Loading ESpixelStick firmware on a Wemos mini d1
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 вер 2024
- Heres a how to, to install espixelstick firmware on a cheap wemos d1 mini.github.com/for...
Pixels connect to pin D4 on on the wemos mini
Firmware loading short pin D3 to Ground
Wemos I use:
amzn.to/2CJUcFo
Power boards:
amzn.to/2BRVKeW
amzn.to/2R27uWG
amzn.to/2CIhYl6
Probes:
www.amazon.com...
This really helped me out getting the firmware on the ESP's! Thanks!!
Im glad it was useful to you. I have some other videos coming out this week hoepfully how to use the ESP and pixel stick firmware to integrade to DMX devices like moving heads and light pods so be sure to subscribe so you get the notifications.
@@builditbetter5610 subbed!
@@ChunkySteveo Thank you, it really helps out my little channel that I am trying to make grow to provide more and better content.
Thank you Thank you Thank you I have been looking for hours how to flash d1mini and you are the only persion that shows d3 to ground. thank you so much
When i first starting doing these it took me about 12 hours od research to figure out you gotta ground D3 to put it into firmware mode. Im glad it helped get you going. Thank you for the comment.
Exactly what I was looking for as I want to wifi enable a 10 channel laser fixture... I'm using the old 4MB Wemos D1 mini but of 3 devices 2 stop working after about 15 secs. I reboot then they run for a while. Installation goes per normal, I get an IP via DHCP and can access the UI for a while until it stops responding. Should the firmware (v3.2) run reliably on a 4MB D1 mini
Awesome video!! Thanks for taking the time to put this together. This was super helpful. I look forward to viewing your upcoming videos. I do have a question... I am looking to outline my rooflines with a permanent setup using metal channel, diffusers, and 2812b's. Do most people go with 30 Led's per meter or 60? Thanks!
My pleasure. Most people , myself included go with 30. They are usually cheaper and you dont really need a high pixel density strip on outlines, it would be a waste as its only a single line IMO. 30/m is plenty for the average viewing distance.
Thanks for the video!
Have you had any issues with the D1mini dropping off the network?
I have started using esp8266 with WLED and find the xlights sequences lag sometimes and other times works perfect.
Great video. As a newbie this has really helped me understand things and get started. How are the sequences saved/stored since there is no SD card slot? I think this is a great way to have a display without all the cords/cables all over the yard.
Thank you. The wemos does not store any sequences or files, it acts as a receiver of data. You would need xlights, vixen,FPP or a generic controller, something to generate the lighting data, which gets sent over the network and the wemos receives this data then outputs that data to the pixels.
If you have any suggestions for any videos you feel I should made to help people just getting into things, please let me know.
@@builditbetter5610 I have xLights and also a pi Zero with FPP, are you saying that I connect the pi with FPP and the sequences on the SD card to the wemos and then connect the lights? Or I would need the wemos connected via wifi to a pc that is constantly running?
@@leesahcage3297 the pi would be connected to a wifi network and have FPP installed on it, the wemos would be connected to the same wifi network, the pi with FPP would store the sequence files. The pi with FPP would transmit the pixel data across the wifi network to the wemos, the wemos would take that pixel data and output it the pixels.
The pi zero would be the transmitter and the wemos would be the receiver.
Excellent tutorial. Thank you!
Hi what would you recommend as a maximum number of pixels to be run by a D1 mini? I am looking at a system with 4,500 pixels so 13,500 count which would be 80 universes - I think I need to split it down but interested to know by how much
The firmware supports 4 universes per wemos. I try and keep the pixel count under 500 per wemos to maintain a gpod refresh rate. I think the max is 625.
Is there any way to make more than 1 SPI output from the board? I know it’s possible with FastLED, but I’m not sure if this firmware supports it.
Not with this firmware, its single output only. I was reading someone tweaked this code to work with several outputs but I don't know if it was even finished or working properly. I haven't head anything about it in a few months.
Is there any information about using a RAS-PI Falcon Pi-Player to talk to the ESPixelStick? I have a Stick working with 21 pixels in testing mode. I need to drive those with the FPP. I have a wreath setup on the FPP as a Pi Pixel String and would also like to send it to the Stick. On the PI-player it's start channel is 3658 and the pixel count is 21, how do I set up the FPP E1.31 outputs? Tried several things I found on different forums with no success,
Thanks,
If you have FPP running on the Pi the n you simply add the ESP as a e131 controller with the correct IP, universe , start channel and total channels.
@@builditbetter5610 I think I finally figured it out. I was trying to set the start channel on the ESPstick to the start channel in Xlights layout and it would not work. I finally tried to leave it set to one and fired things up and it works great. I had the FPP E131 settings correct but I think the Stick settings was freaking it out. Thanks!
@@builditbetter5610 One more thing that may be obvious to some, I seemed to not find it anywhere. If I set the pixel count in the E131 setup to 21 (only have a SMALL wreath) only the first seven pixels would work. Changed it to 63 for all 3 colors and BOOM it worked. Just a Newbie's observation....
Hello @Build It Better im sorry for bothering ur work again. Im still learning and I have another more question about the controller & pixels.
Do you know how to null(disable) the first pixel so that i can run second pixel in a long distance?
Does it done in web interface configuration (example: Like I need to start the dmx channel 4 until 510 instead of 1 to 510)? Or maybe in the Xlights software?
It depends on the distance which will determine if you need a null pixel. Generally anything over 10' i use a null pixel.
The null pixel is included in the channel count so 1-510 then the null pixel is setup in xlights.
So basically i just simply adjust in xlights software(in dmx configuration) instead in espixel (forkineye's web configuration). Thats it?
Will the d1 mini drive pixels directly or does it need a level shifter from 3.3v to 5v as the wemos has 3.3v outputs on it data pins
myozone depends on how long of a run.
Anything over a half meter you’d want to use a level shifter.
cant run the esp flash tool,it say cannot find the config
I just tried not too long ago and I'm getting the same error. Cannot find firmware file, etc.
I think I figured it out... Download the software from here... github.com/forkineye/ESPixelStick/releases/tag/v3.0
Great video, helped me out!!! How many ESPixelSticks do you run in your show?, I've heard you can't run many as your Wi-Fi gets swamped.
Thank you.
I have ran 38 of these on a sinlge access point and really did not notice a difference. When i got above 39 or 40 i started to see very noticeable delays.
@@builditbetter5610 Thanks for the reply, How many channels did each ESPixelSticks run on average?
@@djflexdex between 1000-1500ish channels
is this the same for ESP8266 NodeMcu? and can i set up more then 1 universe with 510 channels on one unit
Its the same procedure for the NodeMcu.
You can run 4 universes of 512 channels off one esp.
I'm trying it for DMX and i watched your other video about it and did the wiring just like you did with the same moving head. Im having an issue not connecting it over wifi. Do you have to use unicast and how do you know what IP to give it? Thanks!
You dont have to use unicast. When you first get the firmware flashed to the wemos, remove the jumper and press the reset button on the wemos, in the flash tool you will see it connecting to your wifi network and get an IP via DHCP. Once its issued an ip you can access it via web browser and make any changes you need.
If it fails to connect to the wireless it will say so in the output box of the loading tool, double check your SSID and password are correct. Also the wemos is unable to connect to 5G so you have to use 2.4g.
Also try using the WPA-PSK security mode on your wireless. The esp chips seem to be unable to connect to wep and wep2 secured networks.
@@builditbetter5610 If you are using multicast, how do you get it to connect to the da_E131 Tester?
@@sniper0709 for the e1.31 tool you would have to know the IP. Theres a free program called advanced ip scanner you can download. It will scan the network and display every device on your network with host name, IP and MAC address.
Just watched your tutorial, I tried to upload the newest version 3.2 and it would not work. I saw that you were on version 3.0and I used that version and it worked fine, Now I will try the OTA update to go to the newest version. Thanks for the great info!
Glad it worked out. Others have had issues with 3.2 as well. I think I may make a follow up video about 3
2 to dive into whats different.
@@builditbetter5610 OTA success updated to 3.2 - - have not tried to drive pixels yet though...
Thank you for a great video! I am wondering about the "Universe" field...if I have 4 universes with 170 pixels in each, do I put 4 in this field? How would I populate the other fields?
Thank you. In the universe field you would put your start universe which if your running unicast this can be set to 1 otherwise you need to enter a start universe that will not conflict with other controllers, , you put your total number of pixels and in the channel court you put where you want each universe to end, typically 510 and the firmware calculate the required number of universes automatically, you can verify by refreshing the start screen.
@@builditbetter5610 Awesome! Thank you for clarifying!
Hi @Build It Better i have question... Where i can connect the output from the wemos "to the pixel" (i mean 5v, Data & Gnd)?
And you said that it can use up to 4 universes... So which means u need another connection coming from the wemos like d1, d2, d3...???
Im sorry im just newbie here
Power and ground come from your power supply , the ground from your power supply need to connect to both the pixels and the wemos. The datapin going from the wemos to the first pixel is pin D4 on the wemos.
So which mean Only D4 pin (data) can use all 3 to 4 universe and nothing else??
I have around 350 plus pixels and i want to use them only one d1 mini. Is their anything i need to tweak in the web server (to make the 4 universe)??
(Sorry bad english)
@@acrixiacelestia7689 universes 1-4 are all on pin D4. You just daisy chain the data wire to all of your pixels up to about 680. The settings in webserver calculate the required universes based on the number of pixels you enter into websever.
Thanks for all the information you share to me...it helps me alot
But i have so many question, ineed to.know Lol (cuz im totally newbie XD )
1. Do i need to install the Arduino IDE then the "board manager" to (register or something) the D1 mini board before proceeding the flashing the mini? Ive just seen some yt vids...Im totally lost
HI. Does this flashing work with the NodeMCu as well?
Yes it does. Same chipset , same procedure.
Which pins do you power the Wemo with? Or is it powered through the USB port?
You can power either though the usb port or there are a vcc and gound pins on the board that you can power it from using 3.3-5V Please see the link below goo.gl/images/ETKhDg
Thank you!
Thanks for the great video! I tried to run a POC on my bench using a Node MCU dev board running ESPixelStick running a small 64 LED matrix (WS2812B). I believe the setup is complete as I can connect to the web interface and see sACN traffic in the diagnostic tab of the web interface coming from the source (Jinx!). I'm using GPIO2 (D4). What's not clear to me is whether there is some other hardware required to act as a driver for the LED matrix or whether I can directly drive it from GPIO2. Also is GPIO2 the correct IO port? I heard you mentioning that the port is different for pixel driving and serial DMX.
I have not run this on a nodemcu personally, I would think since it's the same chip that it still use GPIO2 as the pixel output pin. There shouldn't be any other hardware required, as long as the first pixel is within about a foot of wire from the output pin of the modemcu. Can you double check the start channels and number of universes in the espixelstick and in your DMX software?
Thanks. Checked over everything again and it was the wrong labelling on the LED matrix :) I plugged GPIO2 to DIN on the matrix. Turned out DIN was wrongly labelled as DOUT. So with that change all was good. Txs again!
@@meierthomas can't say I have ever seen that one before but will keep that in mind if I have that situation come up. Glad you got it up and running.
Yeah, happy it didn't damage anything. But still makes me wonder the other hardware thats shown e.g the ESPixelStick or the Renard. Are those solely needed for serial DMX as they have a MAX485 or similar chip or are there advantages for pixel driving as well?
@@meierthomas those are solely needed when you are using DXM devices. Pixels essentially auto address them selfs, DMX devices have to be manually addressed , pixels always use 3 channels, DXM can use anywhere from 1-253 channels per device. I forgot what the "language" pixels speak at but it's not typical RS485 like DMX is.
Hi, have you done this again recently? The github files have changed and now theres no ESPFlashTool. Any ideas? Thanks
I just pulled up the github, I was able to locate the ESPflashtool in the "dist" directory. ESPixelStick/dist/ESPSFlashTool.jar. Does this not show up for you?
@@builditbetter5610 Hi, thanks for replying. Yesterday i found that the ESPFlashtool was in the dist folder but whenever i tried to run it there were 3 errors, "no firmware located" and can't remember the other errors. What i did was to download an older version by clicking on "Releases" and downloaded it from this link github.com/forkineye/ESPixelStick/releases/tag/v3.1 thanks!
@@builditbetter5610 one more question, in order to use a dmx device such as a smoke machine or a moving head is it possible to do it without the Max485 module? Or i need the module? Thanks😁
i uploaded the firmware successfully to a lolin nodemcu, however i cant get it to connect it fails at log: "Connecting with DHCP" i tried with 2 different routers with differnt names and/or settings.
other devices ( raspery pie, phones,pc etc can connect to the wifi/wired network with no problems.
this issue has plagued my many attempts for pixel controllers (pro nano + lan , mega+ netword shield etc, all cant connect and fail during dhcp. what am i doing wrong.?
Connecting to SHOWAP as esps-08a787
Connecting with DHCP..............................
*** Failed to connect ***
*** Timeout - Reverting to default SSID ***
A couple things that I neglected to mention in the video.
The nodemcu and wemos can not connect to a 5G network, so make sure you are only running a 2.4G network. I always disable my 5G network.
The wireless security method has to be WPA-PSK, anything other then that like WEP and the microcontroller will not connect to the router or access point.
Most other devices like Raspbetty Pi's ad phones and laptops can use several types of wireless security but the wemos and nodemcu seem to be a bit finicky.
Give those 2 things a try and if your still can not get it to connect, let me know and we may be able to do a teamviewer or zoom session to see what else could be going on.
@@builditbetter5610 Ok so a update, using any open wifi was the issue. setting up wpa made it good.
after getting it to work i went ahead and purchased 10 more nodemcu boards and 22 more sets of pixel strands.
ua-cam.com/video/jDelWIsQMeE/v-deo.html
Thanks for the video! What pin on the Wemos do you use for the data to the pixels?
Pin D4 on the wemos mini and pin D8 on the big wemos.
@@builditbetter5610 thanks, I cant wait to try this when I get my pixels! This seems like the a good way to start out without having to buy into a more expensive controller up front.
@@Hermy21 i agree. In addition you are bypassing alot of the issues folks are having with data issues, flickering lights and comminication with the more expansive controllers. I plan to puy a video together detailing how my props are build and how quick it is to get them setup and taken down for the year.
@@builditbetter5610 Very good, I can't wait to see the next video. I plan on making a small display this year since I'm getting a late start, but next year it might get out of hand! haha!
@@Hermy21 it can get out of hand pretty quick for sure.
I would like to see a video of how you run power outside and waterproof the Wemo
I will try and put a video together showing how everything looks outside before i take everything down for the year. Thank you for recommending the idea.
how may lights can you put on one unit ?
680 pixels is the recommended max. You can go higher but you will start dropping frame rates.
@@moparguy2011 And a pixel contains 3 LEDs; i.e. RGB right?
@@meierthomas yes, each pixel has 3 Diodes (Red, Green and Blue) however you can run 680 pixels from your wemos. 680 pixels = 2,040 dmx channels which are 4 universes. 1 universe = 512 channels.
Could you put link for the small jumpers you have? Thanks in advance
I just linked them in the decription but if its not there yet, here it is.
www.amazon.com/DIYhz-Grabbers-Jumper-Electronic-Experiment/dp/B07FSCHQ1F/ref=sr_1_34?ie=UTF8&qid=1546402229&sr=8-34&keywords=smd+test+leads
So it’s says programming complete. Took jumpers off pushed the button it blinked once. But then nothing so I’m not getting a IP address?
@@goofy2be1 if you have arduino installed open the serial monitor and then unplug and plug back in the wemos. The firmware loading tools serial monitor dosent always pick up the comm port after installation.
Tried this to no avail. Granted I’ve never opened Arduino before. I just downloaded it. I opened what I think you mean. It’s says sketch_____|Arduino 1.8.8. Not sure I’m even close. 🙃
Build It Better I figured out my problem. I had the mini lite. Followed you link. Went smoothly for all 5. Thanks this video helped me out. Do you run power from a large power supply? Would like to find a small power supply to put in pipe with wemos. What show router do you use. You run several of these little controllers. I have a cheap router. Gonna buy one. Just wanna buy one that will work good. And hopefully not break the bank:)
would love to see how your tying grounds together?
I have bits and pieces of a video showing how each of my props are wired and a couple different configurations and which i use in certain scenarios, just gotta shoot a little more video and do all the editing.
I also working on what is in my opinion , to be a badass centralized power supply setup with temp ,current and voltage monitoring in a web UI that resides on the show network, you can access the status page like you would the web UI of the wemos. Stay tuned, i have some pretty cool stuff coming down the pipe.
Cool sounds great. Looking forward to it.
Anyone running into an issue retrieving the IP address after flashing? After removing the jumper and resetting in the serial output box I get a long random character code. I have tried it on 2 different pc's with the same result.
I have seen that happen on the wemos mini d1 pro. Usually after removing the jumper hold down the reset buttom for 5 seconds then let go and it populates an ip address. On occasion i habe had to close the flash tool, reopen it, select the comm port and then press the reset button. The serial monitor in the flash tool isent the greatest. I have better luck using the serial monitor in arduino IDE when the flash tool serial monitor acts up.
@@builditbetter5610 I am completely new to all of this, I have a lot of learning to do...lol. I tried the reset button for five seconds with the same result. I just downloaded Arduino IDE and will try it that way.
Just tried and it said "Arduino: 1.8.8 (Windows Store 1.8.19.0) (Windows 10), Board: "Arduino/Genuino Uno"
Board at null is not available
Board at null is not available
This report would have more information with
"Show verbose output during compilation"
option enabled in File -> Preferences.
@@timcopeland1942 i forgot you have to add the esp8266 board library's ro the arduino IDE, i always forget cause you only have to load it once. Can you take some screen shots of what you are seeing?
@@builditbetter5610 Ok, so under preferences I added this link arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.jso, and from what I read on the Arduino site, it says go to board manager and type in ESP8266 and install the board, but when I try there are no results.
It appears I may have ordered the wrong Wemos. I paused your video and compared and mine says WEMOS D1 mini Lite. It doesnt have the wifi chip on the back side. That may be my issue...lol