Hey everyone, I wanted to share a fun project I recently completed that combines Home Assistant with some creative hardware to create an engaging media experience. This project has been on my mind for a while, and I’m thrilled to finally bring it to life!**What is the WLED Seek Tracker?**In short, it’s a way to visualize the progress of a media file playing on a Plex server using WLED. When a media file starts playing, the LEDs light up, and as the file progresses, the LEDs turn off, indicating the remaining time until the end. It’s like having a dynamic progress bar under your TV!**How It Works:**1. WLED Setup: I used a NodeMCU with WLED firmware and an LED strip. The key here was creating segments and saving them as presets to ensure they load correctly on boot. WLED has some limitations, like only allowing up to 15 segments, so I had to do some math to split my 28 LED strip into manageable parts.2. Home Assistant Configuration: I set up template sensors to calculate the movie’s progress and split it into 13 equal parts. This involved some Jinja templating to parse the media duration and position from the Plex client entity.3. Automation Magic: I created an automation that triggers whenever the remaining time of the media file drops below specific thresholds. Each trigger activates a preset on the WLED controller, turning off the corresponding segment of LEDs.Challenges and Solutions:- WLED Preset Limitations: The 15-segment limit was tricky, but breaking the strip into smaller segments worked perfectly.- Template Sensor Accuracy: Ensuring the sensors accurately reflected the media progress required some careful testing and tweaking of the Jinja templates.**Results:**The end result is absolutely stunning! When the movie starts, the LED bar is fully lit, and as time progresses, it gradually “reduces in size,” giving a clear visual cue of how much of the movie is left. At the end, most of the LEDs are off, signaling the movie has finished.**Why You Should Try It:**This project is a fantastic way to combine lighting automation with media management. It adds an interactive element to your home theater setup and is a great conversation starter for tech enthusiasts. Plus, it’s a rewarding DIY project that showcases the power of Home Assistant and WLED integration.If you’re looking for a fun and creative way to enhance your media experience, I highly recommend giving this project a try! Let me know if you have any questions or run into any issues along the way. Happy building!