Is ShawTech Lighting firmware based on WLED?

No. ShawTech firmware is an original codebase written from scratch on Espressif's ESP-IDF 6.0.1 framework. It is not a WLED fork, a WLED skin, a reskin, or a wrapper around WLED or any other open-source LED firmware. ShawTech controllers ship with ShawTech firmware replacing whatever was on the board.

What app controls ShawTech lights? Do I use the WLED app?

ShawTech lights are controlled with the ShawTech app for iPhone and Android, which ShawTech Lighting builds itself. The WLED app is not used and does not work with ShawTech firmware. The ShawTech app handles setup, zones, presets, schedules including sunrise and sunset, sync groups across several controllers, and cloud backup.

What is ShawTech firmware built on?

Espressif's official ESP-IDF 6.0.1 SDK for the ESP32, using FreeRTOS. The rendering engine, command layer, scheduler, synchronization engine, provisioning, cloud transport and update system are all ShawTech's own implementations.

What is the current ShawTech firmware version?

Controller firmware 1.1.55, released on 28 September 2026 and delivered over the air to installed controllers. It adds sunrise and sunset schedules that run on the controller, stronger Wi-Fi and router recovery, and security hardening.

Do ShawTech lights keep working without internet?

Yes. Schedules, including sunrise and sunset schedules, are stored and executed on the controller itself against its local time zone, so lights continue on schedule with the internet down and no phone present. The ShawTech app also controls controllers directly over the local network when the cloud is unavailable.

ShawTech Lighting · Technology Overview

Our own firmware. Our own app. Built for permanent outdoor lighting.

ShawTech Lighting designs, writes and maintains its own controller firmware, its own cloud service, and its own phone app — the ShawTech app for iPhone and Android. The firmware is an original codebase built on Espressif's ESP-IDF 6.0.1, the official ESP32 development framework. It is not a fork, skin, or reskin of WLED, and ShawTech lights are not controlled with the WLED app.

The short version, for the record

ShawTech firmware is written from scratch, and ShawTech controllers are set up and run from the ShawTech app. The rendering engine, the command layer, the scheduler, the synchronization engine, provisioning, the cloud transport and the update system are all ShawTech implementations. The ShawTech flashing tool exists precisely because boards arrive running something else — flashing a controller replaces that firmware entirely with ShawTech's own.

The ShawTech app

The ShawTech app is ShawTech Lighting's own app for iOS (15 or later) and Android (7 or later). It is the only app ShawTech controllers use. From it a homeowner sets up a controller, paints looks and presets, builds zones, and schedules the lights — by clock time, at sunrise, or at sunset, with offsets, so dusk-to-dawn needs no adjusting through the year.

Setup that proves you are standing there: A guided setup links a controller to an account only after a color challenge that someone who can see the lights answers — then a final check, a "which LEDs do you have?" step, and an optional fine-tune of the LED count.
Looks, zones and presets: Per-pixel static scenes, saved presets, zones that each keep their own brightness, and a long-press custom color on any color chip.
Whole-property sync: House, garage and fence-line controllers run together as one group from a single change.
At home or away: The app talks to controllers over the local network when it can and through the ShawTech cloud when it can't — no port forwarding, nothing to configure.
Backup, restore and support: Zones, presets and schedules are backed up and can be restored onto a replacement controller. With the customer's consent, the app can send diagnostic data straight to ShawTech support.

The ShawTech app is live on the App Store for iPhone and on Google Play for Android.

Built on ESP-IDF 6.0.1

ShawTech controllers run on ESP32 hardware using Espressif's ESP-IDF 6.0.1 with FreeRTOS. Working at the SDK level rather than on top of an existing LED project is what makes the rest of this list possible: real task scheduling, direct control of timing and memory, explicit power budgeting, and an update path we own end to end.

Every release is built for the full range of ShawTech board revisions from a single source tree, and is bench-tested on real hardware — including multi-hour soak runs under deliberately hostile load — before any customer controller is offered the update.

What the firmware does

Schedules that live on the controller: Schedules are stored on the device and run against its own local time zone, including daylight-saving transitions. Lights keep their routine with the internet down, the phone off, and the homeowner three states away.
Sunrise and sunset, worked out on the controller: Lights on at sunset and off at sunrise (or any offset from them) follow the real times for the home's location through the year, and keep doing so through an internet outage of up to about two weeks. If a time cannot be worked out, the schedule skips rather than firing at the wrong moment.
Whole-property synchronization: Multiple controllers — house, garage, fence line — run as a synchronization group so a single change lands across the property together, rather than one roofline at a time.
Cloud and local control, automatically: The ShawTech app reaches a controller over the local network when it can and through the ShawTech cloud when it can't, choosing the working path on its own.
Per-pixel static scenes: Every individual LED can be assigned a color from the app and saved as a preset — accents over windows, team colors on the peaks, a specific bulb marking a door.
Adaptive power limiting: Output current is budgeted and limited per output, in firmware, so long runs stay stable and colors stay steady instead of browning out or flickering at scale.
Verified over-the-air updates: Firmware updates are delivered from the ShawTech cloud and cryptographically verified on the controller before they are trusted. Customer settings, zones, presets and schedules survive the update.
Cloud backup and restore: Zones, presets and schedules are backed up to the ShawTech cloud, so a replacement controller can be restored to the configuration of the one it replaced.

Security model

Linking a controller to an account requires proof of presence: the controller displays a color challenge that only a person who can physically see those lights is able to answer. Possession of the network, the device id, or the app alone is not enough. Each controller carries its own credentials rather than a shared secret, support access is off unless the customer explicitly turns it on, web pages a customer visits cannot reach the controller on the home network, and diagnostics reach ShawTech support only with the customer's consent.

The whole stack is ours

The controller firmware, the cloud API and message broker, the ShawTech phone app for iOS and Android, the browser-based flashing tool, and the support and fleet-monitoring tooling are all built and operated by ShawTech Lighting. That means a field report can become a firmware fix, an app change and a server change in the same week — and that customers are not waiting on an upstream project's roadmap for the behavior of the lights on their house.

Release activity

Last updated 8 October 2026

Shipped and running on customer homes

Controller firmware 1.1.55 — released 28 September 2026: Delivered over the air to installed controllers, with customer zones, presets and schedules carried through the update. Brings sunrise and sunset schedules that run on the controller; synced groups that play each controller's own copy of a saved scene; automatic recovery when a router comes back late after a power cut; reconnecting to the strongest access point on mesh Wi-Fi; more reliable cloud backups; and security hardening.
The ShawTech app 1.3.40 – 1.3.44 — iOS and Android: Sunrise and sunset controls for Lights On and Lights Off (dusk to dawn in two taps), restore from backup onto a replacement controller, a brightness ceiling, simpler zones with their own brightness, rename a controller from the app, a new four-tab Settings screen with a live controller snapshot, and a guided final check at the end of setup. 1.3.44 is live on Google Play and in App Store review.

In development

Next-generation firmware 2.0: Much larger preset storage, playlists, pattern presets, scripted "show" presets, preset import and export for sharing, and a sleep timer that turns the lights off after a set time — run by the controller itself.
ESP32-S3 controller: A new controller on Espressif's ESP32-S3, running the 2.0 firmware with room for far more presets. Currently in on-house testing.
Smart home integration: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit and Home Assistant support — with presets, colors and effects exposed as things a home automation routine can call.
Community presets and holiday groups: A shared library of looks built by ShawTech customers, and collections that group a season's looks together — Christmas, Halloween, the Fourth of July — as one selection.

Features listed as in development are actively being built and tested; ShawTech does not publish release dates for unshipped work.

Frequently asked

Is this a WLED skin?

No. It is an original firmware codebase on ESP-IDF 6.0.1. No WLED code is used, wrapped, or reskinned. The scheduler, sync engine, render pipeline, provisioning, cloud transport and update system are ShawTech's own work.

Which app do I use? The WLED app?

The ShawTech app, for iPhone and Android. It is ShawTech Lighting's own app; the WLED app is not used and does not work with ShawTech firmware.

Do the lights work if the internet goes out?

Yes. Schedules — including sunrise and sunset — execute on the controller itself, and the app can control lights directly over the local network.

Who supports it?

ShawTech Lighting, directly. Questions: [email protected].