Adafruit Sparkle Motion - All-In-One WLED and xLights Board

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

• Primary Guide: Adafruit Sparkle Motion
  Get up and running with your Sparkle Motion Board
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