Wireless NeoPixels with Arduino RP2040
This project creates a wireless Internet controlled NeoPixels / PixelStrips using an Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect Microcontroller. This is a project that I'm currently working on. Please subscribe to my channel to see updates as I progress through the project.
This is designed around the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect Microcontroller, which is Arduino's alternative to the Raspberry Pi Pico. This is an alternative to my Raspberry Pi PixelStrip / NeoPixel project. http://www.penguintutor.com/projects/...
This is also shown in the following video which shows a Raspberry Pi Zero W used to control NeoPixels with the web based server.
The Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect is a microcontroller based around the Raspberry Pi RP2040 (as used in the Raspberry Pi Pico). Unlike the Pico which is a low cost basic board, Arduino has packed in lots of additional features. This includes more flash RAM but more significantly for this project a built in ESP32 wireless controller. For more details about getting started with the Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect see http://www.penguintutor.com/electroni...
When I refer to NeoPixels or PixelStrips then these are effectively RGB LEDs with a built-in WS2811 or WS2812B controller. These LEDs can be chained together with the output of the first LED going to the input of the next LED. These are often combined into strips, squares or other shapes. The controllers for the LEDs pass data through to subsequent LEDs making each LED individually addressable based on their position in the chain.
I also explain about different inverting and non-inverting buffers and how they can be used with the Arduino Nano RP2040 to increase the GPIO output from 3.3V to the 5V needed for the NeoPixels. This includes an example of a simple MOSFET inverting buffer, a two-stage MOSFET non-inverting buffer, a serial MOSFET non-inverting buffer and a CMOS AND gate buffer.
More details of all these and the software code required are available from: http://www.penguintutor.com/projects/...
The images from the oscilloscope and the logic analyser are also available through the above link.
Chapters:
00:00 Wireless NeoPixel / PixelStrip Project Concept
01:55 About PixelStrips / Addressable RGB LEDs
03:39 Arduino Nano RP2040 Connect
05:46 Project Design
07:45 Electronic Design and Prototyping on Breadboard
09:37 Voltage level shifter designs
09:43 Inverting MOSFET buffer
14:29 2-stage non-inverting buffer
14:48 Logic Analyser output
16:15 Serial non-inverting buffer
17:50 CMOS AND buffer
18:31 Chosen design
19:19 Arduino IDE and Controlling NeoPixels with WiFi.
23:15 Demo of Project so Far
24:33 Future Plans