I wanted to add some RGB accent lighting to a custom keyboard, but since I didn't have access to the keyboard controller through the usual means (QMK/VIA) I was kind of skunked. Until I stumbled on the Pixelblaze Pico. This tiny little fellow easily fits inside the keyboard case and drives the lights so well it puts the more traditional methods of RGB control on keyboard to shame. Just being able to pull up the web page of the device in my browser to change modes is an absolute revelation.

Anyway, I'm super happy and wish I could post a picture, but here's a link to a keyboard enthusiast forum where I posted the result: https://www.keebtalk.com/t/whats-on-your-workbench-today/12656/796?u=extra_fox

Mario | Sept. 20, 2021

Great product

For Pixelblaze V3 Standard - WiFi LED Controller

I bought a Pixelblaze v3 with the sensor board. It is great fun. I have 20m of APA102 strip connected to it right now for testing. After that it will go up in my pergola. It is going to look great :-)
The boards are high quality and Pixelblaze is really easy to get started with. The only thing I find confusing is that the best documentation is for the v2 board and there are a few differences. Other than that little thing the kit is great fun!

Miguel Angel | Sept. 20, 2021

Amazing product!!

For Pixelblaze V3 Standard - WiFi LED Controller

Great board to play with, never use USPS as sender, the company who manage the deliveries in Spain is "Correos" and it's really bad, they can loose your shipment

Christopher | Jan. 9, 2021

Very impressive LED controller!

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

My experience with Pixelblaze has been leaps and bounds better than using Arduino or a generic ESP8266. The user experience is amazing. The one thing I would like to see that I could not find is an easy step-by-step tutorial (preferably video) on writing your first patterns in the editor.

Response from ElectroMage | Jan. 12, 2021

Hi Christopher,
Thank you! Check out "An Intro to Pixelblaze Code" on the pattern sharing site:
https://electromage.com/patterns/
I think you will find it a great resource for leaning the ropes. We also have this video which walks through writing the KITT pattern:
https://youtu.be/3ugNIZ96UK4

David | Jan. 8, 2021

Mostly Works Great, sometimes loses wifi

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

Super fun gizmo. Works well with both 3-strand and 4-strand rgbw leds. Nice patterns. Fun UI.
Had problems with unit sometimes dropping connection to my home wifi network; was annoying to have to re-teach it network creds every few days. Would buy again for home/hobbyist use, but due to wifi-issues would not trust it in installation/exhibition-setting

Response from ElectroMage | Jan. 8, 2021

Hi David,
I'm glad it's fun, but it shouldn't drop from WiFi. Maybe the flash is faulty? Please reach out through email or Tindie messaging if you'd like to give a replacement a shot.

David | Oct. 1, 2020

Really nice!

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

Arrived in less than a week (ordered on a Friday afternoon and arrived on a Thursday) from West Coast to East Coast US and was easy to setup and get running. I should be too old for stickers, but I love the two included stickers. It's really a nice touch.I connected my 1m/60led APA102 clone and it was showing patterns before I was even finished configuring it. I'm excited to be a part of the PB community. See you in the forums.

Wayne | Sept. 26, 2020

Very nice!

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

Trying to figure out how to program it. The examples that come with the unit are fun to play with and I hope will give me a good understanding of how to use it. Any plans for a GUI type of input in the works? Also, I am interested in the lighting pattern shown on demo page, unless I missed it I did not see it included on the light patterns provided with the item. Thanks, I have been interested in LED’s for a long time. Happy that I found you site!

Lloyd | July 18, 2020

Pixelblaze Settings for this Strip

For 4 meter spool of 60/m SK6812 (WS2812) RGBW LEDs

Pixelblaze setup for this strip seems to be:
LED Type: Buffered (x2 rate) WS2812 / NeoPixel
Data Speed: 286ns/571ns
Color Order: GRBW

Michael | May 4, 2020

quick as easy way to control an APA102 Strip

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

You need a power supply and LED's make sure you have the right strip for the pixel blaze Controller and correct Voltage for power.

Derwent | April 14, 2020

This is an amazing chip for talking to a bunch of LEDs

For ElectroMage Serial to 8x WS2812/APA102 Driver

Great chip, works well, very reasonably priced.
Took a while to get it working, because the only supported way of programming it is with the Arduino library, and there's always room for improvement for documenting, would be especially helpful if the exact length of the bit fields was documented.
Also had a rough time with the shipping because I live in Australia and ordered during the COVID-19 crisis, and USPS has non-existent customer service, but that's not Ben's fault.
Overall I would highly recommend this chip if you're going to be interfacing with an Arduino, or you are happy to write your own drivers.

Richard | Jan. 31, 2020

Really useful little board

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

I bought one to replace the common Chinese controller running lights around the reception in my shop. This item is so much better! Smaller, easy to load patterns, and nice web interface makes it simple to edit things from my desk or even my phone. The sensor add on for sound reaction is also great. I've just bought 2 more for the other lights around my shop entrance.

My one criticism would be the lack of documentation on the programming of the patterns. I have programmed a lot of Arduino and C, but the language used is some sort of Java like language that I am not familiar with. Bellow the code editor is a list of functions etc, but they have no explanation of what they do. I guess a Java coder will know, but the rest of us must Google them. Also, please put comments in the sample code to show what each line does!

Much of the coding is universal (for loops, arrays etc), but a more in depth tutorial would be really appreciated.

Response from ElectroMage | Feb. 2, 2020

Hi Richard,
I'm glad you are enjoying Pixelblaze!

Thanks for the feedback on the documentation for the language. Aside from the list of limitations, it's based on ES6, a newer version of JavaScript. The math functions work the same as C or JavaScript. I'll work on getting more documentation and comments in the pattern code!

If you have any questions I'm always happy to help, and the forum is a helpful resource as well: https://forum.electromage.com/

Florian | Nov. 20, 2019

I love it!

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze Sensor Expansion Board

This board is really cool.
The features are as described.
It talks at 115200 baud over serial and has its own dedicated MCU to do all the processing of the accelerometer, microphone and 5 analog inputs.
It can be used with anything that speaks serial.

Took me some time to find the documentation, but it is pretty straight forward and well integrated with the pixelblaze board that i used it for.

Only drawback is the price, i think it is too expensive.
On the other hand high quality components are used and i bet the development took a lot of time.
Will buy again if the budget allows it.

Florian | Nov. 20, 2019

\o/ yay

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

This is a blast.
I built a hypercube (half-transparent glass + ledstrips) and started with my usual arduino approach.
It worked out alright, but once i started to add sound recognition i remembered that i always wanted to check out that pixelblaze board.
2 weeks later i got it and the matching sensor board in the mail (i am on the other end of the globe).
The community is great, the author responsive, the webinterface not only well designed but actually incredible.

I do a lot of blinkenthings myself and finished various projects with the ESP8266 in the past.
I had no idea that it can be so responsive.
That webinterface with live coding and websockets for instant display is so way out, please check it out.
Look at a youtube video for the webinterface, i promise you wont be disappointed.

The only "weird" thing is the logic that the scripts always calls a render(index) function for each pixel and you need to adapt to that logic to generate patterns.
But once you wrap your head around that concept it is AMAZING!
Another thing I don't like about the project is that it is closed source, but i understand why the author chose not to release the source (yet).
I sure hope he will release it in the future as this is a true treasure chest, a work of art.

The Sensorboard features its own MCU that does all the processing of the accelerometer, 5 analog inputs, a light sensor, a line in port and an on-board microphone.
It sends 16bit values over serial at 115200 baud constantly and is fast and super useful.
I will definitely use this in other projects.

6 out of 5 stars.
Will buy again.

Keith | Sept. 11, 2019

First time pixel blazing

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

I was looking for an easy to set up wireless control led and this fit the bill. A few solder points and I was ready to play around. Trying to teach myself some basic electronics and wiring. This is a good place to start. Connected to the WiFi Pixelblaze easily and the patterns that are preloaded are fun to play around with. The fact that you can copy patterns to modify, and you could do it with just your phone is amazing. I can physically build anything with plans but when it comes to coding I am lost, so to have that step temporarily removed from my hands is huge. Learning to code is next. If you have any suggestions of where to start to learn coding it would be appreciated.

Tim | Jan. 30, 2019

I love it

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

Very quick shipment. I love the board, powered it up, configured it, and off to displaying some neat stuff with my 2812s. Impressed with how small it is, how the sensor board interfaces with it, and the possibilities for interfacing to the board. Great job.

Alex | Jan. 3, 2019

Pretty good

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

Another reviewer mentioned that the markup on the hardware is a bit steep, which is true. If you're buying this product, you're buying it for the closed-source code flashed onto the chip and the documentation --both of which are fantastic. Knocking a star because the post for clamping wires was missing its screw, and the TX / RX designations on the PCB were wrong (should be reversed)

Response from ElectroMage | Jan. 5, 2019

Hi Alex,
Sorry about the screw terminal! I'd be happy to ship you a replacement (shoot me an email with your order #). Glad you are enjoying Pixelblaze otherwise, and thanks for the feedback.
- Ben

David | Sept. 24, 2018

Excellent Product

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

This is quite an amazing product which I found only AFTER developing my own DotStar lighting system on an Arduino MEGA. The Pixelblaze is much more powerful, the patterns incredible and you’ll save a LOT of time not having to constantly connect USB cables after each compile. You’ll need a bit of electronics knowledge and a fine-tip soldering iron to get up-n-running, but it’s minimal and worth the effort. Get one of these!!!

Jason | Sept. 13, 2018

Fantastic board, just what I needed...

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

I've been playing with LED boards for a long time...Flora, all the arduino family, various RPi versions doing multiple displays. But this is hands-down the easiest, fastest, and most fun I've had doing an LED project. Amazing product, the Pixelblaze is everything I wanted out of a board to drive LEDs. Finished an old project with it, and had requests for more of them!

Martin | Sept. 11, 2018

All is good

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

Good goods, functional. Only a description of the programming language would deserve more to describe, for better programming. Communicating with the merchant is perfect.

Todd | July 2, 2018

Excellent product!

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

I bought this to control the LED lights on our RV. My daughter got a hold of it, and we were treated to quite a light show.

The instructions are clear, the UI is great, and it's very easy to use. I'll be buying more!

Seth | March 8, 2018

Neat little gadget

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

I've been working with traditional Neopixels for a while, and I've started not notice their limitations particularly with regard to brightness and the speed at which they can be updated. I bought a Pixelblaze and a 30 strip of APA102 LEDs. They hooked up easily. I used USB power since it was a short strip. I configured Wifi as per the instructions and was soon seeing various patterns of lights on my strip. This is a great little gadget for getting started with APA102 LEDs, and I'll recommend it for a variety of relatively simple projects.

It does have limitations. It is primarily aimed at producing a variety of gradients. The "color assembly" operators also set the color of the LED. If you want something more complex, you'll have to figure out how to do your own color math in RGB or HSV. On the positive side, you have a fairly nice chunk of Javascript at the ready, but getting past gradients will take a bit more learning.

I had one problem during setup. There are two ways to connect APA102 strips to this device. You can use four header pins and a connector or you can install a four slot screw tight connector. You cannot install both, so you have to decide how you intend to work early. I originally installed the header then realized that it wouldn't work with my strip. I wound up adding the four slot connecting, but at an weird looking angle. It works fine, but is not really pretty. The main takeaway here is to plan ahead. A brief statement that one should choose up front would have been nice.

All told, I have some plans for this gadget, though my next big build, a Wifi controlled lamp for the hallway, will be based on a Seeeduino, lots more LEDs and a big power supply. I'm more comfortable working in C++ than Javascript, and the APA102 API is more in line with my plans than the Javascript interface. The Pixelblaze, however, is a great way to get started. It creates fun, good looking light play right out of the package. It's small, convenient, easy to program and lots of other good things. With Javascript, it will integrate nicely with other internet standards and packages.

Erick | Feb. 7, 2018

Really happy with this controller.

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

I don't write code, but editing variables in the patterns supplied has been the most satisfying LED experience I have ever had, and am quickly picking up on the various functions and the effects produced from tweaking the various parameters. Will be using in my upcoming series of new light and sound sculptures. And the fast response and support from the creator makes it even better! Thanx Ben. Great product!

Clifford | Dec. 28, 2017

Fun piece of kit, great support from the designer

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

I've had a lot of fun with the Pixelblaze, it's a nice design that will find its place in one of my projects soon. The designer was friendly, helpful and quick to reply to my technical questions.

Danny | Aug. 26, 2017

Ben has been very helpful with this product

For ElectroMage Pixelblaze V2+ WiFi LED Controller

This is an amazing product, that makes setting led strips patterns very easy. The support I am getting from Ben the seller is great. Thanks for bringing this product to market.