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HyperLED-Slave

An additional board for your LED installation. It shows its picture in another place, in sync with the master.

What it is

A HyperLED board controls LEDs. If you want light in several places, for example behind the TV and on the shelf, you need a second board. That is the slave.

The slave has no interface of its own. You set it up in the master, and it shows a picture that matches the other boards exactly. That keeps everything operable from one place.

GitHub repository Get the latest version
Key facts · DG-002
StatusActive · version 0.3.005
LicenseEUPL-1.2
Part ofHyperLED
BoardESP32-S3
Tested onWaveshare ESP32-S3-Zero
ConnectionCable or radio
LEDsStrips, panels, single color
TechnologyC · PlatformIO
01 — Network

One more board for your LEDs

A slave controls its own LED strip or panel. It shows what the master assigns to it, in sync with all other boards. That lets you put LEDs where they belong.

The slave recognizes by itself whether it is connected to the master by cable or by radio, and stays with that. If the connection drops for a longer time, it searches again on its own. On a cable you can hang several slaves one behind the other.

How the boards connect: by cable, one behind the other, or by radio. They all show the same picture.
02 — Setup

Set up on the master only

You set LED type, number of LEDs or panel size and name in the master's web interface. Nothing needs to be set on the slave itself.

The master does not send finished pictures to the slave, only settings such as effect, color and speed. The slave calculates the picture itself. That keeps the radio link free.

A small LED on the board shows you whether the slave is set up and connected.

03 — LEDs

Which LEDs work

  • LED strips with digital LEDs, for example WS2812B and SK6812
  • Strips of type APA102
  • Single-color LEDs that can be dimmed (PWM)
  • Matrix panels of type HUB75

I developed and tested the slave on the ESP32-S3 (Waveshare ESP32-S3-Zero).

04 — Wiring

Cable and power

By cable you connect the transmit pin of the master (pin 17) to the receive pin of the slave (pin 16). You also connect the ground (GND) of both boards.

By radio there is nothing to connect. The slave finds the master itself across the Wi-Fi channels.

Warning

The ESP32 must not power the LEDs. Use a suitable power supply and connect only the data line and the common ground to the board.

Fixed connections on the slave
Connection to the masterRX 16 · TX 17
Connection to the next slaveRX 18 · TX 38
LED stripPin 4 (changeable via the master)
HUB75 panelPins 1, 2 and 4 to 15
Status LED on the boardPin 21
05 — Installing

Flashing and connecting

The first installation runs from the source code with PlatformIO, an extension for Visual Studio Code.

  1. Power the slave. By cable you connect it as described above, by radio it finds the master itself.
  2. The slave shows up in the master under Devices, Connected devices.
  3. Set LED type, number of LEDs (or panel size) and name there and save. Afterwards you can assign a segment to the slave.

Later updates run through the master: Settings, System, Update devices now. The slave fetches the new firmware itself from Wi-Fi. It receives the access data encrypted.

Note

The file in the releases is meant for this remote update, not for the first installation.

Flash the slave
$ git clone https://github.com/KaelanTesseract/HyperLED-Slave.git
$ cd HyperLED-Slave
$ pio run -t upload
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