Add Light Effects to Your RGB Module¶

Out of the box, your RGB module turns on, turns off, and changes color. ESPHome ships a library of built-in light effects (rainbow cycles, color wipes, flickers, and more) that you can drop in with a couple of lines of YAML. This tutorial adds two effects to get you started.

Before you start

Work through these pages first. This tutorial assumes your device is flashed and has an addressable RGB light component already configured (either the Onboard RGB LED or the RGB LEDs from the LED & Buzzer module):

First Steps to create your starter kit device in ESPHome Device Builder.
Adding the LED & Buzzer Module if you're using the LED & Buzzer module.

Add the effects¶

Open your starter kit device in ESPHome Device Builder and click Edit.
In the editor's left pane, scroll to Components and click the RGB light you want to add effects to (either Onboard RGB LED or RGB LEDs).
Toggle on Show advanced settings, then scroll down to the Effects field.
Paste the following into the Effects field:
```
- addressable_rainbow:
- addressable_color_wipe:
```
This adds two effects to the light: a continuously cycling rainbow and a sweeping color wipe.

Browse more effects

ESPHome's full effect library lives at esphome.io/components/light. Open it in a new tab and pick anything you want to try.

The starter kit RGB modules are addressable lights (each LED can be controlled individually), so look for effect names that start with addressable_. Non-addressable effects like pulse or strobe will not apply.

Install the firmware¶

The effects are saved in Device Builder, but the device is still running its old firmware. Compile and install the new code to push the change.

Click Save in the bottom right of the editor.
Click Install, then pick On the Network to push the new firmware over Wi-Fi.
Wait for the compile and flash to finish. The device reboots once the install is done.

Try the effects¶

With the device back online, open the local web page at http://esphome-starter-kit.local/ (or whatever you named your device) in a browser on the same Wi-Fi network. Find the RGB light entity and pick Rainbow or Color Wipe from the Effect dropdown. The LEDs start animating right away.

If you've already followed Connect to Home Assistant, the same Effect dropdown shows up on the light entity card in Home Assistant.

You just edited YAML!

Every component you add to your device has a set of advanced fields like this one. Pasting a few lines into the right field is all it takes to unlock more behavior, and the YAML pane on the right of the editor will show you exactly what changed.