ESP8266 PWM LED Control - AnalogWrite 255 Low Output

Problem:

While working on a project to create light panels rendering LED values via DMX over ARTNET, I found that the LEDs would only ever get so bright, falling quite short of their max capacity brightness. Testing the pin output with a DMM, I found that the output was about .8v. To my understanding, there is going to be a slight drop over the transistor, but not this much. I am using a Darlington TIP120 

Test Code:

#define LEDS D4

 

int brightness = 255;

int fadeSpeed = 10;

void setup() {

    pinMode(LEDS, OUTPUT);

}

void TurnOn(){

    for (int i = 0; i <= brightness; i++){

        analogWrite(LEDS, i);

        delay(fadeSpeed);

    }

}

void TurnOff(){

    for (int i = brightness; i >= 0; i--){

        analogWrite(LEDS, i);

        delay(fadeSpeed);

    }

}

void loop(){

    TurnOn();

    delay(4000);

    TurnOff();

    delay(4000);

}

Solution:

The manufacturer of the board had changed the max value from 1023 to 255 in new versions, my board was is not a newer board but I assumed it was. 

Reference

https://arduino-esp8266.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference.html#analog-output