The WS2811 and WS2812 LEDs of Adafruit's NeoPixel products are very popular because they are easy to control with almost any microcontroller and each LED can be controlled individually. So you can switch an unlimited number of LEDs on and off and even change their color with a single pin. If you want to go one step further and implement dynamic control, you can use the McLighting NeoPixel control system.
The McLighting project was developed by Tobias Blum to control WS2811 and WS2812 LEDs using a few different protocols and an ESP8266. One allows to access the devices in the same wireless network as the ESP8266. A color ring can be used to dynamically change the RGB values of the Neopixel.
But the real strength of McLighting is in the other protocols available. REST, WebSocket and MQTT communication are provided, which means that an ESP8266 with McLighting can be controlled by almost any device on the market. So you can easily integrate it with clients from iOS and Android to Windows and Raspbian. Best of all, it's available for free on GitHub!
