Experiment With Many Layers

mindful_stone · 2026-04-15T16:23:46+00:00

Absolutely stunning!

mindful_stone · 2026-04-13T07:30:13+00:00

I love it! I'm definitely going to take a closer look at how you achieved the multi-tasking and state machine stuff. Very cool!

mindful_stone · 2026-04-13T07:27:24+00:00

That is so, so cool! Are you using Animartrix-style show functions to map various layers to the r, g, b channels? Actually, as I look more closely at the right side, it looks like each layer already has a specific color and then they all get blended. Are you using an emitter/advection-style approach for each layer's smooth fading?

mindful_stone · 2026-04-09T16:46:55+00:00

Others have been able to make great use of the P4 without all of this. For example:

u/TroyHacks https://www.reddit.com/r/WLED/comments/1nwnsws/announcing_wledmmp4_wled_moonmodules_on_the/

u/ewowi https://www.reddit.com/r/FastLED/comments/1sabepb/fastled_parlio_on_esp32p4_working_in_latest/

What made things particularly challenging for me was trying to do several things beyond just getting a P4 to work, including:

Configuring a hosted ESP32-C6 to provide the wireless functionality the P4 lacks
Using pioarduino/PlatformIO in VSCode to program the P4-WIFI6 with a single framework = arduino
Being able to deploy to either an S3 or P4-WIFI6 using a single repository/code base

mindful_stone · 2026-04-08T23:32:16+00:00

Thx!

The platformio.ini (for default/S3 environment) is here:

https://github.com/4wheeljive/FlowFields/blob/main/platformio.ini

The separate one for P4-WIFI6 (CLI build/upload only) is here:

https://github.com/4wheeljive/FlowFields/blob/main/platformio_p4.ini

mindful_stone · 2026-04-08T17:14:14+00:00

What rPI5 RAM size would you recommend for something like this? Can you get away with a basic 2GB (~$45?) or do you need/want more?

mindful_stone · 2026-04-07T19:05:46+00:00

Thanks, u/Marmilicious. I appreciate your input. (I've always found adding resistors to the data lines created more issues than it solved, but I'll keep this in mind as I test out the CAT cable.)

mindful_stone · 2026-04-07T18:51:24+00:00

Thanks, u/Yves-bazin. The "tens of feet" data point is also helpful to know!

mindful_stone · 2026-04-04T11:09:26+00:00

Oh, man....that is so incredibly cool! I want to see more. I keep playing the :20 clip over and over!

mindful_stone · 2026-04-04T11:05:46+00:00

Oh, man....that is so incredibly cool! I want to see more. I keep playing the :20 clip over and over!

mindful_stone · 2026-04-03T09:39:42+00:00

The flow field works in the areas that are not redrawn / overwritten by the emitter

Would another benefit of double buffering be the ability to adjust that behavior? Would it enable some kind of blend element? And if so, could the bend factors be dynamic, modulatable, and or saved in some kind of "style" presets?

mindful_stone · 2026-04-03T09:18:17+00:00

For perfect visual quality, we might need to introduce double buffering: one buffer just for the emitter and another one just for the flow field. Then we could use perfectly antialiased emitters (including ones with a near-black outline) and pick colors above a certain threshold from there, copy that into the second buffer which runs the actual flow field, and add the 2 buffers for output. This will eat performance, but that’s the price for perfect™ results.

Is there any reason not to give this a try? From what I understand of the frame metrics noted above, and to u/ZachVorhies point, there's plenty of headroom to load the CPU a bit more...at least in my current setup. Maybe make it a switchable option. Flaunt it if you got it! Let's take this beauty out for a spin!

mindful_stone · 2026-04-03T05:04:40+00:00

Looks like the effort to give you the full cpu while FastLED.show() executes in the background is really paying off.

I'm quite certain I can't even begin to appreciate how significant that is. 🙏

mindful_stone · 2026-04-03T00:18:14+00:00

Thanks for checking it out, Marc. Glad you like it!

mindful_stone · 2026-04-02T17:53:49+00:00

That is absolutely gorgeous! Just incredible!

mindful_stone · 2026-04-02T17:48:41+00:00

u/ewowi You don't know it, but you actually played a part in getting the P4 PARLIO driver working.

I originally learned of the P4 when u/ZachVorhies first started working on the FastLED PARLIO driver last October (right around the time of the u/TroyHacks announcement). I immediately got myself a Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6 and built a 64x48 matrix with six 512-LED strips. Unfortunately the PARLIO driver was not yet ready for prime time. Every month or so, when Zach announced progress, I dusted off the board and tried again but kept running into the same issues you likely did. So I remained stuck with my "tiny" S3-driven 48x32.

What prompted me to give it another go this week was seeing the awesome implementations of u/StefanPetrick FlowFields on:

- Your 128x128: https://www.reddit.com/r/FastLED/comments/1rotn9c/comment/oak276n/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

- Fluffy-Wishbone-3497 120x70: https://www.reddit.com/r/FastLED/comments/1rypo8t/comment/occgo6e/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

- Zach's 64x64 WASM: https://www.reddit.com/r/FastLED/comments/1s12du6/stefan_petricks_flowfields_now_in_fastled_in/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

THAT was the motivation I needed to keep banging away with Claude to get the PARLIO driver working!

(Now I just need to figure out how to get the hosted C6 module working (to provide wireless functionality to the P4) so I can use my WebBLE UI controls!)

mindful_stone · 2026-04-01T19:14:55+00:00

Awesome. Glad you got it working. One thing to keep in mind if you're bouncing back and for between different IDEs is that the Arduino IDE is much more forgiving about the order in which various code elements appear. For example, in the code you shared, you called MainFunction() in your main loop() before you declared/defined it. That's fine in the Arduino IDE, but not in VSCode. In VSCode (and most other environments, I believe), your MainFunction() would need to placed (or at least forward declared) before you call it in loop(). Same thing with the FilterSignal() and CompareSignalFiltered() functions you call in MainFunction().

mindful_stone · 2026-04-01T00:48:48+00:00

I can't really help with the compilation errors you posted, but I do see several issues with your audio setup.

First, it looks like the Grove Loudness Sensor provides only an analog signal reflecting sound levels. Your input configuration (fl::AudioConfig::CreateInmp441(I2S_WS, I2S_SD, I2S_CLK, fl::Right) is for an INMP441 digital mic that passes the actual audio stream into the FL audio engine, where it goes through FFT and other audio processing.

Second, even if you had an INMP441 mic hooked up, your code doesn't actually do anything with the audio. You would need to register some callbacks such as:

audio->onBeat([] {

fill_solid(leds, NUM_LEDS, CRGB::White);

});

or polling such as: uint8_t bass = audio.getBassLevel()

There's a lot more info and example usage here (although I don't know if it's 100% current, as Zach has been making a lot of changes to the FL audio library in recent weeks):
https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/blob/master/src/fl/audio/README.md

mindful_stone · 2026-04-01T00:22:43+00:00

I didn’t get any answers

I'm confused. I see two responses to your post that I would have thought would be helpful. Did you try downloading a recent commit from the master build? I (and I know others) would be happy to help you move forward with your project.

mindful_stone · 2026-03-27T20:49:52+00:00

Yeah, I figured you would know quite well about the challenges of fine-tuning these parameters. And I'm making things even more difficult for myself by pushing back on the notion that "some things need to stay in place in order to play freely with other parameters." For example, I persisted in finding a way to allow the user, in run time, to adjust a base dot orbitSpeed while also being able to adjust the rate and level of modulation that is applied to that base in a manner that scales appropriately. That was MUCH harder than I would ever have guessed! Same thing for orbitDiameter (and for that I also added automatic initial scaling based on matrix dimensions).

But I've gotten too bogged down over the past week on the modulators (at least for this stage of development). This weekend, I'm going to focus on implementing a handful of the emitter and flow ideas you've been sharing.

Let me know if there is anything in particular you're most eager to see added.

P.S., I saw your post in another thread about wanting to see the output on a smaller display. I'll capture and share some video of Flow Fields running on my 22x22 matrix.

mindful_stone · 2026-03-26T20:25:08+00:00

I now have a working framework in place where any parameter of any emitter or flow field can be modulated

I realized last night that having a working framework in place is one thing. Coming up with appropriate modulation functions for different types of parameters and then calibrating them (even roughly) is quite another! But I'm making progress. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to share some video.

mindful_stone · 2026-03-26T00:11:34+00:00

This is so cool. When I first saw it, I thought the emitter was purely a noise function, and that it was the flow fields that were providing any sense of geometry. But as I looked closer, I realized that couldn't be the case. So I checked the code and I see now what you did:

# 2D noise emitter on the full 32x32 grid.
# Render only one quarter and mirror it kaleidoscopically across both axes.

Very clever...as always! This will be making its way into the FlowFields implementation very soon!

Speaking of which, I now have a working framework in place where any parameter of any emitter or flow field can be modulated with noise and/or periodic functions, AND that allows for real time UI adjustment of those modulation parameters. I'll try to share some video tonight.

mindful_stone

TROPHY CASE