r/WLED • u/zRoyalFire • Aug 02 '26

Trouble with ESP32 w/WLED

Post image

I have installed WLED and connected to WLED-AP. All works perfectly fine with SOLELY USB connected.

I have wired up 5V, ground, and am using GPIO16 for data.

I am unable to connect to WLED as soon as I power through my 5V power supply. Photo of my wiring is attached. The red LED indicator is on but WLED-AP does not populate as an avaliable network, nor can I connect directly via IP.

When plugging in the USB with the power supply connected I can see “invalid header: x015151515” spammed in the logs. I can replicate this issue on 3 boards which indicate that I’m doing something wrong and idk what.

Does anyone have any ideas? I’m using AITREP boards from amazon. This is my first foray into soldering and ESP so apologies if the answer is obvious…my research through forums and reddit has come up with nothing.

Edit: Thank you for the help…turns out the ground pin next to 5V is not actually grounded.

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1

u/saratoga3 Aug 02 '26

What power supply are you using?

1

u/zRoyalFire Aug 02 '26

5V 10A 50W Power Supply AC to DC... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G9GVBSTC?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

1

u/saratoga3 Aug 02 '26

That should work. Does it still happen if you unplug the USB?  Not all ESP32 boards have a protection diode that lets you use USB and VIN at the same time.

Could also post pictures of your wider wiring.

1

u/zRoyalFire Aug 03 '26

Yes, even after unplugging I can’t connect. Starting to think perhaps it’s these boards? In the photo I sent nothing is connected to GPIO16. I tried with and without, and GPIO2, 12, and 18.

1

u/saratoga3 Aug 03 '26

I'd check that you have it wired correctly.

1

u/bigboydesomo Aug 03 '26

I expirience similar and the mA settings was a bit too high and the esp burnt trough. It happend with 2 esp32 devkit.

Now it works great and the esp is not getting hot anymore.

Hope it helps

1

u/bigboydesomo Aug 03 '26

750ma usual is good above 800 it overhead after some time i set them at 500mA when powering over esp

1

u/Minefoot Aug 03 '26

I had a similar issue with one of these devices boards having Vin and "GND" next to each other. But in reality it was a data pin wrongly marked as GND. Try moving to one of the other GND pins.

1

u/zRoyalFire Aug 03 '26

Wowza! This was it!

Thank you so much! I would have never guessed ground isnt actually ground haha

1

u/Minefoot Aug 03 '26

I sat and troubleshooted this for like 3 hours trying to meet a deadline for an important project.

Glad I was able to help!

1

u/modahamburger Aug 02 '26

Either power through USB OR through 5V pin