NeoPixel driver results

DonStauffer

I've had good results so far with the NeoDriver.

In order to get around the inability to use M150 to control NeoPixels during printer moves, I got the $7.50 Adafruit NeoDriver card, which receives instructions for the NeoPixels via I2C, and takes care of the critical timing issue for controlling the NeoPixels.

I have it working now, using M260 to send I2C transactions. It seems to work fine, although I haven't yet had time to test it during printer moves. I think G29 will be my first attempt.

Once I got the correct transactions, it works as easily as M150 did, though quite differently. As expected, it's slower, but perfectly adequate for progress bars and the like. I'd say an update takes about 100ms. So my chasers go kind of at a moderate speed, not like greased lightning. That's fine for my purposes.

I'll update this when I have tested during moves. Hopefully the daemon will still operate during moves. That's my main concern.

Initialization script (run once - maybe from config.g):

;   Initializes NeoDriver and turns off LEDs

var FUNC_REGISTER_PIN = 0x01
var FUNC_REGISTER_SPEED = 0x02
var FUNC_REGISTER_BUF_LENGTH = 0x03
;var FUNC_REGISTER_BUF = 0x04
;var FUNC_REGISTER_SHOW = 0x05

var BASE_ADDR_NEO_PIX = 0x0E

;   Parameters

var I2CAddress = 0x60
var NeoPixelPinNum = 0x0F
var LEDCount = 28

if exists(param.A)
    set var.I2CAddress = param.A

if exists(param.N)
    set var.NeoPixelPinNum = param.N

if exists(param.L)
    set var.LEDCount = param.L

;   Set NeoDriver pin #, speed = 800,000, Buffer size

var BufferSize = 3 * var.LEDCount

M260 A{var.I2CAddress} B{var.BASE_ADDR_NEO_PIX,var.FUNC_REGISTER_PIN,var.NeoPixelPinNum}
M260 A{var.I2CAddress} B{var.BASE_ADDR_NEO_PIX,var.FUNC_REGISTER_SPEED,1}
M260 A{var.I2CAddress} B{var.BASE_ADDR_NEO_PIX,var.FUNC_REGISTER_BUF_LENGTH,var.BufferSize,0}

;   Turn all LEDs off

M98 P"/macros/Lights/NeoPixel/SetNeoPix"
M98 P"/macros/Lights/NeoPixel/ShowNeoPix"

DonStauffer

SetNeoPix macro:

;   Changes NeoPixel LED Color Values

var FUNC_REGISTER_BUF = 0x04
var FUNC_REGISTER_SHOW = 0x05

var BASE_ADDR_NEO_PIX = 0x0E

;   Parameters

var I2CAddress = 0x60
var Red = 0
var Green = 0
var Blue = 0
var StartLEDNum = 0
var SetLEDCount = 1
var LEDCount = 28

if exists(param.A)
    set var.I2CAddress = param.A
if exists(param.R)
    set var.Red = param.R
if exists(param.U)
    set var.Green = param.U
if exists(param.B)
    set var.Blue = param.B
if exists(param.S)
    set var.StartLEDNum = param.S
if exists(param.N)
    set var.SetLEDCount = param.N
if exists(param.L)
    set var.LEDCount = param.L

;   Set LEDs

var StartAddress = 3 * var.StartLEDNum

var Data = vector(7, null)

set var.Data[0] = var.BASE_ADDR_NEO_PIX
set var.Data[1] = var.FUNC_REGISTER_BUF
set var.Data[2] = 0
set var.Data[4] = var.Green
set var.Data[5] = var.Red
set var.Data[6] = var.Blue

while iterations < var.SetLEDCount
    set var.Data[3] = var.StartAddress + iterations * 3
    M260 A{var.I2CAddress} B{var.Data}

DonStauffer

@DonStauffer ShowNeoPix macro:

;   Makes NeoPixel LED Changes Visible

var FUNC_REGISTER_SHOW = 0x05
var BASE_ADDR_NEO_PIX = 0x0E

;   Parameters

var I2CAddress = 0x60

if exists(param.A)
    set var.I2CAddress = param.A

M260 A{var.I2CAddress} B{var.BASE_ADDR_NEO_PIX,var.FUNC_REGISTER_SHOW}

dc42

Just to be clear, Duet 3 main boards provide a dedicated LED port that can be updated while movement is in progress. Older Duets do not, so they have to bit-bang the LEDs to meet the timing requirements, and that requires movement to be stopped.

oliof

Still a great achievement to show how to handle I2C peripherals in a more integrated fashion without depending on firmware changes to make them work. Kudos @DonStauffer !