GLEDOPTO ESP32 WLED LED Controller with Mic Microphone UART Download DIY Music Sound Dynamic Lighting Modes for WS2811 WS2812 SK6812 WS2813 WS2815 Addressable FCOB LED Strip Lights

To date I have custom built my own hardware to control addressable led strips using ESP32 boards. This products makes it simpler to setup new strips and while the case may be less visually appealing than my custom solutions, it is indeed much easier to get to a working led strip. While I am not a fan of the WLED UI, I am confident it will get better of time given it is now part of the Home Assistant family (Open Home Foundation). In case it is not clear to some, "UART" refers to the fact that there is a micro USB port inside the case to make it easier to flash the ESP32 with WLED, ESPHome, or other. I have not traced the pin holes but I am guessing those can be used to extend functionality as they will likely head back to the GPIOs on the ESP32. One thing I noticed is that the ESP32 is only held up by flexible pins on the left. There are 3 non isolated caps under the board so if you push down it can easily make contact. I can't see if there is any risk of shorts in the event this is installed somewhere with lots of vibration but it is easy to put a small piece of double sided sticky tape to prevent the risk entirely.

A turnkey solution to power and control an RGB lamp or a small run of LED strips. Great for beginners just starting with home automation. WLED comes preinstalled. The interface is easy to setup and connect to Home Assistant. I was a little confused by the wire connectors because I thought they were screws, but actually they just needed to be pressed to connect each wire. I bought four of them to control RGB LED floor lamps throughout my house. After cutting off the factory controllers, I was able to connect the wires to these units. I can now control all my lamps through Home Assistant. Now I’m thinking of more projects I can use these for.

Good quality

I have been building WLED controllers myself for years using the ESP8266 NddeMCU. But seeing that device is built from the ESP32, which is a better MCU, and the price has come down to a point where building them has little cost savings, I decided to try one of them. I ended up buying a few more. The Pros: (1) Built from ESP32, which will provide better processing power and better Wifi reception (2) Dual channel - I can run two strips off of one of these controllers for up to 10A (3) It can handle audioreactive with built-in digital mic to sync your music to your lights (4) The prices is very reasonable now (5) The push connection is a plus for me - no needs for soldering. So far all of the controllers I purchased work but time will tell how long these things last. Overall, I'm satisfied with this purchase, and it is a recommendation from me. Note: I don't know why I found some negative reviews about bluetooth not working. This device is a Wifi device, not Bluetooth.

Works great! Items I used for testing, that are not included with this controller: 5 VDC Power Supply: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078RT3ZPS ARGB LED string: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FFN62QSJ

Our pool has overhead 12v WS2811 lights that area each about 1ft of wiring apart. When I first tried connecting these controllers to them, I only got the first 4-8 LEDs to light up, and no controls would work to turn them on/off or to change the color, despite my settings being correct. I hooked one up to an oscilloscope and afterwards took it apart and found the issue. It does not appear to be a production defect, it is a design defect, so any of these you order will have the same problem. Oh, and to make things worse, one of mine stopped working completely after being connected to power for a couple minutes. The ESP32 outputs 3.3v logic signals, but the 12v WS2811s need 5v signals. So you need a logic level shifter circuit. These implement such a circuit using an N-channel mosfet, which would be fine, except you need a 5v reference. There are two voltage regulators on the board, however the one that should be 5v has the wrong configuration resistors, and only outputs 3.5v, meaning the logic level shift circuit cannot "boost" the signal to 5v. Hopefully this helps anyone looking to buy these, as well as the manufacturer so this issue can be fixed. These might be able to work with 12v WS2811s if the wiring distances are extremely short, otherwise the 3v logic output will not be enough to drive those chips, so you may want to look elsewhere.

Don’t be fooled by the photo. The wire connections are NOT screw terminals, although they look like they are. They are springs where you push the "screw" with something small, then push a wire in, and then release the spring. They are not nearly as secure as screw terminals. Other than that, the unit works as you would expect. It runs WLED as well as any other ESP32. I would have returned this because I don’t think the springs are as good as screws, but this is used in a test environment. I will use a different controller in a production environment. Minus TWO stars because I think this is intentionally deceptive. To their credit, this company seems to be using better terminals in their other newer products.

nice unit for good price when on sale. two points i didn't see mentioned in other reviews: 1) it can be surface mounted with screws using an alternative bottom case you can print on your 3d printer. search for Gledopto LED controller - alternativ bottom for screws on thingiverse. 2) firmware updates are super easy. the stock wled builds from github just work. i'm running wled 15.1 which is latest available at this time - download file WLED_0.15.1_ESP32.bin.

I'm using this on my boat. Am running about 15m of 2815 strips at 12V. I've tried it also with 24V strips. No issues with it at all. The audio component is why I bought this and I find its average. It uses a digital mic and you need to be careful if you do a factory reset as it will rewrite all the settings for the digital mic. I've posted the proper settings here if you need to restore it. The audio react seems a touch sluggish, but works. I think that's more a WLED thing than a gledopto thing.