Skip to content

WLED-MM — monthly activity digest

What landed on WLED-MM's mdev (default) branch, month by month. External-context reference — a factual log of a friend repo's releases, not projectMM's own history or roadmap. Newest month on top. The reusable prompt that generates these lives in README.md. Months are split at versioned-release boundaries (the rolling nightly tag is not a release).

June 2026

Summarised from 38 commits on mdev, 2026-06-01 … 2026-06-25 (no versioned release cut this month, so the month is not split; the nightly prerelease is not a release).

New - Waveshare ESP32-S3 Matrix Driver board profile added. - Audio-reactive is now an out-of-tree usermod (pulled in as a dependency) rather than baked into the tree — no user-facing change to how it works, but a cleaner build.

Fixed - Output settings no longer revert to defaults after a reboot (regression in 14.7.2 nightly, reported on ESP32-D0WDQ5 and ESP32-S3; issue #367). - LEDs no longer flicker on startup and during GIF playback. - Custom palettes reload immediately after you upload a palette file (previously needed a manual refresh; relates to long-standing issue #105). - Fixed esp32dev_compat firmware build failing (issue #371) and a broken -D WLEDMM build flag. - ArtiFX (ARTI effect engine) robustness: call-stack bounds checks, safer string/lexer handling, and fixes for glitches seen only in speed-optimised builds (relates to issue #295); ARTI status now shown in the Info panel. - Upstream compatibility: accepts I2CSDAPIN/I2CSCLPIN as alternatives to the older I2C pin defines; fixed the arduinoFFT dependency; brown-out restart info now checked on both cores.

Auditability: 38 commits on mdev, author-date 2026-06-01..2026-06-30 (range 84669c3 … 70fe1b8; several are CHANGELOG/version-bump/CodeRabbit-config/internal-refactor commits, omitted as not user-facing). Issues checked: created 2026-06-01..2026-06-30 and closed 2026-06-01..2026-06-30 — 4 relevant surfaced (#367, #371 fixed this month; #105, #295 long-standing, closed/addressed this month).

May 2026

Summarised from 34 first-parent commits on mdev, 2026-05-01 … 2026-05-30.

  • Ethernet board support: added QuinLED v4 Ethernet profiles, a legacy Olimex ETH-Gateway option, and fixed the KIT-VE PHY address. Breaking: a duplicate Ethernet option was removed — re-select your board if you used the previous Olimex-ESP32-Gateway entry.
  • Audio-reactive auto-disables during DDP / DMX / Art-Net input (avoids the two fighting over the LEDs).
  • Persistent on-screen error display when a restart is needed (errors no longer scroll away unseen); Improv and MQTT input hardened against malformed data.
  • Web UI accessibility improvements.

April 2026

Summarised from 47 first-parent commits on mdev, 2026-04-01 … 2026-04-30.

  • DDP input hardened — rejects malformed / unsupported / "control" packets, relaxed header checks for compatibility.
  • Robustness: recovers gracefully from an empty {} config file (cfg.json / wsec.json) instead of misbehaving; steadier serial on ESP32; ESP8266 build fixes.
  • Otherwise a documentation / AI-contributor-guideline month (little user-facing).

March 2026

Summarised from 43 first-parent commits on mdev, 2026-03-01 … 2026-03-31.

New / effects

  • New Color Clouds smooth effect; Flow effect fixed so the start/end of a segment flows correctly; Spots effect fixes.
  • ESP-NOW remote gains 3 more buttons.
  • Info page shows total LEDs, PSRAM size, GitHub repo, with restyling.

Fixed

  • APA102 crash on classic ESP32 with PSRAM; a segment-index misalignment bug; ESP8266 flickering during file writes; default mic-level method changed from "floating" to "freeze".

February 2026

Summarised from 42 first-parent commits on mdev, 2026-02-01 … 2026-02-28.

  • Memory / "Heap too low" work: moved the WS-LED preview buffer into PSRAM, PSRAM-aware allocation, reduced JSON buffers on S3-without-PSRAM — fewer out-of-memory failures on tight boards.
  • Board support: ESP32-S3 QSPI build, builds without the HUB75 driver (4 MB / 16 MB variants), better handling of ESP32 PICO-D2/V3 and D0WDR2-V3 (frees GPIO17), startup serial now prints HUB75 pins + full chip revision.
  • Audio: disabled broken I2S 16-bit sampling; fixed Ethernet errors when using I2S audio.
  • Spots effect fixes; fixed a short black-out when a playlist advances.

January 2026 (post-v14.7.1)

Summarised from 48 first-parent commits on mdev, 2026-01-13 (after v14.7.1) … 2026-01-31.

  • Animartrix overhauled — optional gamma correction, always paints in 2D, big math speedups, dependency upgrade, and several bugfixes (segment-option changes now respected).
  • New ESP32 node types for ESP-NOW (WizMote data); Philips Hue robustness; PixelForge GIF tool gains image rotation.
  • Fixed: DMX-output now rate-limited to prevent watchdog resets; "relay does not turn on" sporadic issue; stack-smashing crash risk from notify(); better 2D preview colour accuracy and PS Fireworks trails.
  • New V4 build environments incl. esp32_16MB_V4_M_eth (16 MB ESP32 with Ethernet); IR re-enabled for the Athom Music build.

January 2026 (up to v14.7.1)

Summarised from 32 first-parent commits on mdev, 2026-01-01 … 2026-01-13 — released as v14.7.1.

  • Release v14.7.1.
  • Random per-LED colours via the JSON API ("col":["r","r","r"]); manual/dual auto-white modes work with palettes; segment-palette functions inlined for speed.
  • PixelForge effect adjustments; GIFs no longer blurred by default; the Colors column stays visible when toggling the GFX button.
  • Fixed: preset/file-access glitches, status-LED stops blinking; clearer "Connection to light failed!" message; Info page shows the GitHub repo, build flags, and status-LED pin.

December 2025

Summarised from 48 first-parent commits on mdev, 2025-12-01 … 2025-12-31.

New / effects

  • Several new and improved effects: Shimmer (new), Color Clouds groundwork, fixed "Flow Stripe" + palette support, refactored Android FX, DistortionWave update, Twinklecat reverse option, Soap effect ~3× faster, general effect-math speedups up to 3×.
  • More segment data / no effect-data limits on PSRAM boards; Perlin noise now uses FastLED's inoise16.

Fixed

  • ledmap parser robustness (no longer discards ledmap.json too early); FX checkmark sync; 2D matrix-generator preview update; a UI TypeError with a custom palette selected; random trail flickering.

November 2025

Summarised from 100 first-parent commits on mdev, 2025-11-01 … 2025-11-30.

New

  • DDP over WebSocket added; improved 1D support for GIF images with a blur option; image-effect flicker fixer for WS2812b on RMT.
  • UCS chipset and bus handling improvements; faster map(), inline gamma correction, HUB75 / 2D drawPixel speedups.
  • Audio-reactive UDP sync improved.

Board / build

  • Large reorganisation of the MoonModules build environments: larger program partition for Ethernet builds, 32 MB-flash (WROOM-2) and Adafruit board partition files, moved C3/S2 builds to the Tasmota platform, revived a "legacy V3" ESP32 build, fixed S3-without-PSRAM builds. ESP8266 GIF player removed (too little RAM).

Fixed

  • Reboot loop on V3 "legacy" builds; AP-not-showing (default channel → 6); device-fingerprint / deviceId crashes; buffer-bounds and concurrency precautions; LED glitches during file writing.

October 2025

Summarised from 28 first-parent commits on mdev, 2025-10-01 … 2025-10-31.

New / effects

  • ParticleFX better defaults for 64-px-height matrices and a framebuffer memory-calc fix; HUB75 drops colour-temperature correction for performance.
  • WLED-MM-specific error effect instead of the plain orange flash on effect-memory failure; low-brightness gradient "jumpyness" fixed.

Fixed

  • Random corruption of presets.json; IR JSON decode buffer overrun (#272, rotary usermod); PSRAM caching bug. Updated AsyncTCP / AsyncWebServer (3.4.7).

September 2025

Summarised from 3 first-parent commits on mdev, 2025-09-01 … 2025-09-30.

  • Quiet month on mdev — build instructions, npm ci for dependencies, and GitHub Copilot contributor instructions. Nothing user-facing.