*** If your Controller has connected in the past but is no longer connecting, it is possible your home router issued a new IP Address for the controller board, if this is the case, you can go into WLED and delete the current item by hitting the trash can and then selecting the offline controller. Then rescan to see if it can pull in the new IP Address. We strongly recommend setting up DHCP Reservation in your router so that the IP Address never changes (You will need to google your routers brand and model number to get instructions on how to do this. ***
If you are having issues with setting up WLED, follow the steps in this article. It will cover issues such as not being able to discover your lights, not being able to connect to your Wi-Fi, etc.
First, verify you have power to the controller:
- Verify the blue LED on the outside of your box is luminated (if using a DIY kit).
- Verify the orange LED on the controller board is illuminated.
If there is no power to either the controller box or board, then first follow our other troubleshooting articles and videos by checking the links below.
You may need to access your Wi-Fi router settings for some of these troubleshooting steps. There are hundreds of different routers out there, all with slightly different terminology and settings. Don’t be afraid to google your router make and model to find what you are looking for, or if you can ask a family member for help.
After the initial setup, the ShawLED controller attempts to connect to your home’s wifi network. Open the WLED app on your phone and click “Discover Lights”. The app should discover your lights, as long as it has connected properly. If the app cannot discover your lights, complete the following steps to troubleshoot the issue:
- Reboot the controller (unplug the power and plug it back in) and wait 10 minutes. Attempt to discover the lights again on the WLED app. If your lights are still not found, check if the “WLED-AP” Wi-Fi access point is still visible on your phone’s available Wi-Fi networks. It can take up to 10 minutes for the “WLED-AP” access point to show up. It attempts to connect to the configuration that you selected during the original setup.
- Second, Confirm that both the ShawLED controller and your phone are connected to the same Wi-Fi network. If you are not connected to the same network, you cannot access the controller box with the WLED app.
The following steps you will need to be able to access and log into your router. Either by using an App or by typing the router’s IP Address into a web browser. You may have to google the name of your router to get exact instructions on how to log into it.
- Double check that you typed the correct network SSID and password into your phone. Some phones add spaces or capitalize letters. Remove any spaces or special characters in the SSID. This is good to do as putting special characters in your SSID can create problems for devices accessing your network. While these characters can be cute, it is smart to stay away from using them in the name.
- Verify that you are connected to a Wi-Fi network with a 2.4 gighertz band. If your router has both 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz bands, ensure that they have different SSIDs. The LED controller cannot connect to a router that has the 2.4 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz bands combined into one SSID.
- Make sure that you are not connected to a guest Wi-Fi network. Guess networks do not allow devices to talk to each other, preventing you from accessing the controller.
- Verify that Wi-Fi/AP Isolation is not turned on in your router settings. AP Isolation also does not allow devices to talk to each other. This setting is found on some routers and needs to be disabled, if present.
- Access the IP address of the controller in your router settings. If you can get the IP address, you can add it manually into the WLED app instead of clicking “Discover Lights”. We have found if the App Crashes while searching for lights that this method will work (WLED is aware of this issue). Additionally, you can type the controller’s IP address into the URL bar of a browser on a computer or tablet, allowing you to access the controller.
- Set the router Wi-Fi control channel to 11. This allows busier Wi-Fi networks to have a different channel than default or auto. We also recommend setting the router bandwidth to 20.
- As a final step, reboot your Wi-Fi router. Wait several minutes, and then reboot your ShawLED controller as well.
If none of these suggestions have worked, a good option is to get a separate Access Point that is dedicated to your controller lights. We recommend the NETGEAR WAC104 Access Point as it has been tested with our controller and works perfectly. This second Wi-Fi access point will need to be plugged into your home’s router with an ethernet cable. Once you set this up, you can make the SSID invisible so that everyone else in your home will still use your main Wi-Fi Network.