While I have been using WLED to control pixels for quite a while I have mainly used the built-in effects. However WLED does work with E1.31 (also called SCAN – Streaming Architecture for Control Networks) which lets you send DMX512 over an IP Network. E1.31 is a standardized implementation that improves on the Art-Net protocol.
Recently I started using WLED controlled pixels with some LED mapping software called ELM. ELM lets you map video, images or effects across the physical representation of your LEDs. The output can be controlled manually (via various inputs including DMX, MIDI, etc) or by an audio reactive mode. There are other LED mapping applications like MADRIX, MadMapper, LED Strip Studio that have similar features (and probably more) but ELM is quite a bit cheaper to get started with. Enttec (who make ELM) also sells Ethernet based pixel controllers and currently you get a free license for ELM if you purchase any of their controllers. Not a bad deal if you need a wired pixel controller.
To use e1.31 with your WLED controlled pixels you have to understand the concept of DMX channel and universe addressing when using a network connection..
A single DMX universe consists of 512 separate channels. This is what you get in a single wired DMX connection (it uses RS-485 signaling over twisted pair cabling). While 512 channels was a lot when using incandescent stage lighting it doesn’t go very far once you start using addressable pixels. Each pixel uses 3 DMX channels (one for the red value, one for the green value and one for the blue value) so a single DMX universe can only control 170 pixels (170 x 3 = 510). As you can see it uses 510 channels leaving 2 channels of the universe unused. So for WLED your first 170 pixels will use this first universe. WLED ignores the unused channels of this first universe and starts the next pixel (pixel 171) as channel 1 of the next universe. And it repeats as required for the number of pixels your WLED device is controlling.
In WLED you can configure the starting DMX universe (and the starting DMX channel) but then WLED automatically uses as many additional DMX universes as required ( in numerical sequence). This can get a bit confusing so it is best to determine all your DMX addressing ahead of configuring it. As an example let’s say you have WLED controlling 600 pixels. Assuming you set both the start universe and start channel to 1 then your E1.31 addressing would be as follows:
- DMX Universe 1 Channels 1 to 510 Pixels 1 to 170
- DMX Universe 2 Channels 1 to 510 Pixels 171 to 340
- DMX Universe 3 Channels 1 to 510 Pixels 341 to 510
- DMX Universe 4 Channels 1 to 180 Pixels 511 to 600
If you had a second WLED controlling another 600 pixels I would configure this second WLED controller to use 5 as the start universe and 1 as the start channel:
- DMX Universe 5 Channels 1 to 510 Pixels 601 to 770
- DMX Universe 6 Channels 1 to 510 Pixels 771 to 940
- DMX Universe 7 Channels 1 to 510 Pixels 941 to 1110
- DMX Universe 8 Channels 1 to 180 Pixels 1111 to 1200
E1.31 supports over 63,000 universes so no sense in trying to save a few channels (i.e. trying to make use of remaining channels in any universe).
For best results there are some general recommendations when using E1.31 with WLED:
- Don’t use more than 3 universes (510 pixels) on a ESP8266 based controller.
- Don`t use more than 3 universes (510 pixels) per output on a ESP32 based controller.
- Disable sleep when using a ESP32 (this is in the Wi-Fi settings)
- Don’t use WLED in the AP mode
- Don’t send E1.31 data from multiple sources to a single WLED controller
- Don’t keep the web GUI open when sending E1.31 data
For more information on the various E1.31 & Art-Net setting in WLED check out this support page: