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Brightness min/max range setting

Open flo269 opened this issue 4 weeks ago • 3 comments

Hi there,

I'm using WLED Sync to synchronize several instances with different lighting characteristics — some are direct lights, others are indirect. Due to their placement, amount of leds and how the light is perceived, they appear differently bright at the same brightness value.

I'd like to compensate for this so they look more balanced when dimming together.

Describe the solution you'd like

WLED already has "Brightness Factor" which effectively sets a maximum brightness limit. I'd like a complementary minimum brightness setting.

Together, min and max would define a brightness range that all inputs (sync, API, slider) get remapped to. For example, with min=75 and max=200, the usable brightness range becomes ~30–80%.

This would allow adjusting individual instances to compensate for perceived brightness differences.

Describe alternatives you've considered

  • Disabling "Receive brightness" — loses dimming entirely
  • External remapping via Home Assistant automation — adds complexity and latency
  • Hardware solution (resistors/different LEDs) — inflexible

Thanks for considering this, and thanks for all the great work on WLED!

flo269 avatar Dec 01 '25 19:12 flo269

not really clear what you mean. if you set one that is too bright to a lower brightness factor, it will effectifely be less bright. if you need non linear dimming, use gamma correction for brightness. I do not see how a minium brightness is useful here.

DedeHai avatar Dec 02 '25 09:12 DedeHai

Hi @DedeHai,

thanks for the response. Let me clarify what I mean: My problem is that at low brightness values (e.g. 10-30%), the lights appear too dim — there's not enough light output. I want low input values to produce more light, not less. Gamma correction for brightness doesn't help here because:

Gamma > 1.0 makes low values even darker (the opposite of what I need) Gamma < 1.0 would boost low values, but WLED doesn't accept values below 1.0

What I actually need is an inverse gamma curve (gamma < 1.0) or a minimum brightness floor. For example:

Input 10% → Output 25% Input 50% → Output 60% Input 100% → Output 100%

This way the lower end of the brightness range gets "lifted" while the upper end stays roughly the same. Is there any way to achieve this in WLED? Or would you consider allowing gamma values below 1.0 for brightness correction? Thanks!

flo269 avatar Dec 10 '25 16:12 flo269

I do not know why gamma below 1 is restricted. if you can compile code by yourself you could test lifting that restriction.

DedeHai avatar Dec 10 '25 17:12 DedeHai

That was a very good idea, thanks! :-)

PR created: #5187

flo269 avatar Dec 12 '25 18:12 flo269