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PixDrive SD Card Expansion for WLED

Play PixDrive Studio shows from an SD card on your WLED controller – no computer required.

Updated

SD Manager in the WLED web interface showing storage usage and file list

Requirements

  • WLED controller with PixDrive firmware
  • SD card board (e.g. Zedfy ZW-SD + C012)
  • microSD card (formatted as FAT32)
  • .wled animation files (created with PixDrive Studio)

Source code of the WLED usermod

https://github.com/pixdrive/WLED/releases/tag/v0.15.5-pixdrive

Connecting the SD Card Board

Zedfy ZW-SD + C012

The Zedfy ZW-SD board is connected to the ESP32 via SPI. When used with the C012 controller, the GPIOs are already preconfigured:

Signal GPIO Description
CS 33 Chip Select
SCK 27 Clock
MISO 26 Data Out (SD → ESP)
MOSI 25 Data In (ESP → SD)

Other SD card boards

The GPIO assignment can be adjusted in the WLED settings:

  1. Open the WLED web interface
  2. Settings → Usermods
  3. Under SD Card, adjust the GPIO pins to match your own wiring
  4. Save and wait for the restart

Using the SD Card Manager

The PixDrive SD Card Manager is accessible via the browser:

http://<WLED-IP>/pixdrive

Uploading files

  1. Open /pixdrive in the browser
  2. Drag and drop a .wled file into the upload zone, or select a file via the button
  3. The file is automatically checked for integrity (CRC32)
  4. After a successful upload, the file appears in the file list

Managing files

The file list shows all .wled files on the SD card with the following information:

  • File name
  • File size
  • Number of LEDs and frames
  • FPS (frames per second)
  • RGB/RGBW mode

Files can be removed individually via the Delete button.

Using the PixDrive Effect

Playback of .wled animations is done via the WLED effect PixDrive.

Setup

  1. Open the WLED web interface
  2. Select or create a segment
  3. In the effect list, select the effect PixDrive
  4. In the segment name, enter the file path of the desired animation: /pixdrive/my_animation.wled
  5. The animation starts automatically

Multiple animations at once

Each WLED segment can play its own animation. This lets you drive multiple LED strips independently with different animations:

  1. Create a separate segment for each LED strip
  2. Assign the PixDrive effect to each segment
  3. Enter a different file path in each segment name

Controlling playback

The animation runs in an endless loop at the FPS rate stored in the .wled file. Via the WLED interface you can:

  • Speed: adjust playback speed
  • Brightness: control brightness
  • Toggle segment on/off → starts/stops playback