audio-reactive-led-strip VS Tasmota

Thanks for the pointers! After digging a bit more, I found https://github.com/scottlawsonbc/audio-reactive-led-strip which looks like an excellent end-to-end setup that's also easy to explore further from. Can't wait to sink lots of hours into it :D

So I do think it's pretty well accepted that coding in python is easier for new programmers than coding in Arduino/C/C++. I don't have any experience working with the seeduino boards, and I don't have any experience doing sound reactive projects, but this project on GitHub really looks like it's exactly what you're looking for if you are okay with moving the the RPi: https://github.com/scottlawsonbc/audio-reactive-led-strip

A custom version of "Device Mic" was implemented taking code from here but need to be improved. Hope you like it :)

Straight to the point. I want to integrate this: Music Reactive LED's into my car. I plan for everything to be behind the dash. I am adept with soldering, basic IT and small electronics (having made my own button box and peripheral input converter). However these seems a bit more advanced purely because of my requirements.

LedFX sounds great if you want to control many different strips in a network. For a standalone Raspberry Pi, there is also this project, which I meant to try out for some time but did not come around to. It has a lot more features than my implementation.

In order to use audio visualization with speakers you can use this library that someone made. https://github.com/scottlawsonbc/audio-reactive-led-strip From what I’m seeing, in order to use audio from your pc/headphones instead of from your speakers you have to program it yourself. You’ll notice they do something similar in the microphone.py but it uses your microphone from your pc. Instead of the microphone it just needs to use the input audio. I was going to modify this library to do that but it needs a esp2866 which I currently don’t have.

All of my office devices are connected to Sonoff S31 smart plugs, flashed with Tasmota on their own locked-down VLAN, and can be controlled via voice, Alexa, Tasker automation on my Android, NFC tags at my office door and various scripts triggered via my StreamDeck (on Linux). This all works fantastic, and I can turn on or off my devices, including my printer, when I start or end my day at work.

The best alternative firmware example for true IOT devices is Tasmota [1]. Erase manufacturer firmware for every ESP devices the day after purchase to avoid those careless manufacturer firmwares.

[1] https://tasmota.github.io/docs/

The ESP8266 based Sonoff S31 and ESP32 based Switchbot plugs, both flashed with either Tasmota or ESPHome, are my go-to options for US WiFi smart plugs with power monitoring.

And if you want to turn your ESP8266 into a standalone appliance, with a web interface and directly editable config that doesn't need a build step, Tasmota is another great option.

https://tasmota.github.io/docs/