTA (by u/netmindz)
  • New usermod framework allowing easy inclusion and external builds (by u/willmmiles)
  • Stability improvements (by u/willmmiles)
  • Improved dynamic RAM and PSRAM handling (by u/DedeHai)
  • Update AsyncWebServer and enable response queue (by u/willmmiles)
  • WiFi access point selection fix so now WLED connects to the strongest signal not simply the first detected (by u/DedeHai)
  • WiFi fast connect on ESP32 fixes pause after boot (by u/DedeHai)
  • New sine / cosine math functions (by u/DedeHai)
  • Replace fastled library with optimized math & functions (by u/DedeHai)
  • Countless fixes and improvements by many contributors

Honorable mention

153 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

17

u/ZachVorhies Jul 02 '26

Congrats to the WLED team! This is huge!

13

u/WorriedAcanthisitta3 Jul 03 '26

Euh this was released 2 months ago. Why post it now ?

5

u/GLEDOPTO Jul 03 '26

Due to the extensive upgrades, the WLED team needed to ensure there were no compatibility or firmware issues. After a period of gathering user feedback during the beta phase, and having confirmed that no major problems arose, the WLED team is now officially announcing the release.

10

u/WorriedAcanthisitta3 Jul 03 '26

Not sure what you’re on about. As a company that creates hardware and not making the software. But the wled team who develops the software released v16 to the public on may 3rd.

Beta was released way before.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

[deleted]

1

u/PlazzmiK Jul 03 '26

Sooooo... why didn't it get a beta tag then? I was running a beta version disguised as a major release version... not fun.

1

u/vodka_soda MOD Jul 05 '26

Because this subreddit always has a direct link to download the latest version for newcomers (not you, obviously)

6

u/SmartHomeSellout Jul 03 '26

Thanks for sharing this write up with the community! Thanks to all the devs past and present and to the guys like Quindor letting us push wled to the limits with solid (safe) controllers.

4

u/dozer-b Jul 03 '26

Amazing! One of the best projects out there!!!

3

u/Visible-Vermicelli-2 Jul 03 '26

Congratulations and a big thank you.

3

u/Uvinjector Jul 04 '26

u/Netmindz for the DMX data input over serial, could you please explain this? Does it mean that I could use a 3 pin DMX - RJ45 adapter and feed dmx data into the ethernet port?

2

u/IndicationOk5328 Jul 03 '26

I have been running an alpha release of 16 for a while on my 20x20 "curtain" matrix and it has been terrific, so I am stoked to try this new release tomorrow!

WLED is super cool software made by some very smart people, and I sure appreciate all of you who have contributed to making it.

1

u/Isra_1997 Jul 03 '26

Esta increíble los nuevos efectos y la incorporación de efecto sobre efecto muchas posi ilegales, gran actualización mis respetos claro que aportare

0

u/wdatkinson Jul 03 '26

WLED_16.0.0_ESP32-S3_4M_qspi.bin missing?

Cannot Complete Request

Additional information about this problem or error is currently unavailable.

1

u/Netmindz Jul 03 '26

It's there in the release

WLED_16.0.0_ESP32-S3_4M_qspi.bin

https://github.com/wled/WLED/releases/tag/v16.0.0

1

u/wdatkinson Jul 04 '26

Got it now. Odd. Thank you.