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Add GIFs to Your M-1

Find a GIF you like first. Giphy is an easy place to start, and the dancing cat below works as a test.

Animated GIF of a black and white cat standing upright and dancing

Getting it onto the matrix depends on your firmware. WLED converts and resizes on the device, WLED-MM needs an external tool first.

Pixel Forge handles the whole job on the device. Upload your GIF, frame it, set the size, and it lands in the effects list ready to run. No external resizing and no manual file upload.

Add a GIF with Pixel Forge

Make sure you are on version 14.5.1 or newer!

WLED-MM (WLED MoonModules) firmware version 14.5.1 or higher is required for this! If you need to re-flash your device follow our step by step guide here!

1. Download your gif - if it is already using a 64x64 width and height then you can skip to step 5. Click on the gif you want and then click Download.

2. Head to ezgif.com and click Resize then click Browse and choose your gif then click Upload!

ezgif.com Resize page: clicking Browse, choosing the dancing cat GIF, and clicking Upload

3. Set the Width to 64 and the Height to 64 then click Resize image then scroll down to the Resized Image: section and click the Save icon.

ezgif.com resize settings at 64 by 64, Resize image clicked, then the Save icon on the result

4. Rename the gif to something simple such as cat-dance. We will need to input the name as-is in a future step so renaming it to a simple name is best!

Renaming the resized GIF file to cat-dance in File Explorer

5. Open a web browser and navigate to http://<your-m1-ip-address> or http://<your-device-name>.local.

If you need help figuring out your hostname you can edit it from the WLED Wi-Fi settings

You can use an app like "wled-native" on iOS to auto-discover your WLED devices and then go into Wi-Fi settings to see your IP and hostname! Here's a step-by-step guide.

6. Click Config, then scroll down and click File System then click Browse and select the resized and renamed gif we just created then click Save.

WLED Config, File System, then browsing to the cat-dance GIF and uploading it to the M-1

7. Click the back button on your browser and navigate back to the main page of the M-1 WLED interface. Click in the search bar and type in image and select it.

Typing image in the WLED Effect mode search and selecting the Image effect

8. Click the arrow next to Segment 0 and then click the pencil icon to edit the name. Type in the name exactly as you did in step 4 above such as cat-dance.gif

Renaming Segment 0 to cat-dance.gif in WLED so the M-1 plays the GIF

9. Click on + Preset and write in any name you want such as Cat Dance then click Save.

Clicking + Preset in WLED, naming it Cat Dance, and saving it as preset 1

10. To have the M-1 boot straight into this gif, head to Config then LED Preferences and scroll down until you see Apply Preset and put in your preset number for the effect you just made. If this is your first one then put in 1 and then click Save.

WLED LED Preferences with the Apply preset at boot field set, then saving

Use a browser, not the WLED phone app

The app's file picker grays out image files, so uploading a GIF from it does not work. That is a bug in the app rather than anything on the M-1. Open the device in any browser instead.

GIFs live on the M-1 itself and the space is limited. Delete images you are not using from Config, then File System.