The Adafruit Sparkle Motion Stick is part of our series of "Sparkle Motion" boards, which are our attempt to make the best small WLED-friendly smart LED driving board in the whole world. Our resident mermaid, firepixie makes a lot of projects with WLED, and she loves it! So, how can we make something powerful enough to drive advanced LED projects that need a compact design?
The USB Stick version of the Sparkle Motion is a simpler version of our full-featured Sparkle Motion. It even fits into a low cost off-the-shelf case for protection. Please note the case is not included with this product, so don't forget to pick one up if you want it in a case!
- Power via USB Type A for up to 5V 2A input - you can use off-the-shelf USB battery packs for portable operation.
- 2 Amp resetting 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
- Two output signals plus 5V power and ground - both signal outputs are level shifted to 5V.
- Built-in I2S microphone for audio-reactive projects
- Built-in Infrared receiver on GPIO 10 for easy remote control integration
- User button on GPIO 0 which you can press even when its in the snap-on case
- Red built-in LED on pin 4
- Small built-in NeoPixel on pin 18
- Screw terminal blocks for no-solder connectivity
Compared to our larger Sparkle Motion board, this only supports 5V and doesn't have a reset button, there are fewer outputs, and no breakout pads of I2C/GPIO connections for external accessories.
Compared to our Sparkle Motion Mini, this has a USB A port so it's 2A max power. It does have IR and built-in terminal blocks but does not have GPIO breakout pads.
While we 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.
Page last edited May 22, 2025
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