InfraGlow

Real-time infrastructure metrics on WLED devices for Home Assistant

WORK IN PROGRESS This project is under active development. Expect breaking changes, incomplete features, and rough edges.

InfraGlow is a HACS integration that turns Home Assistant sensor data into real-time LED visualizations on WLED devices. Point it at a WLED instance, bind entities, and your LED strip acts as realtime indicator for CPU load, temperatures, network throughput, alerts, and more.

InfraGlow uses WLED's native effect engine for animations. Rather than pushing per-pixel data, it maps sensor values to WLED effect parameters (color, speed, intensity) so you get real movement and smooth transitions while the sensor value drives the look. Designed for square rack perimeter installs but works on any WLED strip.

Features

• Native WLED effects — uses WLED's built-in animations (Breathe, Gradient, Running, Fire, Colorwaves, etc.) for real movement instead of static fills
• Value-driven color — sensor value picks a single color from the low-to-high gradient and maps it to WLED's three color slots for a cohesive palette
• Speed mapping — low sensor values = slow animation, high values = fast; the strip visually reflects intensity
• Alert mode — binary override that takes over the entire strip with pulse/strobe/solid flash styles
• Segment support — run multiple visualizations on different WLED segments of the same strip
• Black insertion — optional toggle to insert black between the two generated palette colors for higher contrast and more dramatic movement
• Mirror toggle — symmetrical animations for rack loop installs
• Curated effect list — only palette-friendly WLED effects are offered (rainbow/pride-style effects that ignore your colors are excluded)
• Device page controls — effect, speed, mirror, and toggle settings are exposed as HA entities on the device page for live tuning
• Config subentries — each visualization is its own subentry with native HA add/edit/delete UI — no clunky options flow menus
• Full UI config — no YAML required, everything through the HA interface

Installation

HACS (Recommended)

1. Open HACS in Home Assistant
2. Click Integrations → ⋮ → Custom repositories
3. Add https://github.com/adamgranted/infraglow with category Integration
4. Search for "InfraGlow" and install
5. Restart Home Assistant

Manual

1. Download the latest release from GitHub
2. Copy the custom_components/infraglow folder to your Home Assistant's config/custom_components/ directory
3. Restart Home Assistant

Setup

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration
2. Search for InfraGlow
3. Enter your WLED device's IP address and click Submit
4. The integration connects and auto-detects your LED count

Adding Visualizations

1. Open the InfraGlow integration page under Settings → Devices & Services
2. Click Add visualization (subentry)
3. Choose a mode:
   • System Load — Breathe effect, 0-100% scale
   • Temperature — Gradient effect, 20-90°C scale
   • Network Throughput — Running effect, 0-1000 Mbps scale
   • Alert Flasher — binary trigger, full-strip override
   • Grafana / Generic — Breathe effect, custom floor/ceiling
4. Configure: entity, segment, LED count, colors, effect, speed range
5. Save — the visualization starts immediately

Tuning from the Device Page

Each visualization creates config entities on the device page:

• Switches — Enabled, Mirror, Include Black
• Select — WLED Effect dropdown
• Numbers — Floor, Ceiling, Speed Min, Speed Max
• Sensors (diagnostic) — Current Value, Normalized Level

Changes take effect immediately without reloading.

WLED Segment Prep

Before adding visualizations, configure segments in the WLED web UI:

1. Open your WLED device's web interface → Segments
2. Create segments for each zone (e.g., LEDs 0-29, 30-59, 60-89)
3. Note the segment IDs — you'll use them in InfraGlow

Configuration Reference

Metric Settings (System Load, Temperature, Throughput, Generic)

Setting	Description	Default
Entity	HA sensor entity to watch	(required)
Segment ID	WLED segment to render on	0
Number of LEDs	LED count in this segment	30
Floor	Sensor value that maps to 0%	Mode-dependent
Ceiling	Sensor value that maps to 100%	Mode-dependent
Cool / Low Color	LED color at the floor value	Green
Hot / High Color	LED color at the ceiling value	Red
WLED Effect	Animation effect (Breathe, Gradient, Running, etc.)	Mode-dependent
Minimum Speed	Effect speed at the floor value (0-255)	Mode-dependent
Maximum Speed	Effect speed at the ceiling value (0-255)	Mode-dependent
Mirror	Mirror the animation for symmetrical rack loops	Off
Include Black	Insert black between the two palette colors for higher contrast	Off
Update Interval	How often to push updates to WLED	0.5s

Alert Settings

Setting	Description	Default
Flash Color	Color of the alert flash	Red
Flash Speed	Pulse frequency in Hz	2.0
Flash Style	Smooth Pulse / Hard Strobe / Solid	Pulse

When any alert visualization triggers, it overrides the entire strip regardless of segment assignments. Normal visualizations resume automatically when the alert entity returns to off.

How Value Mapping Works

InfraGlow normalizes your sensor value to a 0.0-1.0 range using the floor/ceiling you set. That normalized value then drives:

• Color — picks a position on your low-to-high color gradient. Three color slots are generated with a wide spread (±30% on the gradient) so effects that use multiple colors show visually distinct movement. If Include Black is enabled, the tuple becomes [primary, black, secondary] for maximum contrast.
• Speed — linearly maps from your minimum to maximum speed setting. Low temp = gentle movement, high temp = fast.
• Intensity — also scales with the value for effects that use it.

This means your strip shows a cohesive palette that shifts from cool to hot as the sensor changes, with enough spread between the generated colors that WLED effects produce visible movement and contrast.

Entity Compatibility

System Load — System Monitor or Glances: sensor.processor_use, sensor.memory_use_percent, sensor.disk_use_percent

Temperature — any sensor reporting temperature: sensor.cpu_temperature, sensor.server_room_temperature

Network Throughput — UniFi, Speedtest, or SNMP sensors

Alert Flasher — any binary_sensor or entity reporting on/off

Grafana / Generic — create a REST sensor in HA that queries the Grafana API, then select it in InfraGlow

Architecture

HA Entity States
       │
       ▼
┌──────────────────────────┐
│  Coordinator             │  Watches entities, pushes updates
│  ┌────────────────────┐  │
│  │ Effect Renderer     │──┼──▶ WLED Segment 0  fx/pal/sx/ix/col
│  │ Effect Renderer     │──┼──▶ WLED Segment 1  fx/pal/sx/ix/col
│  │ Effect Renderer     │──┼──▶ WLED Segment 2  fx/pal/sx/ix/col
│  │ Alert Renderer      │──┼──▶ FULL STRIP OVERRIDE (per-pixel)
│  └────────────────────┘  │
└──────────┬───────────────┘
           │
           ▼
     WLED JSON API
     POST /json/state

Metric visualizations send native WLED effect parameters (~100 bytes per update) instead of per-pixel data (~2.7 KB per frame), reducing bandwidth by ~96% and letting WLED's own animation engine handle rendering.

Troubleshooting

LEDs not updating — check that the WLED device is reachable from your HA instance (HTTP, port 80 default).

Colors don't match — verify floor/ceiling values match the entity's actual range. Check the entity state in HA Developer Tools.

Effect not animating — make sure you're not using the Solid effect (ID 0). Try Breathe or Gradient for visible movement.

Alert won't clear — ensure the binary_sensor entity returns to off. Check Developer Tools → States.

Multiple devices — add multiple InfraGlow instances, one per WLED device. Each manages its own visualizations independently.

License

MIT