Sparkle Motion is the flagship in Adafruit's series of "Sparkle Motion" boards, their attempt to make the best WLED-friendly smart LED driving board in the whole world.
Adafruit's resident mermaid, firepixie makes a lot of projects with WLED and she loves it! So how to make something that will be powerful enough to drive advanced LED projects with built-in sensors.
This version has a built-in antenna so it's ready to go out-of-the-box.
This board has everything you could possibly want for big, small, or even massive WLED/xLights projects:
- Power option 1 via USB Type C PD with a slide switch that selects between 5, 12 and 20V (24V pixels can usually run fine at 20V)
- Power option 2 via 2.1mm DC jack, center positive
- Low forward-voltage diodes so its good for up to 5A from either
- 5 Amp fuse to protect from over-current drive
- ESP32 mini module with built in antenna port - the classic ESP32 has the best WLED support even if we'd prefer the 'S2 or 'S3. Comes with 4 MB of flash, dual core 240MHz Tensilica, WiFi, Bluetooth® LE and Bluetooth® Classic support.
- USB-serial converter with auto-reset
- Three output signal terminal block sets with power and ground for each - they'll be level shifted to 5V. Use 26-20AWG stranded or solid core wires, 5A rated.
- 6 GPIO breakout pads with a fourth level-shifted output, and 3 more GPIO plus power and ground.
- Built-in I2S microphone for audio-reactive projects with digital quality audio
- Built-in IR receiver for easy remote control integration
- Stemma QT I2C port to connect external sensors/OLED/etc.
- Separate analog/digital input JST port for analog input, potentiometer, microphone or external IR receiver
- User button on GPIO 0 plus Reset button
- Red built-in LED on pin 4
- Small built-in NeoPixel on pin 2
- Compact enough you can use it for wearable projects - 1.3"x1.75" / 33mm x 45mm size with mounting holes
To make it super fast to get started, terminal blocks are pre-installed: use any 20-26 AWG stranded or solid core wires with a flat-head screwdriver to attach semi-permanently.
While Adafruit recommend it for use with WLED, it will also work just fine as a compact ESP32 board for use with Arduino, ESP-IDF, MicroPython, CircuitPython or any other ESP32 supported codebase.
Technical Details
Revision History:
- As of August 4, 2025 - The microphone may be located on the top or bottom of the Sparkle Motion board.
Learn
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Primary Guide: Adafruit Sparkle Motion
Get up and running with your Sparkle Motion Board - See more guides!