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Thanks so much for watching and you are very welcome! Glad you are enjoying the videos and its for sure a fun hobby to get into!! Hope you have a great day buddy!
I have to thank you for your very informative videos. I found your channel after purchasing Govee permanent outdoor lights but it led me to a few interesting projects. I had just purchased four 32 x 8 LED light matrix panels just like these and it helped me get them working for a 1024 LED matrix for my wife's 50th birthday party. I made a box and defused the LEDs with hard stock paper. Everyone loved it and I am getting asked to share it at other birthday and Christmas parties. That was fun but wasn't enough. I bought 8 more panels and setup a 3072 LED 12 panel matrix that I have working and am currently building a box to hold them so they can be moved around. Thanks to your other video on using multiple channels I was able to get it working with a lot of trial and error. I ordered white semi transparent acrylic panels to defuse them this time. I plan on having two chips. One setup for text scrolling between effects and a second with sound reactive for party time. It should be easy to switch between the two.
@@90Beater Thanks Chris for the reply, i figured it might be better to try two out puts instead of one, and them I assume that WLED did run them all. i went to your page to maybe see your Birthday board in action but no luck. i will try and search through Chris's videos, i have been watching quite a few of them plus others to learn as much as possible about these boards and running them with WLED. Thanks again for the response. Dale
Hey Chris, As an electrician, I would like to give you a recommendation: dont twist the single wire and press the ferral on it. This may allow the wire to twist out from the ferral more easily if there is too much movement on the cable.
for a large matrix size, using grouping = 2 in the element settings, you will get full letters according to the size of the matrix using the text scrolling effect. i have tried it
Don't know why someone would tell you that you need to use ferrules for those types of mounting terminals.. Ferrules are for PCB style terminals that have a small flat spring that is compressed by a screw. The connectors you're working with on the power supply are simply a screw with a square washer. The correct termination is a ferrule (2 pronged fork) that will sit either side of the screw that is clamping down and support the washer evenly.
Those are actually called "lugs." The ferrule refers to the fact that they are crimp-on, as opposed to solder type. A ferrule is basically a cylinder, y'see. The lug is the actual end connector.
@@jeffro. Terminology fail on my part (probably wrote the original comment after beers) but you get the point. A cylindrical ferrule is just going to cock the square washer on an angle which means any movement of the cable could shift it away from the clamping force.
@@gurthbrooxI don't know if it matters in this case but I know the problem ferrules are supposed to solve. If a high current goes through a braided cable and only some braids have good contact to the terminal those braids can heat up, potentially setting nearby objects on fire.
I can’t say it enough. You are spot on perfect. I love the details. I love you don’t fast forward. It’s easy to follow, to start and stop. It’s just great work. Thanks for being so professional and detailed.
This is a great walk through. I found the sound a little clipped and distorted, which made some of the video difficult to listen too. Small complaint. I really enjoy your videos. 60Amp @ 5V (300Watts) would be slightly overkill for just over 1000 pixels, unless you plan running all pixels at 100% white, with the white generated by using the three RGB LED's, but if you have one lying around, overkill never killed a project. By having the brightness limiter set at 3000mA, which is 3Amps, you will get no where near the 60Amps of the supply rating :). Just wanted to mention this as people on a budget may not be able to afford a 60A 5V power supply, and lower current supply,, with the brightness limiter set to 3000mA will give the same results.
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Yeah I'm still trying to figure out sound stuff so my apologies on that. Thanks so much for the info and good stuff for sure! I've found that the larger supplies are not that much more expensive so I tend to order them instead but for sure overkill especially when I generally have things set to 3000mA.
I didnt understand this either. You said especially when you set them to 3000mA. Thats WAAYYYYYYY under 60000 mA's@@ChrisMaherDIY. I do agree they arent much more expensive but id imagine they can handle ALOT more.
Awesome video, just what I needed! Bought 6 of these panels during Black Friday sales, but never got to making anything with them yet. This video helped me to figure out the last parts I was wondering about., Had totally missed the 2D features on WLED, which of course look better than the normal effects that are meant for single line strips...
Awesome! I’m going to build one of these after I’m finished with my lights outside. Any idea how you could diffuse one of these? I’m thinking some type of film but there will probably be some dark spots if the film isn’t high enough
Thanks buddy! I would probably just try some milky white acrylic and see how it looked. You would not have to have much distance between the diffuser and lights for it to look smooth if thats the look your going for. But if you had it sitting right on top of the lights there would be little black areas but I kinda like that look.
They make a heat sink tape that you can add to the back of those LED matrixes and use aluminum on the back also to dissipate some of that heat that it puts off
Chris, instead of using a pre-made LED matrix panel, could we just connect individual CoB LEDs, in a serpentine fashion to create a matrix (say 100 x 100) and use WLED for that? ... my end goal is to have a large matrix, highly spaced leds (I am fine with low resolution), hanging out my balcony where I can display pixelated text, images & gifs visible across long distances from outside.
Great videos, Chris! Thanks for clearly explaining everything. It's SO HELPFUL in a YT world where ppl purposely try to confuse and gaslight everyone. Most are just a waste of time for me, cuz i don't get gaslighted OR confused. I know better, and can figure out things for myself. But the wasting of my time ticks me off. Thanks!
I've tossed a couple comments in other videos. They are always excellent and show interesting ways of getting these entertaining LEDS connected. My questions have been whether you can One, does the chip you seem to routinely use, has more than one data pin to drive the data for another LED Strip? And the other, some ideas on how you ultimately mount or protect the chip when you setup one of these projects? thanks
Hey Norm, one thing I've done in the past is wire the LED runs in series and then set segments to control them individually. The chip (ESP32) does have multiple data pins but I don't believe you can register them as individual lights in WLED. For protecting the chip I tend to just wrap it in electrical tape to avoid shorts and then hide it wherever possible. I'm sure there's a nicer way but over the years i've never had a problem with this method
@@timn9237 Thanks for that feedback, appreciate it. I am aware that you can set segments 1-30, 31-60 on a single strip, no matter how its wired together. What I was thinking was having two strips and controlled by a different data pin from the same chip so that I could manage them both, even though they were not continuous or in the same location, say they were separated by a few feet in a setup. I guess I'll have to experiment and see if I can determine exactly how it works somewhere along the way. WLED gives you so many options, there are of course multiple ways to do perhaps the same thing.
Thanks so much for watching and great questions! So I have not played around too much with multiple pin setups but as far as I know you should be able to do exactly what your wanting to do. This is also a good resource in regards to multi strip support: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#:~:text=For%20good%20performance%2C%20you%20can,a%20total%20of%204000%20LEDs. And i really don't do anything with my boards to protect them. They usually just sit somewhere behind something and don't move so I'm not too worried. I know some people have suggested using a travel soap dish to provide some protection!
hey chris, coincidentally i build a similair 4 panel but horizontal matrix for a name sign. and when setting up wled a got a message telling me if more then 800 leds are controlled on one pin some errors may occur. and sure enough some lines did act up in one or two effects. did you experience the same and if so how did you solve this?
I have a similar question regarding using 4 panels of 600 leds each. WLED just won’t allow a single output that large. I’m using a Dig-Quad board and can use 4 pins on that ESP32. But can I somehow define 4 smallest panels and make them appear as one large panel? Each small panel is 24x25, so 600 per small panel and then 2400 leds in total.
Thats a good question! So I didn't have any issues that I saw but I think what you could do is go in and under led configuration and under the gpio settings only put the first half amount of leds there. Then add another gpio pin and then on your esp device, run the data line from the second pin to control the second half of your leds. Not sure if that makes sense but this helped me wrap my head around things better: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#:~:text=For%20good%20performance%2C%20you%20can,a%20total%20of%204000%20LEDs.
Thanks so much for watching! That is a great idea and you could for sure do that but i'm not sure how it would be all wired up to act as one or if you would just end up using 1 esp device per side. I do seem to remember seeing something about cube matrix support but maybe I made that up. I cant remember for sure!
LOVE THE VIDEOS MY COMMENT IS NOT TO BE DEROGATORY THE PROBLEM I AM HAVING IS I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH YOU. NOT YOUR FAULT, I'M JUST OLD AND SLOW THANK YOU FOR THE VIDEO'S I WON'T QUIT TRYING THANKS AGAIN
I have one in a 3D printed frame with a diffuser. It runs 24/7. I can feel that it’s warmer than ambient temperature with my hand, but it’s just barely warm, not to the point of being a safety concern.
Hey buddy!! Yeah I do want to have it in a frame at some point! I think it would look great! I have not noticed them getting very hot but I also dont run mine very bright or anywhere near full power. Good to hear from you!!
good afternoon Chris. love your videos, got a question and maybe i missed it, But i do remember you talking about the eco version of lights maybe not working with a certain application, will the BTF eco panels work with this and if so what's the difference between them, they are almost 2 for 1 compared to the version you have selected on Amazon, TIA. Dale Edit ok i did just find BTF's picture showing the difference and it looks like it all has to do with the color of the LED's and wire, so next question is how much of a difference is there, sorry for all the questions but i love messing with these and i am trying to learn all i can.
Hi Chris, we are using 3 pin BFT strip like you have on 5v but now they offer them in 12v as well. That changes things around, they have the 12v with 4 pin,. The controller we have can do 5-24V but only 3 pins, is there a way to somehow make the BFT 3pin controller controlling the 4 pin 12v BFT strips?
Thanks so much for watching and I have not yet tried finding something other than just a regular milky white acrylic sheet from amazon. I do want to eventually come up with something that will look nice!
Hey buddy! I have not yet experienced lagging but I also have not tried that many leds with an esp8266. I've pretty much switched over to the 32 for everything since they are not much more expensive. Let me know if it works!
Can this same project be done using the Adafruit 64x64 panel? Their Matrix portal piece runs on Espressif ESP32 Wi-Fi coprocessor with TLS/SSL support built-in.
It never occurred to me to use a jumper to fit into that connector. I just soldered on the lead that they include in the box, even though I Hate with a capital H PVC insulated wires. There’s nothing technically wrong with using 20ga jumpers to connect the board, but practically speaking the current those wires carry from the controller is very low, so there’s also nothing wrong with using the thinner “standard” gauge ones. Now, if you were running all the power for the matrix through them, that would be a different story, but that is fed from the power injection pads in this case.
Thanks again! Yeah its not the best way of getting things connected but it might be the quickest lol. And great advice on the jumper wires as well! Appreciate all the wisdom your passing on!
I tried all the steps, but my lights do not turn on. Don't know what I am doing wrong. I use esp8266. And use micro usb cable for power, i use 4x4 led matrix and also tried them on 8x8 matrix also. Please help me troubleshooting this issue. It would be a great help 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I’m using a Dig-Quad board with an ESP32 on it and the most recent SR version of 0.14.0-b1. I’m wanting to do four panels, each that are 24x25 (600 leds each, 2400 total). The Dig-Quad can allow 4 separate data pinouts. My thought was to have each smaller panel use one of those pins, then in WLED define such so they act like one large panel. I this video, you have a single data line that chains to each of the panels, 1024 in total. If I try to do that with 2400 leds, am I going to run into a problem? Is there a way to take advantage of the four pinouts on the Dig-Quad and still get the same net effect? Short story, will I get data loss with 2400 leds?
I think if you used one pin for the first half of the lights and the second pin for the second half of the lights and made the update in led preferences under the gpio and led count, I think everything else should work pretty similar. I could be wrong and I'm just brainstorming off the top of my head but I would try it and see what happens!
WLED: “For perfect performance, it is recommeded to use 512 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 2048 LEDs. For very good performance, it is recommended to use 800 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 3200 LEDs.” I’m putting together a six 22x22 panels matrix with 484 pixels for a total of 2904 pixels. I’m going to use a single data pin for each panel. Any success using more than one data pin?
@@markc.5750 I ended up configuring as four separate data lines, and one run to each panel, and configuring ad a large matrix within WLED. It worked just fine!
hello dear I have problems connecting with wled via esp32. I manage to connect to wled from the phone as on the computer. No worries at this level. when I plug the led strip into the esp32, only the 6th led lights up green.😢😢😢
Can you turn off the power supply but keep on the esp32 to turn off the leds but keep on the esp32? Your videos have been very helpful to me and I appreciate you replaying to your comments
You can use a smart plug but that would mean having to wire the ESP32 to a separate power source. I would suggest a relay to turn the LED’s completely off as they still use power in the off state.
Thanks so much for watching buddy! What do you mean attach? I did go over in the video how to get things wired up and how I attached them to the board. Let me know if there is something I left out! Thanks!
Hi, thanks for the explanation. I wanted to try these matrix led panels for a while after seeing them on aliexpress. How did you do the squid at the end? Are there special controller for pixel art or is there really some like that in WLED? I'm still looking for software to bring pixel art like Mario or other characters to these diy setups.
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! They are for sure fun to play around with! Like Casey Keller mentioned, that effect is called Akemi. So many different options! Check out this video for bringing pixel are to the matrix! ua-cam.com/video/WSex5f1qzH8/v-deo.html
Good morning, quick question: Can I arrange the panels differently? start at the bottom right, then up, then left, then down? or do I have to do it like in the video (bottom right, then left, then top, then right...) Kind regards
Thanks for watching! Not that I know of but there are ways you can do it but require a little bit more skill than I have: ua-cam.com/video/WSex5f1qzH8/v-deo.html
pls help me i have a problem whit my power cord cable, mine have yellow blue and pupule cable, and i don,t know which is the + and the - and the ground.
Thanks so much for watching! I do have my youtube email address! outrunprojects@gmail.com Its getting harder and harder to keep up with things so I apologized if I don't get to emails right away. Thanks buddy!
Thanks so much for watching and that's a great question! I have no idea but it would probably be limited to the number of leds that an esp device is able to drive. kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#:~:text=For%20good%20performance%2C%20you%20can,a%20total%20of%204000%20LEDs.
Guessing your a firefigher asking that sort of question 😊 Humidity reading change to red when it gets below 10% and flash. We always started worrying under 10% !
Thanks so much for watching and great question! You probably could but I dont think the esp boards could handle that many pixels and I would have no idea how to power that many lights! That would be such a fun project though to try taking on!
Thanks for watching! Do you mean like a battery pack?! You can but I have not tried using something like that yet so i'm not sure the best way about getting things set up or what would be the best one to use!
@@ChrisMaherDIY Full disclosure, I'm the one who created WLED Native. - I like the more modern look of it (the official one improved on this recently) - I also like the automatic discovery and that it keeps track of the device even if the Ip address changes. - The back button is handled better imo. - There is a few other subtile differences and there is a tablet mode too. I'm planning in adding widget and ios version at some point
If you struggled to get the LEDs lined up properly using one panel like I did, make sure you select Serpentine in the panel setup AND scroll down to the LED panel layout and select it there.
I for the love of God I can not get the panels to light up or get the esp 32 to receive power. I used this very method with just one panel ( with different panels )and nothing will power on. I switched to power from my 5v 15a brick to the esp32 and used wago clips to like you do in another video of yours. Still nothing, but the ESP 32 will power up but no luck with any of my panels. I am so frustrated. I even tried to power the panels directly with the power brick through the injection wires. All Panels I have will not light up. Different sizes, 8x32 and 16x16. Not sure what is happening.
Thanks for watching and that's a bummer your having issues! What pin are you using for data and is that the pin you put under led preferences next to the GPIO field? Also do you have all the gnd wires connected from the power, eps device and leds? Maybe someone else will have some suggestions and can chime in.
@@ChrisMaherDIY I'm using the d2 pin and changed the gpio to 2 in wled and nothing. All ground wires are connected as I do get power to the esp 32 but nothing to the panels. 🤷
@@TomParash sounds like you have things connected the right way! Do you by any chance have a ws2812b led strip laying around to try connecting and seeing if that works? At this point it's just trying to go through the process of elimination to see what might be failing. Very frustrating. I've been there. It's not fun.
@@ChrisMaherDIY got it working finally. The leads that came with the panels were not contacting the wago connectors well due to them being so thin. Used jumpers to test my theory and I was correct. I'm going to solder new wires to the panel for a better connection. Thanks for the back and forth. Got my brain working again from a stand still.
Why did you limit your panel to only 3A? You have a 60A Power supply and the LEDs can take upt to 50 mA (i think 30 mA is recommended) . So 30 mA * 1024 = 30720 mA or around 30 A. I think this should also be possible the way you wired up your panels
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Yeah, If I was not constantly re-using the lights and moving things around and trying different setups I would for sure just solder things directly.
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Thanks for all the uploads man. You’ve created a new hobby for me and it’s really been an awesome addition to my life.
Thanks so much for watching and you are very welcome! Glad you are enjoying the videos and its for sure a fun hobby to get into!! Hope you have a great day buddy!
I have to thank you for your very informative videos. I found your channel after purchasing Govee permanent outdoor lights but it led me to a few interesting projects.
I had just purchased four 32 x 8 LED light matrix panels just like these and it helped me get them working for a 1024 LED matrix for my wife's 50th birthday party.
I made a box and defused the LEDs with hard stock paper.
Everyone loved it and I am getting asked to share it at other birthday and Christmas parties.
That was fun but wasn't enough. I bought 8 more panels and setup a 3072 LED 12 panel matrix that I have working and am currently building a box to hold them so they can be moved around.
Thanks to your other video on using multiple channels I was able to get it working with a lot of trial and error. I ordered white semi transparent acrylic panels to defuse them this time.
I plan on having two chips. One setup for text scrolling between effects and a second with sound reactive for party time. It should be easy to switch between the two.
did one ESP32 board control all 12 panels with WLED and i assume if it did you used several of its data outputs, thanks Dale
@@kb0cow One ESP32 ran all 12 boards on two data outputs. Chris has a video on how to do this.
@@90Beater Thanks Chris for the reply, i figured it might be better to try two out puts instead of one, and them I assume that WLED did run them all. i went to your page to maybe see your Birthday board in action but no luck. i will try and search through Chris's videos, i have been watching quite a few of them plus others to learn as much as possible about these boards and running them with WLED. Thanks again for the response. Dale
Hey Chris,
As an electrician, I would like to give you a recommendation: dont twist the single wire and press the ferral on it. This may allow the wire to twist out from the ferral more easily if there is too much movement on the cable.
noticed that as well
Would you not use fork connectors for that type of connection rather than ferrals?
@@Cook1eMR This is a great alternative, but costs more. Both, the material (the forks) and the pliers for pressing. But sure, its safer.
@@grabasandwich Nope. you dont do that. You dont even twist it.
@@grabasandwich This would not increase security and would be an unnecessary step
for a large matrix size, using grouping = 2 in the element settings, you will get full letters according to the size of the matrix using the text scrolling effect. i have tried it
Thanks so much for watching and for the tip! I did not know that! Appreciate it buddy!
What's the largest size you could make?
this with a diffuser and a nice frame hanging on the wall would look sick, great job man.
Thanks buddy! That's for sure something I want to do at some point. I think it would look very nice!
Don't know why someone would tell you that you need to use ferrules for those types of mounting terminals.. Ferrules are for PCB style terminals that have a small flat spring that is compressed by a screw. The connectors you're working with on the power supply are simply a screw with a square washer. The correct termination is a ferrule (2 pronged fork) that will sit either side of the screw that is clamping down and support the washer evenly.
Those are actually called "lugs." The ferrule refers to the fact that they are crimp-on, as opposed to solder type. A ferrule is basically a cylinder, y'see.
The lug is the actual end connector.
@@jeffro. Terminology fail on my part (probably wrote the original comment after beers) but you get the point.
A cylindrical ferrule is just going to cock the square washer on an angle which means any movement of the cable could shift it away from the clamping force.
Thanks for the input, I agree. Also, I would much rather worry about the termination of the LED panels as they have a much higher current.
Not being smart when asking this, but does it matter?? Actual question.
@@gurthbrooxI don't know if it matters in this case but I know the problem ferrules are supposed to solve. If a high current goes through a braided cable and only some braids have good contact to the terminal those braids can heat up, potentially setting nearby objects on fire.
I can’t say it enough. You are spot on perfect. I love the details. I love you don’t fast forward. It’s easy to follow, to start and stop. It’s just great work. Thanks for being so professional and detailed.
Thanks as always buddy!! Appreciate the kind words!!
RGB and LED projects are so much fun im addicted right now to all kinds of RGB
Thanks so much for watching! Lol it really is a fun hobby! Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Homie, feel like I haven't seen anything new lately glad to see this popped up!
Thanks as always buddy! Appreciate the support and thanks for watching!
I haven't started collecting supplies for this project yet, but I'm glad I found such a great information resource. Had to subscribe ❤
This is a great walk through. I found the sound a little clipped and distorted, which made some of the video difficult to listen too. Small complaint. I really enjoy your videos.
60Amp @ 5V (300Watts) would be slightly overkill for just over 1000 pixels, unless you plan running all pixels at 100% white, with the white generated by using the three RGB LED's, but if you have one lying around, overkill never killed a project. By having the brightness limiter set at 3000mA, which is 3Amps, you will get no where near the 60Amps of the supply rating :). Just wanted to mention this as people on a budget may not be able to afford a 60A 5V power supply, and lower current supply,, with the brightness limiter set to 3000mA will give the same results.
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Yeah I'm still trying to figure out sound stuff so my apologies on that. Thanks so much for the info and good stuff for sure! I've found that the larger supplies are not that much more expensive so I tend to order them instead but for sure overkill especially when I generally have things set to 3000mA.
I didnt understand this either. You said especially when you set them to 3000mA. Thats WAAYYYYYYY under 60000 mA's@@ChrisMaherDIY. I do agree they arent much more expensive but id imagine they can handle ALOT more.
Fantastic tutorial as always Chris, I am soooo glad I found WLED, and your channel of course!
I hope you are all well 👍🏻
Thanks as always buddy! Doing good over here! Hope you are also well!!
@@ChrisMaherDIY
Yeah not too bad pal, getting there slowly with my own projects.
Awesome video, just what I needed!
Bought 6 of these panels during Black Friday sales, but never got to making anything with them yet. This video helped me to figure out the last parts I was wondering about.,
Had totally missed the 2D features on WLED, which of course look better than the normal effects that are meant for single line strips...
Thanks so much and glad you liked the video! Its for sure fun to play around with!! Hope you have fun!!
I would normally love to see this diffused but honestly, I think the bare LED's are so much cooler looking
Thanks so much for watching! Yeah with the leds so close, it actually does not look bad not being diffused!
Looks fantastic! When you want to play with it further I'm sure everyone would be curious to see a thin wood veneer over a diffuser.
Thanks so much! that's a great idea! I'll have to keep that in mind!
these are cool! this gives me some ideas! another great video!
Thanks again!!
Look up p10, p5, and 02.5 panels. We use them in our christmas light show hobby. Super easy to run off of xlights or other programming software
Thanks so much for watching and I'll for sure take a look! Thanks for the suggestion! I appreciate it!
Yay... I've been looking into, well, getting into panels and matrix control! Very cool! Great content!! 😉
Thanks as always buddy! Appreciate the support! Hope you have a blessed day!
i prefer fork terminals on the ac wire, ferrules are better for plastic screw in terminals IMO
Thanks so much for watching and the tip! That's good to know! I'll have to look at the fork ones!
I am interested in the matrix and building a matrix fireplace. Have you considered it for your media center
Awesome! I’m going to build one of these after I’m finished with my lights outside.
Any idea how you could diffuse one of these? I’m thinking some type of film but there will probably be some dark spots if the film isn’t high enough
Thanks buddy! I would probably just try some milky white acrylic and see how it looked. You would not have to have much distance between the diffuser and lights for it to look smooth if thats the look your going for. But if you had it sitting right on top of the lights there would be little black areas but I kinda like that look.
I love all these walkthroughs. The question I have is how do you tidy everything up at the end? Specifically, with the ESP? Thanks!
I loving these videos, you're doing great man!
Thank you so much for watching and taking the time to comment! I appreciate the support!
They make a heat sink tape that you can add to the back of those LED matrixes and use aluminum on the back also to dissipate some of that heat that it puts off
Thanks for watching and for the info! Thats great to know! Thanks!!
great video mate, just wondering if there is any way to make the lights smart?
Thanks so much for watching and glad you liked the video! They do have some basic Alexa features and there is home assistant integration!
Chris, instead of using a pre-made LED matrix panel, could we just connect individual CoB LEDs, in a serpentine fashion to create a matrix (say 100 x 100) and use WLED for that? ... my end goal is to have a large matrix, highly spaced leds (I am fine with low resolution), hanging out my balcony where I can display pixelated text, images & gifs visible across long distances from outside.
This is sick bro. Keep going 👏🏻👏🏻
Thanks as always! Appreciate the love!
just spent 250$ on stuff for this gonna be a great weekend
Hahahaha sounds like a great weekend indeed! Let me know how it goes!
Well done! Nicely explained. Keep up the good work! 🙂
Thanks so much buddy! Appreciate the love!
Great videos, Chris!
Thanks for clearly explaining everything.
It's SO HELPFUL in a YT world where ppl purposely try to confuse and gaslight everyone.
Most are just a waste of time for me, cuz i don't get gaslighted OR confused. I know better, and can figure out things for myself.
But the wasting of my time ticks me off.
Thanks!
*WOWEE!* Amazing! Thank you Chris.
😮👍🏻🙏🏻
Thanks so much!! Hope all is well buddy! Have a great weekend!
@@ChrisMaherDIY - You too, my friend. 👊🏻
Another great video. Thanks Chris!
Appreciate the support buddy!
I've tossed a couple comments in other videos. They are always excellent and show interesting ways of getting these entertaining LEDS connected.
My questions have been whether you can One, does the chip you seem to routinely use, has more than one data pin to drive the data for another LED Strip? And the other, some ideas on how you ultimately mount or protect the chip when you setup one of these projects? thanks
Hey Norm, one thing I've done in the past is wire the LED runs in series and then set segments to control them individually. The chip (ESP32) does have multiple data pins but I don't believe you can register them as individual lights in WLED.
For protecting the chip I tend to just wrap it in electrical tape to avoid shorts and then hide it wherever possible. I'm sure there's a nicer way but over the years i've never had a problem with this method
@@timn9237 Thanks for that feedback, appreciate it. I am aware that you can set segments 1-30, 31-60 on a single strip, no matter how its wired together. What I was thinking was having two strips and controlled by a different data pin from the same chip so that I could manage them both, even though they were not continuous or in the same location, say they were separated by a few feet in a setup.
I guess I'll have to experiment and see if I can determine exactly how it works somewhere along the way. WLED gives you so many options, there are of course multiple ways to do perhaps the same thing.
Thanks so much for watching and great questions! So I have not played around too much with multiple pin setups but as far as I know you should be able to do exactly what your wanting to do. This is also a good resource in regards to multi strip support: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#:~:text=For%20good%20performance%2C%20you%20can,a%20total%20of%204000%20LEDs.
And i really don't do anything with my boards to protect them. They usually just sit somewhere behind something and don't move so I'm not too worried. I know some people have suggested using a travel soap dish to provide some protection!
Thanks! Great advice!
hey chris, coincidentally i build a similair 4 panel but horizontal matrix for a name sign. and when setting up wled a got a message telling me if more then 800 leds are controlled on one pin some errors may occur. and sure enough some lines did act up in one or two effects. did you experience the same and if so how did you solve this?
I have a similar question regarding using 4 panels of 600 leds each. WLED just won’t allow a single output that large. I’m using a Dig-Quad board and can use 4 pins on that ESP32. But can I somehow define 4 smallest panels and make them appear as one large panel? Each small panel is 24x25, so 600 per small panel and then 2400 leds in total.
Thats a good question! So I didn't have any issues that I saw but I think what you could do is go in and under led configuration and under the gpio settings only put the first half amount of leds there. Then add another gpio pin and then on your esp device, run the data line from the second pin to control the second half of your leds. Not sure if that makes sense but this helped me wrap my head around things better: kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#:~:text=For%20good%20performance%2C%20you%20can,a%20total%20of%204000%20LEDs.
That is a great question and I'm curious myself if this is something you can do. let me know if you figure things out!
WLED is a wonderful thing.
Fantastic WLED 16/16 2812 pixle❤🙏😎😁
Do you think you could maybe make a sort of 3d cude with the four panels,leave the bottom and back without a panel??
Thanks so much for watching! That is a great idea and you could for sure do that but i'm not sure how it would be all wired up to act as one or if you would just end up using 1 esp device per side. I do seem to remember seeing something about cube matrix support but maybe I made that up. I cant remember for sure!
Wonderful thanks for sharing this. Your explanation is very easy to understand. I just finished my first led project it’s looks wonderful
LOVE THE VIDEOS
MY COMMENT IS NOT TO BE DEROGATORY
THE PROBLEM I AM HAVING IS I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH YOU.
NOT YOUR FAULT, I'M JUST OLD AND SLOW
THANK YOU FOR THE VIDEO'S I WON'T QUIT TRYING
THANKS AGAIN
This would be a sick spectrum analyzer
That would look sweet in a frame with some kind of diffuser in the front. Any problems with heat buildup?
I have one in a 3D printed frame with a diffuser. It runs 24/7. I can feel that it’s warmer than ambient temperature with my hand, but it’s just barely warm, not to the point of being a safety concern.
Hey buddy!! Yeah I do want to have it in a frame at some point! I think it would look great! I have not noticed them getting very hot but I also dont run mine very bright or anywhere near full power. Good to hear from you!!
Thanks! That's good to know! Appreciate the info!
good afternoon Chris. love your videos, got a question and maybe i missed it, But i do remember you talking about the eco version of lights maybe not working with a certain application, will the BTF eco panels work with this and if so what's the difference between them, they are almost 2 for 1 compared to the version you have selected on Amazon, TIA. Dale
Edit ok i did just find BTF's picture showing the difference and it looks like it all has to do with the color of the LED's and wire, so next question is how much of a difference is there, sorry for all the questions but i love messing with these and i am trying to learn all i can.
Hi Chris, we are using 3 pin BFT strip like you have on 5v but now they offer them in 12v as well. That changes things around, they have the 12v with 4 pin,. The controller we have can do 5-24V but only 3 pins, is there a way to somehow make the BFT 3pin controller controlling the 4 pin 12v
BFT strips?
As usual... excellent!
Any word on being able to get a robust user text entry on the 2D matrix?
Thanks as always buddy! I have not heard anything but hopefully more options will be coming out soon !
Can you draw images with the WLED app onto your led matrix?
Nice Video Chris, thank you. Have you tried diffusing these panels yet? I'm guessing there aren't many choices beyond paper?
Thanks so much for watching and I have not yet tried finding something other than just a regular milky white acrylic sheet from amazon. I do want to eventually come up with something that will look nice!
Is it possible to control each of the 4 panels individually? As in putting a different effect on each one?
Yes! not sure about doing that with WLED but I know you can for sure with FastLED
have you had any issues with lagging with the esp? I am going to try and connect 2 esps to the 1024LEDs and see if that works for the lag
Hey buddy! I have not yet experienced lagging but I also have not tried that many leds with an esp8266. I've pretty much switched over to the 32 for everything since they are not much more expensive. Let me know if it works!
Can this same project be done using the Adafruit 64x64 panel? Their Matrix portal piece runs on Espressif ESP32 Wi-Fi coprocessor with TLS/SSL support built-in.
can we use custom images on the matrix? I am planning to use these behind the front panel of my PC for Asus's AniMe Matrix style of display.
is the voltage wire needed?
Is the VCC necessary for Data input ?
It never occurred to me to use a jumper to fit into that connector. I just soldered on the lead that they include in the box, even though I Hate with a capital H PVC insulated wires.
There’s nothing technically wrong with using 20ga jumpers to connect the board, but practically speaking the current those wires carry from the controller is very low, so there’s also nothing wrong with using the thinner “standard” gauge ones. Now, if you were running all the power for the matrix through them, that would be a different story, but that is fed from the power injection pads in this case.
Thanks again! Yeah its not the best way of getting things connected but it might be the quickest lol. And great advice on the jumper wires as well! Appreciate all the wisdom your passing on!
I tried all the steps, but my lights do not turn on. Don't know what I am doing wrong. I use esp8266. And use micro usb cable for power, i use 4x4 led matrix and also tried them on 8x8 matrix also. Please help me troubleshooting this issue. It would be a great help 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
I’m using a Dig-Quad board with an ESP32 on it and the most recent SR version of 0.14.0-b1. I’m wanting to do four panels, each that are 24x25 (600 leds each, 2400 total). The Dig-Quad can allow 4 separate data pinouts. My thought was to have each smaller panel use one of those pins, then in WLED define such so they act like one large panel.
I this video, you have a single data line that chains to each of the panels, 1024 in total. If I try to do that with 2400 leds, am I going to run into a problem?
Is there a way to take advantage of the four pinouts on the Dig-Quad and still get the same net effect?
Short story, will I get data loss with 2400 leds?
I think if you used one pin for the first half of the lights and the second pin for the second half of the lights and made the update in led preferences under the gpio and led count, I think everything else should work pretty similar. I could be wrong and I'm just brainstorming off the top of my head but I would try it and see what happens!
WLED: “For perfect performance, it is recommeded to use 512 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 2048 LEDs. For very good performance, it is recommended to use 800 LEDs/pin with 4 outputs for a total of 3200 LEDs.”
I’m putting together a six 22x22 panels matrix with 484 pixels for a total of 2904 pixels. I’m going to use a single data pin for each panel. Any success using more than one data pin?
@@markc.5750 I ended up configuring as four separate data lines, and one run to each panel, and configuring ad a large matrix within WLED. It worked just fine!
hello dear
I have problems connecting with wled via esp32.
I manage to connect to wled from the phone as on the computer. No worries at this level. when I plug the led strip into the esp32, only the 6th led lights up green.😢😢😢
hello, can a panel (40x5) be connected after a strip and have the strip funtion as a strip and the panel as a matrix?
Can you turn off the power supply but keep on the esp32 to turn off the leds but keep on the esp32? Your videos have been very helpful to me and I appreciate you replaying to your comments
You can use a smart plug but that would mean having to wire the ESP32 to a separate power source. I would suggest a relay to turn the LED’s completely off as they still use power in the off state.
Super project 😁👍🏼 question: how did you attach the LED matrix ❓
Thanks so much for watching buddy! What do you mean attach? I did go over in the video how to get things wired up and how I attached them to the board. Let me know if there is something I left out! Thanks!
@@ChrisMaherDIY How did you attach the LED matrix to the wooden panel 🤔
My English is not so good if you said it there 😉
Is there no way to diffuse the light so it’s looks seem less with no cuts in it
Hi, thanks for the explanation. I wanted to try these matrix led panels for a while after seeing them on aliexpress. How did you do the squid at the end? Are there special controller for pixel art or is there really some like that in WLED? I'm still looking for software to bring pixel art like Mario or other characters to these diy setups.
Pretty sure the next beta listed a pixel art image converter. Should be fun to mess with.
the effect is called "Akemi" in WLED
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! They are for sure fun to play around with! Like Casey Keller mentioned, that effect is called Akemi. So many different options! Check out this video for bringing pixel are to the matrix! ua-cam.com/video/WSex5f1qzH8/v-deo.html
That would be amazing!
Thanks!!
Good morning, quick question: Can I arrange the panels differently? start at the bottom right, then up, then left, then down? or do I have to do it like in the video (bottom right, then left, then top, then right...) Kind regards
Thank you. Is it possible to upload own images, logo's etc?
Thanks for watching! Not that I know of but there are ways you can do it but require a little bit more skill than I have: ua-cam.com/video/WSex5f1qzH8/v-deo.html
Hey Chris do u know how to get pixel art on the matrices? And how CLD we get the art to stay when powered on/off. Thanks again for ur work!
Can you cut the LED panels to make them shorter?
pls help me i have a problem whit my power cord cable, mine have yellow blue and pupule cable, and i don,t know which is the + and the - and the ground.
have you made a video about the 64x64 matrix pannels
Where can we find pre-made ledmaps for custom creations?
This is awesome :D do you have an email by any chance where fans can reach out to?
Thanks so much for watching! I do have my youtube email address! outrunprojects@gmail.com Its getting harder and harder to keep up with things so I apologized if I don't get to emails right away. Thanks buddy!
Does WLED have any kind of mechanism to use a video file for leds?
Not trying to be nit-picky, but the _Neutral_ leg is _also_ considered a _live_ conductor. The L stands for _Line._
where do you get the 2d configuration from? I installed the release 0.13.3 and mine don't have
Is it possible to do 4 groups of 4 to make a bigger square for a total of 16?
What is the larges array you could build?
Thanks so much for watching and that's a great question! I have no idea but it would probably be limited to the number of leds that an esp device is able to drive. kno.wled.ge/features/multi-strip/#:~:text=For%20good%20performance%2C%20you%20can,a%20total%20of%204000%20LEDs.
Is there a way to use this setup to display the current temp/humidity percentage?
Guessing your a firefigher asking that sort of question 😊
Humidity reading change to red when it gets below 10% and flash.
We always started worrying under 10% !
Could you have 20x40 panels and basically build yourself a digital billboard?
Thanks so much for watching and great question! You probably could but I dont think the esp boards could handle that many pixels and I would have no idea how to power that many lights! That would be such a fun project though to try taking on!
Would you think an 8x10 panels would be too many as well?
Hi there can u use a power adapter?......
Thanks for watching! Do you mean like a battery pack?! You can but I have not tried using something like that yet so i'm not sure the best way about getting things set up or what would be the best one to use!
Have you tried using "WLED Native" app instead of the official one?
Thanks for watching! I have not. What do you like about it?!
@@ChrisMaherDIY Full disclosure, I'm the one who created WLED Native.
- I like the more modern look of it (the official one improved on this recently)
- I also like the automatic discovery and that it keeps track of the device even if the Ip address changes.
- The back button is handled better imo.
- There is a few other subtile differences and there is a tablet mode too. I'm planning in adding widget and ios version at some point
If you struggled to get the LEDs lined up properly using one panel like I did, make sure you select Serpentine in the panel setup AND scroll down to the LED panel layout and select it there.
How many of these can you put together?
These are so amazing
Thanks so much for watching! They really are fun to play around with!
I for the love of God I can not get the panels to light up or get the esp 32 to receive power. I used this very method with just one panel ( with different panels )and nothing will power on. I switched to power from my 5v 15a brick to the esp32 and used wago clips to like you do in another video of yours. Still nothing, but the ESP 32 will power up but no luck with any of my panels. I am so frustrated. I even tried to power the panels directly with the power brick through the injection wires. All Panels I have will not light up. Different sizes, 8x32 and 16x16. Not sure what is happening.
Thanks for watching and that's a bummer your having issues! What pin are you using for data and is that the pin you put under led preferences next to the GPIO field? Also do you have all the gnd wires connected from the power, eps device and leds? Maybe someone else will have some suggestions and can chime in.
@@ChrisMaherDIY I'm using the d2 pin and changed the gpio to 2 in wled and nothing. All ground wires are connected as I do get power to the esp 32 but nothing to the panels. 🤷
@@TomParash sounds like you have things connected the right way! Do you by any chance have a ws2812b led strip laying around to try connecting and seeing if that works? At this point it's just trying to go through the process of elimination to see what might be failing. Very frustrating. I've been there. It's not fun.
@@ChrisMaherDIY got it working finally. The leads that came with the panels were not contacting the wago connectors well due to them being so thin. Used jumpers to test my theory and I was correct. I'm going to solder new wires to the panel for a better connection. Thanks for the back and forth. Got my brain working again from a stand still.
@@TomParash awesome!! So glad to hear you got it figured out! Way to keep at it! Thanks for the update buddy
Can it run doom?
Lol that would be amazing! I'm sure someone could get it to work but unfortunately that wont be me. I'm not that smart!
Can you control the matrix via midi?
Oh man thank you soooo muchhhhhhh #KingOfLEDs
Lol thanks buddy!! Appreciate it as always!
how can I display custom pictures or logos.
Do you have any Christmas animations ?
Nice video, thanks :)
Glad you like it! Thanks for watching buddy!
Please also make a video of circular panel of LED
Thanks so much for watching and the great idea! I do have that on my to do list so hopefully I can get to it at some point here!
i cant get the oled chips to work not sure what im doing wrong they never flash .....
So cool!
Thanks so much for watching buddy!
My WLED config does not show the 2D Configuration?
update
@@pablospace cheers all fixed
Glad you got it fixed! Thanks for watching!!
@@ChrisMaherDIY cheers mate, good content your vids got me up and running from scratch
Bro in my phone 2d configuration option is not showing!! Any idea?
Update the SW to the last version.
Thanks so much for watching! Did updating the software work?!
Where did you find the board?
Thanks for sharing
You are very welcome! Thanks so much for watching buddy!
Hi,Chris. We have a fun product: solar sign want to collaborate with you. How can we reach to you?
Why did you limit your panel to only 3A? You have a 60A Power supply and the LEDs can take upt to 50 mA (i think 30 mA is recommended) . So 30 mA * 1024 = 30720 mA or around 30 A. I think this should also be possible the way you wired up your panels
I tried the 2400 led config. WLED won’t allow it on a single data channel. Even 1024 comes with a warning about lag.
Yeah, probably have to figure out how to use the different pins. Let me know if you figure it out!
@@ChrisMaherDIY I will! Currently working on this project now.
bro just ditch the weigo connectors and solder the wires directly, no? anyway great video!
Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to comment! Yeah, If I was not constantly re-using the lights and moving things around and trying different setups I would for sure just solder things directly.
Aye! We use the same wire!