Installation and Setup

LedFx is a network controller that aims to enable synchronization of multiple lights across a network. To be able to add your LED strips to LedFx your device needs to be capable of receiving data via one of the supported protocols. See below for a list of tested ESP8266 firmware that can be used with LedFx.

Here is everything you need to get started with LedFx:

  1. A Computer (or Raspberry Pi) with Python >= 3.9

  2. An E1.31 capable device with addressable LEDs connected

Here is a list of tested ESP8266 firmware that works with LedFx:

Windows Installation

To get started on Windows the easiest option is to download the latest release.

There is no installation required, the application is portable.

Linux Installation

To install on Linux first ensure you have at least Python 3.9 installed.

  1. Install LedFx and all the dependencies using pipx:

    $ python -m pip install ledfx

  2. Run LedFx!

    $ ledfx

macOS Installation

To install on macOS first ensure you have at least Python 3.9 installed.

  1. Install LedFx and all the dependencies using homebrew and pip:

    $ brew install portaudio
$ python3 -m pip install ledfx

  2. Alternatively, install LedFx in a python venv:

    $ python3 -m venv ~/ledfx-venv
$ source ~/ledfx-venv/bin/activate
$ python -m pip install -U pip setuptools wheel
$ python -m pip install ledfx

  3. Launch LedFx with the open-ui option to launch the browser:

    $ ledfx --open-ui

macOS Installation (Apple Silicon)

To install on macOS (Apple Silicon) first ensure you have at least Python 3.9 installed.

  1. Install LedFx and all the dependencies using homebrew in a python venv:

    $ brew install python@3.9
$ brew install portaudio --HEAD
$ brew install virtualenv
$ virtualenv -p python3.9 ~/ledfx-venv
$ source ~/ledfx-venv/bin/activate
$ pip install --force-reinstall ledfx

  2. If you get a numpy/aubio error please do the following:

    $ pip uninstall numpy aubio
$ pip install numpy --no-cache-dir
$ pip install aubio --no-cache-dir

  3. Launch LedFx with the open-ui option to launch the browser:

    $ ledfx --open-ui

Raspberry Pi Installation

Warning

This installation method is still in development. Use at your discretion.

Note

To use LedFx on a pi you will need a USB audio card.

Verify you have Python 3.9 or greater by running python3 --version

1. Modify /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf:

We need to change the default audio card from the built-in hardware on the pi to the USB audio card in use.

$ sudo nano /usr/share/alsa/alsa.conf

Look for the following lines and change them accordingly:

FROM:

defaults.ctl.card 0
defaults.pcm.card 0

TO:

defaults.ctl.card 1
defaults.pcm.card 1

2. Install LedFx and all the dependencies using our LedFx Bash Install Script:

$ curl -sSL https://install.ledfx.app/ | bash

Device Firmware

Please visit one of the following links to obtain firmware for your ESP8266/ESP32 device that works with LedFx.