Next-Level Xmas Lights using xLights and WLED
The Hardware Controller This project all started when I got these super cheap lighting controllers off Amazon meant to be controlled through a mobile app. Popping them open, I found out that they were very simple printed circuit boards with an ESP8266 microcontroller and minimal circuitry. Digging around the user manual yielded a few reference to the mobile app, which was called "WLED". Funnily enough, WLED is also the name of an open-source project aimed at creating ESP32-driven lighting shows . Obviously, someone in China had considered this and build modules around that project. Interestingly, the OTA firmware flashing feature was still active, and that's how I set out to hack up a fun xmas lights show. I am Jack's dull lighting controller... Aww Yisss... an ESP8266!! Loading the latest WLED release inside the controller's memory (15.0), I was able to see a WiFi access point called WLED and connect to it using the default "wled1234" password. From th...
