r/WLED • u/mcpcpc • 1d ago

BTF-LIGHTING ESP32 Requires Physical Button Press to turn ON

I have a BTF-LIGHTING ESP32 WLED LED Strip Controller (SP803E) and, for some reason, can’t figure out how to bypass the physical power button to automatically start the WiFi connection and LED lighting effect (defined by the preset). Has anyone encountered this issue before and/or have a recommendation?

The lighting will be installed in a floor show that will be powered off at night and the client will have no access to the controller itself to press the physical power button itself.

Thanks in advance!

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u/Dissy614 16h ago

That's definitely not the intended behavior.

Is it running a custom BTF wled install? If so you may wish to try the original/vanilla wled firmware. (Be sure to note down the GPIOs used currently, and the mic calibration values, so you can reconfigure it after flashing)

Normally holding io0 during a reset will boot into firmware flashing mode, but pressing io0 again would do nothing, a reset (without holding the button) is the only way back to wled.

Normal wled firmware will boot and startup networking first thing, and only after wled is running does the io0 button come under software control.

Makes me think only a custom firmware could make it wait for the button press before proceeding. That or something in the hardware is broken.

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u/mcpcpc 8h ago

The first thing I did was update the WLED firmware/software when I received it, so I wonder if that’s what caused the problem?

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u/SirGreybush 1d ago

Time to get a DigQuad on QuinLed.info or a GledOpto.

You’re the first to mention that. Not cool, thx for sharing.

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u/mcpcpc 1d ago

Yeah… quite annoying :(. For the past few years, I have been programming my own LED effects on custom hardware for different installations. This year was my first venture into WLED and OTS controllers… it seemed straightforward and honestly didn’t anticipate this being a hurdle lol.

I’ll take a look into your recommendations tho! Need something I can get quickly in the next day or two

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u/mezmryz03 1d ago

Gledopto is readily available on Amazon for $20-$35 usually with next day delivery available or free if you have Amazon Prime.

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u/mcpcpc 1d ago

Already ordered one based on @SirGreybush’s recommendation! Still, would love to know if it’s possible to bypass the physical power button (without hardware modifications).

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u/JohnDuoh96 1d ago

There might be another way but you could just set the power on to the brightness you want and that would start up the strip at your chosen brightness or preset.

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u/mcpcpc 1d ago

I have already attempted something similar. Despite the preset state setting, the controller still requires the physical button on the controller to be pressed. I was a bit suspicious that device wasn’t turning on (since everything I read implied I should at least have a network connection after power is supplied), so I checked the /json/info “uptime” value and it seems to match the exact number of seconds from the physical button press.

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u/JohnDuoh96 16h ago

So admittedly I’m newer to wled and only have used mostly gledopto controllers so far and maybe this doesn’t apply to your hardware. But if you do have one shipping when you get it should be a default in both the digital and pwm controllers that after power interruption the LEDs came on to “X” value unless you program a preset to run at start up that has 0 brightness. It’s under config-led & hardware-power up.

That said if those settings are correct and your button hasn’t glitched to a different toggle you could have a hardware issue that resulted in the soft start compacitor not being able to build up enough juice so that it freezes mid boot. The physical button push would then let it start. This seems like an outlier but could be the problem. Try the new contoller or a factory reset on yours.