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Lights & LED Configuration

Every light wired to your droid, each with its own looks. Build the looks once, then switch between them from buttons, sequences, Startup and Idle.

What it’s for

Section titled “What it’s for”

A light (the app also says channel) is one thing wired to one pin: a plain LED, a MOSFET driving several, or a chain of NeoPixels. Up to 10. LED Configuration shows every light as a card with a live preview of what it’s playing, and chips that say whether it’s Always On, which buttons use it and how many presets it has. The readout at the top counts dimmable lights and NeoPixel chains against the board’s limits, and the worst-case current against your supply.

Quick start: make a preset

Section titled “Quick start: make a preset”
  1. On a light’s card, press Edit, then open the Presets tab.
  2. Pick a preset, or + New preset, and give it a name (“Alarm”).
  3. Choose an effect and its colours and speed. On a NeoPixel light, + Add layer stacks up to four, each on the whole light or one piece of its shape.
  4. Press Save preset. It applies straight away; the preview shows it as you build.

The channel editor

Section titled “The channel editor”

Edit on a card opens that light’s editor. Each tab saves on its own; a tab with unsaved changes shows an orange dot.

Tab What’s on it
Hardware What’s wired: name, type, dimmable, pairing, chip, pixels, gamma. Applies the moment you save.
Shape NeoPixels only: what the chain looks like. See NeoPixel shapes.
Presets The looks this light can play.
When it runs Always On and which preset it plays, and the buttons that use this light.
Hardware setting Meaning
Name Yours: “Dome Holo”, not “LED 4”.
Pin Shown for reference; set it on Pin Assignment.
Type Plain LED (one brightness for the whole light), or NeoPixel (each pixel its own colour, with animated effects).
PWM dimmable Lets a plain light fade and dim. The board can dim 8 at once; past that, lights are on/off.
Pair with Makes two plain lights alternate in two-tone patterns. See Pairing.
Chip type RGB for WS2812 / standard NeoPixels; RGBW for chips with an extra white LED. The wrong choice garbles every colour.
Pixels How many pixels on this pin. Once you design a shape, the shape sets it.
Gamma correction Smoother fades and truer dim colours. See Gamma correction.

What turns a light on

Section titled “What turns a light on”
  • Always On: the light plays its chosen preset whenever the LED master switch is on. Set it on When it runs; it needs a preset first.
  • A button: each button’s lights name a light and which of its presets to play, so one button can run its “Alarm” preset and another its “Idle” one. A button takes over from Always On while it’s on.
  • A sequence, Startup or Idle can switch a light to a preset too.

Above all of them sits the LED master switch on your transmitter. Off, everything is dark: no exceptions.

Presets and effects

Section titled “Presets and effects”

A preset is a saved look for one light; each light holds up to 8. Build several once (“Idle”, “Alarm”, “Shutdown”) and switch between them later without rebuilding anything. Under a preset’s name, “Used by” says what plays it.

  • On a plain light, a preset is one blink pattern with its brightness.
  • On a NeoPixel light, a preset is up to four stacked layers, each with its own effect, colours and speed, on the whole light or one piece of its shape.
Section titled “Blink patterns: plain lights”
Pattern What it looks like
Single Blink A steady on/off blink.
Double Blink Two quick flashes, then a pause.
Triple Blink Three quick flashes, then a pause.
Fade In/Out A smooth, continuous breathing ramp.
Fast Strobe A rapid strobe.
Slow Strobe A brief flash, then a long dark pause, like a beacon.
Police Alternate A fast alternating emergency-vehicle look. Pair two lights for the real effect.
Wig-Wag One side flashes twice, then the other.
SOS Morse SOS: three short, three long, three short.
Heartbeat A quick double pulse, then a pause.

NeoPixel effects

Section titled “NeoPixel effects”

Each effect shows only the controls it uses.

Effect Controls What it does
Solid Color colour One steady colour.
Color Cycle speed The whole light drifts through the colour wheel.
Rainbow speed, size, direction A rainbow travelling across the light.
Chase 2 colours, speed, size, direction A comet running along, with a trailing tail.
Breathe colour, speed A smooth swell in and out.
Strobe colour, speed A hard on/off flash.
Gradient Drift 2 colours, speed, direction A two-colour blend sliding across the shape.
Scanner 2 colours, speed, size A bar sweeping back and forth.
Theater Chase 2 colours, speed, direction Marquee dots stepping along.
Radar Sweep 2 colours, speed, size, direction A rotating arm with a fading wake, built for rings.
Ripple 2 colours, speed, size, direction Rings expanding outward from the centre.
Twinkle 2 colours, speed, size Random pixels sparkling and fading.
Fire 2 colours, speed A flickering flame.
Logic Display 3 colours, speed Random blocks cycling: the classic droid logic-display look.
Scrolling Text text, mode, font, 2 colours, speed, repeat Words across a panel. See Scrolling text.

Effects that travel follow your light’s shape: which way is “along”, “around” or “outward”. See NeoPixel shapes.

Pairing

Section titled “Pairing”

Two plain lights can be paired so a two-tone pattern really alternates between them. Take Police Alternate: unpaired, both lights flash together; paired, one plays the pattern’s first half and its partner the opposite half.

Set it with Pair with on the first light’s Hardware tab. The partner just follows: its own type, Always On and presets are ignored while paired, so its card reads “Follows … (paired)”.

LED power

Section titled “LED power”

Every NeoPixel chain is fed from the same 5 V supply, so there’s one budget for all of them, set on LED Configuration. The board estimates what each frame will draw and, if it would go over, dims every chain together, so a full-white preset dims instead of browning the board out.

The estimate counts NeoPixels only (about 20 mA per lit colour, plus 1 mA per pixel just for being powered). Plain lights aren’t counted, since their draw depends on the resistor or driver you wired, so leave headroom for them and everything else on the supply. It’s an estimate, not a measurement: treat the supply figure as a budget to stay under.

Gamma correction

Section titled “Gamma correction”

LEDs look much brighter at the top of their range than our eyes expect, so a plain fade seems to rush through the dark end. Gamma correction evens that out: smoother fades, truer dim colours. It’s off by default, because it changes how that light’s existing presets look, and the on-screen preview doesn’t show it. Turn it on per light, on the Hardware tab.

Trouble?

Section titled “Trouble?”