LED patterns¶

The leds command drives the NeoPixel ring: a solid colour, a pattern, or off. For getting the ring connected in the first place, see Wiring the LED ring.

What it is showing¶

leds

reports the current mode and colour, whether a pattern is looping, the brightness, and the hardware it is driving — how many LEDs, on which GPIO, at which data rate and in which colour order. That last part is the quickest way to confirm the strip is configured the way your hardware actually is.

A solid colour¶

leds colour red
leds colour #ff8000
leds colour 255,128,0
leds colour 255 128 0

A colour is a name (red, orange, …), #RRGGBB or bare RRGGBB, or three decimal values either comma-separated or as separate words. color is accepted as well as colour.

leds off

turns the strip off; leds stop does the same thing.

Patterns¶

Each pattern plays once, holds for a second, and then turns the strip off. With loop it repeats until leds off.

leds wipe
leds wipe blue
leds wipe blue loop
leds rainbow loop

rainbow takes no colour — it is the whole wheel — so leds rainbow green is an error rather than a tint.

Flicker¶

leds flicker
leds flicker #4da6ff

flicker makes the colour flicker like a failing hologram: mostly bright and restless, each LED a little apart from the others, with the odd dropout to near dark and a short stutter. White if no colour is given. Unlike the other patterns it has no end: it runs until something else takes the strip, such as leds off, another pattern, or a scene. Paired with a clip in a scene, it makes the ring look like part of the hologram.

Brightness¶

leds bright 30

Brightness is a percentage from 1 to 100, applied to everything the strip shows, and it is the main thing standing between you and a brown-out.

The boot brightness is set in menuconfig (LEDS_BRIGHTNESS, 100% by default); see Configuration.