What is it?

Chromatron is a Wifi LED pixel controller designed to make LED projects fast, easy, and fun.

The built-in scripting engine (called FX) allows you to code your graphics in real time, across multiple devices simultaneously. It uses a simplified Python-like syntax and integrates a ton of features designed specifically for LED pixel control, such as multiple global dimming channels, variable frame rate in real time, color resolution enhancement (on LEDs that support it), a per-pixel fader engine to create smooth fades automatically, and a lot more.

Chromatron can control a wide variety of LED strips over Wifi. Here's the current list:

• WS2801
• WS2811
• WS2812
• APA102
• SK6812 (RGB and RGBW)
• Adafruit Pixie
• Analog/PWM (common positive/anode)

Chromatron supports 5V and 12V LED systems, and up to 320 addressable channels.

Dimensions

2.0 x 1.25 inches (50.8 x 31.8 mm)

Chromatron's tooling is designed to make it easy to manage projects with a large number of controllers (I regularly run 20 to 30 on my home network). You can tag devices with up to 8 names and groups, query for them, and then run commands on all matches. Almost all settings update on the fly, so you can tweak your project as fast as you can think. All of the tooling is written in Python (including the FX script compiler).

Other features

• 8 general purpose IO pins, 4 of which are analog inputs
• Dual processor architecture: ESP8266 + ATXmega128A4U
• Micro USB port
• Streaming support via Python library
• Fader engine runs at 50 Hz
• FX graphics loop runs up to 100 Hz

Chromatron is completely open source, both hardware and software. Check it out on Github!

Check out docs here!

Chromatron was initially released as a Kickstarter project.

Some of my projects using Chromatron

Why did you make it?

I wanted a controller that supported any LED strip I would want to use, supported live coding, ran over Wifi, and was open source. I didn't see anything that fit the bill, and I already had a really powerful embedded OS from past projects that were well suited for Chromatron. Also, designing electronics is just pure joy, so what else was I going to do with my time?