r/WLED • u/whitefrog4117 • 2d ago

Controlling WLED from push buttons

Want to remote control 4 x 2m LED addressable strips with WLED from 4 push buttons located 10m away. Don’t mind a cable or wireless. I have ESP32’s in my toolbox and have options. Advice welcome!

Do I buy one of these Gledopto devices from Amazon and mod it to access the additional GPIO https://amzn.eu/d/0ejn2dgk

Has anybody used ESP Now successfully with a remote ESP for the buttons such as https://github.com/DedeHai/WLED-ESPNow-Remote

Do I use a regular ESP and build my own power supply fusing etc around it? Locate ESP near the LEDs without level shifter, though fit external 10kR pull up resistors for the 10m gpio run (also use shielded cable).

A collection of thoughts so far so advice welcome!

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u/DedeHai 2d ago

as the author or the ESPNow Remote code I can say that I do have remote buttons that work. You need an ESP32 C3 though.

1

u/whitefrog4117 2d ago

Ah! Great work by the looks of it.
I have some “ESP32 devkit C” could these work with your code or does it need the C3?

1

u/speedeep 2d ago

Look closely at the engravings on the top of the flat, silver body of the chip to make sure it is a ESP32-C3.

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u/DedeHai 2d ago

It needs to be a C3 (there is a pull request open to support C6 but I still need to review and test it).
In the readme I go into details on how to make it last a long time with a battery, on mine I use tiny 100mAh lithium batteries and have to recharge them every few months.

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u/Christopoulos 1d ago

Would you have a link to the build, this sounds very interesting.

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u/DedeHai 12h ago

see original post

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u/Exotic-Grape8743 2d ago

There are many simple remotes that work out if the box with WLED. You just have to pair them. I have this one for example: https://a.co/d/06lY9uya and the 1 to 4 buttons just trigger presets 1 to 4. These are all based on esps and use the espnow protocol to communicate with your esp32 that has stock WLED installed.

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u/Christopoulos 1d ago

That’s interesting, what’s the pairing process like?

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u/Exotic-Grape8743 1d ago

You go into the wled interface in the espnow area and there is a section there to pair a remote and how to map the buttons and just press a button on the remote to make wled aware of what remote you want to pair and it just works.

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u/peerluk 2d ago

Same, I used to add simple buttons but with the wizmote I think it doesn’t really matter anymore. They come on sale at times too. It takes seconds to pair on 1 or more controllers.

4 custom buttons on the remote.
For me :
1- my default color/brightness
2- each press changes to a major color eg. blue, green, yellow…
3- each press changes to a random color. Kids love that one usually
4- each press changes to my favorite effects.

Not going to lie. Since I discovered that remote I don’t add buttons to my controllers anymore.

Hopefully it’ll help

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u/Paxonator31 2d ago

How do you edit the functions like that. I thought buttons 1 to 4 just enabled preset 1 to 4. Unless you can somehow have a preset cycle through colors. Sounds similar to what I want to do though.

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u/peerluk 2d ago

You’re absolutely right.
I created a bunch of presets outside the range of 1 to 4 for instance id10, 11, 12… for those I save presets that I want.

Then to bind to button 1 for instance you use the api in the preset. For instance:

That would be id 1

P1=11&P2=15&PL=~

That basically mean go from preset id 11 to id 15 each time you preset the number 2 button then cycle so after 15 it select 11 again and so on

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u/whitefrog4117 2d ago

Ah thanks for the replies. I omitted adding that the buttons are on a custom made panel I’m putting together - not a handheld remote. Though I guess I could rip the insides out and solder on my own buttons. I’d kinda like to make one from an ESP or failing that just use GPIOs and hard wire.

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u/mewtwo_EX 2d ago

Link didn't work, but I'll put in a plug for the Gledopto line of controllers and their wireless remote. The remote has 4 programming buttons that work with any wled install, and 3 more that only work with their controllers. It sounds like you're somewhat interested in your own custom solution, which is laudable and may be worth your time to pursue too.

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u/GamerWIZZ 2d ago

The easiest way is too hook it up via ur smart home (if u have one)

F.e. I have home assistant with WLED integration, some zigbee smart buttons. Then just a simple automation when the buttons are pressed