ESP LED Wiring
When using the esp8266, this platform only supports 1 strip of pixels connected to the hardware accelerated pin of the nodeMCU. GPIO3 aka RXD0 seen below - fourth from the bottom, on the right.
Generally it's best practice to use a high speed level shifter when driving 5v leds from a 3.3v device, but in most cases where the data wire between the driving pin and the first led is short, you can get away with no level shifter.
I've had hit or miss performance with breadboards, so if you're staying with 3.3v be sure all connections between wires and joints are as solid as possible.
The ESP 32 can drive pixels from any pin below 32. In the example, we use pin 21
