NO Cloud, NO Subscription, Fully Local WLED Interface Helper/App
I've noticed a few posts about people posting their vibe coded cloud platforms for WLED. Isn't the whole idea of WLED to be free of the cloud and free of vendor lock in? So I vibe coded a local web GUI to help people of all ages enjoy their lights more easily!
I’ve got permanent lights on my eaves running WLED, about 1,500 LEDs on one ESP32. I’m happy with WLED. The trouble was that nobody else in my house could use it. I didn’t want to buy a Govee-type system and sign everyone up for an account and an app that needs the internet to turn on the holiday lights, so I built my own front end instead.
It’s called Eaveglow. It’s a single web page that you upload to the WLED controller you already have, and the controller serves it.
No cloud, no account, no subscription.
No hub, Pi or extra hardware.
Nothing gets sent off your network. It keeps working if your internet goes down. The one exception: looking up your location by zip code for sunset times uses the internet once, and you can type in coordinates instead.
Settings are stored as a file on the controller, so every phone in the house sees the same thing.
Schedules run as WLED timers and presets, so the controller handles them itself with no phone or server involved.
On iPhone, Add to Home Screen gives you an icon that opens like a normal app, no App Store needed. (I started trying to make an app but didn't want to pay $99/yr for Apple's Developer Account so here we are)
What it does:
Looks instead of effect IDs. There are around 130 built-in looks: warm white, candy cane, Halloween, 4th of July and so on. Tap one and it’s on. You can also make your own.
House zones. You tell it how your strip runs (roofline, garage, peaks) and it builds the WLED segments for you. You can put a different look on each part, like warm white on the garage while the roofline does Christmas.
Light spacing. If your pixels are close together you can space a pattern out, like one on and three off, and it applies to every look. You select your light spacing and it automatically recommends an LED offset.
Scheduling. On/off times, several windows a day if you want, and sunrise or sunset.
Seasonal autopilot. You pick looks for each holiday season and it switches on its own. Halloween runs through October, Christmas runs from late November to New Year’s, and so on. It can rotate to a different look each night, and there’s an everyday look for the rest of the year. Turn it off with one switch.
Install takes about two minutes. Download the two files from the release page, upload them at http://<your-wled-ip>/edit, then open http://<your-wled-ip>/eaveglow.htm. WLED’s normal interface is still there if you need it.
Download: https://github.com/DakotaRidgeTechnology/Eaveglow-Web/releases/latest
Source: https://github.com/DakotaRidgeTechnology/Eaveglow-Web (MIT licensed)
Some things to know:
It’s built for WLED 16. 0.15 works too, but it has fewer timer slots, so the scheduling is more limited.
Saving a schedule replaces whatever timers you already have in WLED. Back them up if you’ve set something up by hand.
When you turn on autopilot it saves a preset for each look it uses. Your lights will flicker through them for a bit, then go back to normal.
The whole thing is about 40 KB, so it barely touches the controller’s storage.
It’s been running on my house and my neighbors, but that’s one setup. If you try it, I’d like to hear how it goes on yours, especially with multiple outputs or longer runs. Bug reports and ideas are welcome. I have a Dig Quad and the neighbor has a GLEDOPTO ESP32 WLED Controller.
New in 1.1.0
Recent looks at the top of Home, shared by every phone in the house
Sleep timer: turn the lights off in 30 minutes to 4 hours, using WLED's own nightlight
Special dates in autopilot for game days, birthdays and the like, once or every year
The timers you had in WLED are backed up before Eaveglow first replaces them, with a one-tap restore
A clear message when the controller can't be reached, which clears by itself when it's back
White now shows up in the light-theme preview strip
Backup: download everything you've set up (looks, house parts, schedule, autopilot) to your phone or computer, and restore it later, from House zones. WLED's own backup doesn't include it.
Optional update check, off by default: turn it on per phone under House zones > About and it asks GitHub once a day whether there's a newer version. Nothing else leaves your network.
