How to control LEDs connected to FAST expansion boards¶
One of the primary uses of FAST expansion boards is to drive RGB LEDs. FAST expansion boards support WS2812-style serial RGB LEDs today, and in the future they will support APA-102 style LEDs, as well as RGBW LEDs. (Support for these additional LED types will be added via a future firmware update.)
A single FAST breakout board can support up to 4 ports with chains of up to 32 serial LEDs. (So that's a max of 128 LEDs per breakout board).
The FP-EXP-0071, and Neuron Controller's built-in breakout boards all support 4 chains of LEDs. The FP-EXP-0081 expansion board has 8 ports of LEDs, which is 4 ports addressed via built-in Breakout 0, and 4 ports addressed via built-in Breakout 1.
The actual LEDs are individually addressed via LED IDs 0 - 127. (Technically this is all in hex, so it's really 00-7F.) From a practical standpoint, this means that you set a breakout board to be active and then send commands to all the LEDs across all the ports for that breakout.
Here is the breakdown of the LED address numbering, divided per LED port:
| Port | Integer Range | Hex Range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0-31 | 00-1F |
| 2 | 32-63 | 20-3F |
| 3 | 64-95 | 40-5F |
| 4 | 96-127 | 60-7F |
Remember that LEDs are technically connected to breakout boards, not expansion boards, so you'll need to address each command with a 3-character Expansion + Breakout address, either by setting the Breakout board to be active with the EA: command or by embedding the breakout board address into your LED command via the @ character.
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