Led Control Board

Status: PCB, Firmware, Hardware and examples are Completly done!

With this board you can control multiple WS2812 LED lines with XLight sequences. The main idea is that I wanted one board that could handle the panel data, SD card playback, and animation syncing between boards. That i all achieved with this pcb.

Project Purpose

Why I Built This

One of my close friends, Ruben, wanted to build a big LED panel project with me so we could display text, animations, and more. After this board is fully working, I also want to use it in 2 daft punk helmets for Comic-Con 2026.

BOM

• Raspberry Pi Pico
• 74HCT245
• 1000uF Cap
• 8x 220 ohm Resistor
• 100nF Cap (optionaly)
• 4.7uF Cap (optionaly)
• 2x 10k Res (optionaly for board Sync)

How do you use it?

If you want to update the code on the MCU, I would really suggest reading The firmware instuctions. If you want to update the animations on the display, read the animation instuctions.

The basic idea is:

1. Flash the Pico with the firmware from arduino_firmware/RPI-PICO/.
2. Put animation files on the SD card, or stream frames over USB from xLights.
3. Connect the LED panels and power them from an external regulated 5V PSU.
4. If needed, chain multiple boards together with the sync in/out headers.

Firmware / Software

The Pico runs my own firmware in the arduino_firmware/ folder. To Install make sure you have the Earle Philhower Arduino-Pico core board library

SD Card Playback

• The Pico firmware looks for animation files in the SD card root and in /animations.
• Supported raw file extensions are .lsa, .seq and .gif.
• Files are played in alphabetical order. With one file on the card, playback wraps back to that file.
• USB serial frame streaming still works and temporarily overrides SD playback while data is arriving.

Project Files

• pcb/src/ - PCB sourse
• pcb/exports/LedScreen.pdf - exported schematic PDF
• pcb/exports/gerber.zip - gerbers bundled for fabrication upload
• pcb/Gerber/ - individual gerber outputs
• pcb/bom/ibom.html - interactive BOM
• mechanical/case/ - case and standoff print files
• xlights_project/ - xLights example project for driving the board
• scripts/fseq_to_lsa.py - convert xLights FSEQ files to .lsa

Notes

I also included an xLights example for controlling this board. xLights configuration depends on the final data path used between xLights and the Pico.

Start with a smaller amount of daisy-chained panels per output lane while validating signal integrity and power behavior. Use an external 5V PSU sized for the actual panel count and brightness.

Bill of Materials

Interactive BOM: cdn.nickesselman.nl

Project Images

Build Photos

License

• Hardware: CERN-OHL-S
• Firmware/Software: MIT License