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The Glossary provides plain-English definitions for every technical term used across WLED System Architect and the broader WLED ecosystem. If you encounter an unfamiliar term in any guide, calculator, or the WLED interface itself, look it up here.
Terms are organised into categories: Hardware (physical components and specifications), WLED (firmware-specific terms and UI elements), Wiring (electrical and installation terms), Chipset (LED driver IC terminology), and Safety (fusing, ratings, and protection). Filter by category to find related terms quickly.
For a specific term, use the alphabetical index or browser search (Ctrl+F / Cmd+F). All 43 terms are indexed alphabetically within their category sections.
The WLED ecosystem uses a mix of general electronics terminology, LED-specific terms, and WLED firmware concepts. This page defines all of them in plain English. The terms below are the ones that come up most frequently in discussions, guides, and forum posts — understanding them first will make the rest of the documentation much easier to follow.
AWG (American Wire Gauge): a standardised wire thickness measurement used throughout the WLED calculators. Lower AWG numbers mean thicker wire and more current capacity. 24AWG is common for data signal wires; 18AWG or 16AWG is used for power feeds carrying several amps. Ampacity is the maximum current a given wire gauge can safely carry continuously without overheating.
Voltage drop refers to the reduction in supply voltage that occurs along a wire or LED strip due to resistance. Ohm's Law (V = I × R) governs it: higher current and higher resistance both increase the drop. For 5V LED strips, a drop of more than 0.5V toward the far end causes visible colour inaccuracy and must be corrected with power injection.
An addressable LED (also called a smart pixel or digital LED) contains a built-in driver integrated circuit that accepts a serial digital signal and translates it into the correct current for each red, green, and blue sub-element. Each LED on an addressable strip can display a different colour simultaneously, enabling the animated effects that WLED is known for. Non-addressable (also called analogue or dumb) LED strips have no driver IC and display a single colour across the entire strip length.
A level shifter converts the 3.3V logic output of an ESP32 or ESP8266 microcontroller to the 5V logic level that most addressable LED strips expect on their data input pin. Without a level shifter, long data runs or high LED counts may cause intermittent signal errors. The SN74AHCT125 is the most commonly recommended level shifter for WLED builds.
A segment is a user-defined range of consecutive LEDs on a WLED output that can be assigned its own effect, colour, speed, and intensity settings, independently of other segments. This allows a single physical strip to simultaneously display different effects in different zones — for example, a fire effect on the left, a slow rainbow on the right.
A preset is a saved WLED configuration that records the current state of all segments, effects, colours, and brightness. Presets can be recalled instantly from the WLED interface, Home Assistant, or a physical button. A playlist is an automated sequence that cycles through multiple presets on a timer, useful for scheduled lighting changes throughout the day.
The chipset refers to the specific driver IC inside the LED (WS2812B, SK6812, APA102 etc.). The protocol refers to the communication standard the chipset uses to receive data from the controller. WS2812B and SK6812 use a single-wire timed protocol. APA102 and SK9822 use a two-wire SPI clock-and-data protocol. The protocol determines which GPIO pins you need on your controller and how you configure WLED.
RGB LEDs contain three sub-elements: red, green, and blue. Mixing these at full power produces white that has a slightly cool, sometimes purple-tinted appearance. RGBW LEDs add a fourth sub-element: a dedicated white LED (warm white, neutral white, or cool white depending on the variant). The dedicated white channel produces more accurate, brighter, and more natural white light than RGB mixing, and is more efficient because it uses a single element rather than three.