The animation plays, the timing is right — but red comes out green, or blue comes out red. That is almost never a broken strip. Your pixels expect their colour bytes in a different order than the file sends them.
In LEDEdit Pro 2026 this is a single setting in the export dialog.
Why the colours swap
Every pixel receives three bytes per LED. LEDEdit Pro writes them in the colour order you choose. The export dialog uses RGB by default.
Many pixel chips and strips expect a different order — lots of WS2812B strips use GRB, for example. If the order does not match, the right data arrives on the wrong colour channel. The pattern still moves; only the colours are wrong.
A wrong chip / IC type looks different: flicker, random colours or dark pixels. If that is what you see, check the chip first — see the supported controllers and chips.
Find the colour order in 3 steps
- Output → Export LEDEdit .led… and choose your controller and chip as usual.
- Tick Advanced Export Options.
- Under Package, set Color order. The choices are RGB, RBG, GRB, GBR, BRG and BGR. The preflight summary above shows the choice straight away (Color order: GRB).
LEDEdit Pro remembers your controller, chip and colour order for the next export while the program stays open.
Which order do I need?
Export once with RGB. Then compare the LEDEdit Pro preview with the real pixels while a clearly red, green or blue part of the show plays:
| What you see on the pixels (export was RGB) | Choose |
|---|---|
| Everything correct | RGB |
| Red and green swapped, blue correct | GRB |
| Red and blue swapped, green correct | BGR |
| Green and blue swapped, red correct | RBG |
| Red → blue, green → red, blue → green | BRG |
| Red → green, green → blue, blue → red | GBR |
The table assumes the controller passes the bytes through unchanged. If the first guess is not right, try the others — there are only six, and one of them is correct.
RGBW and mixed hardware
- RGBW chips: when you pick an RGBW-capable chip, LEDEdit Pro switches on RGBW / Special Channels. That group has its own RGBW order (RGBW, GRBW, BRGW, BGRW, WRGB) and the white-channel mode.
- Different strips on one controller: tick Different chip per output file and set the chip for each output in the Route Preview table.
Still wrong?
- Check that the chip type matches the chip on the strip, not the strip’s brand name.
- Check the power and data wiring: colour faults that start at a certain pixel point to hardware.
- If the controller does not play the file at all, see SD-card controller does not play the .led file.
