Now available directly from OSH Park: https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/M36968Sg

This is a shield/breakout for Adafruit Feather Boards that makes it easy to control addressable RGB LEDs, such as WS2811, WS2812 (Adafruit NeoPixels), and APA102 (Adafruit DotStars). The Adafruit ESP32 Feather is an excellent mini Wi-Fi development board, based on the ESP32.

RGB LEDs not included

I made this shield because I was hand-wiring this same layout on perma-proto boards, which was time-consuming and unprofessional looking.

The shield includes a 74HCT245 level shifter, which is the most well-regarded high speed level shifter I've found. This shifts the 3.3V logic level of the ESP32 to the 5V expected by addressable RGB LEDs. These projects often work fine without a level shifter, until they don't.

Eight digital output pins (12, 13, 14, 15, 27, 32, 33, SCL) are run through the level shifter. It supports parallel output, thanks to Sam Guyer's excellent work on FastLED ESP32 support: https://github.com/samguyer/FastLED

The shield also includes places for data line resistors as recommended when driving LEDs. A large capacitor should be connected across the power and ground connections near the LEDs.

Assembly Options

The board can be assembled in a very low profile configuration (about 10mm thick) by soldering a Feather board directly to the PCB with only male headers.

Alternatively, female headers can be used to allow easy removal of the Feather microcontroller. This results in about 18mm of thickness.

Stacking female headers can be used, which allows plugging other FeatherWings directly on top and/or bottom. This adds another 8mm to 16mm of thickness.

Specifications

• Size: 2.00 x 0.90 x .063 inch (48.3 x 73.4 x 1.6 mm)
• 2 layer printed circuit board
• FR4 substrate
• Lead free
• Purple SMOBC (solder mask over bare copper)
• ENIG (Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold) finish
• Manufactured in the USA

Parts List

These parts are required to assemble. They are not included.

• Adafruit ESP32 Feather (https://www.adafruit.com/product/2886)
• Feather Header Kit

These parts are also required to assemble. They are included if you choose the Component Kit option:

• SN74HCT245N Level Shifter
• 0.10µF Capacitor
• 8 x 330 Ohm resistor
• Power Barrel Connector Jack

Full assembly instructions