8-Channel PWM or Servo FeatherWing for Neopixels and servos?

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MARCoTechLLC
 
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8-Channel PWM or Servo FeatherWing for Neopixels and servos?

Post by MARCoTechLLC »

I'm looking to get an ESP32 based audio development board for a robotics project, but the one I'm eyeing, ESP32-LyraT, does not have PWM pins available to drive a Neopixel chain and 2-3 micro servos that I also need to have in the project. It does have I2C out, which is why I am looking at the 8-Channel PWM or Servo FeatherWing to control that. Servo control looks fairly straightforward, but I'm uncertain about running the Neopixels off of it.

Can Neopixels be run off this 8-Channel PWM Featherwing at all? And if so, can they be run in parallel with micro-servos? (By parallel, they can be given orders sequentially, I just mean that servos and neopixels will be connected to the same board).

Thanks in advance!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: 8-Channel PWM or Servo FeatherWing for Neopixels and ser

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Neopixels do not use PWM and cannot be driven by a PWM board. They can be controlled directly via the ESP32. https://blog.adafruit.com/2018/08/16/es ... dprinting/

An ESP32 can also control servos directly. Although a separate PWM/Servo board is a good idea to avoid timing issues between servo pulses and neopixel communication.

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