Huidu WF1 and 8 scan LED panel | ESPHome | Page 1

maiden zodiac Oct 9, 2024, 10:57 AM

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The Huidu WF1 LED panel controller uses an ESP32-S2, and can easily be programmed with ESPHome. The USB-A connector is wired up to the USB pins to read a flash drive in the original design, but can be used to program it from a PC using either a USB-A-A cable, or a USB-A to C cable in reverse (connecting back to your computer's USB-C port). The two pads to the left of the microUSB connector are GPIO0, and can be shorted to enter the bootloader.

I unfortunately purchased an "8 scan" LED panel from (https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005003238025086.html) which was not immediately supported by TillFleisch's Hub75 wrapper. I managed to get it working, by modifying TillFleisch's wrapper to support a VirtualMatrixPanel, and a coordinate rewriting layer. My code (including a WF1.yaml example configuration) is available here: https://github.com/RoganDawes/ESPHome-HUB75-MatrixDisplayWrapper

Note that the panel was at brightness level 3 (out of 255) when taking this photo!

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During development, I used a "USB power switch" that cuts the Vcc line of my USB cable to avoid dual-powering the WF1, because it needs an external power supply to drive the panels, due to large current requirements. I guess I could also have just powered the WF1 from the PC, and the panels from the external supply. Might have made more sense that way ... 🤔

maiden monolith Oct 9, 2024, 6:57 PM

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Just to confirm: the panel you linked doesn't have its own ESP, right? You bought the panel controller separately? Or you skipped their controller and just used another ESP board's GPIO using the github repo?

maiden zodiac Oct 10, 2024, 6:29 AM

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The Huidu WF1 is available separately from the panels. The panels I linked come with no controller at all, but are "difficult" to interact with due to their scan choices.

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I actually got a WF2 (two channel, ESP32-S3) controller as well, but have not yet tested if it works in a similar way. There is an ESPHome configuration for the WF2 that details the pin mappings available on the googles if you look for it.

maiden monolith Oct 10, 2024, 6:32 AM

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Do you need the controller though? Looking at this image in the repo it seems like they've just wired pins directly from a devboard to the pins on the display

maiden zodiac Oct 10, 2024, 6:32 AM

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apparenlty the vendor software on the WF1 and WF2 are limited to 3-bit colour, which is not great.

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the WF1 is not required, but does include a 3v3 to 5v buffer

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but yes, you can absolutely drive the panels directly from most dev boards

unique ledge Oct 10, 2024, 9:25 AM

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I have a branch of that component that allows for multiple panel setups without running out of memory by using its own framebuffer not the one that comes with the DMA driver

maiden zodiac Oct 10, 2024, 12:15 PM

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oh neat. Pointer, please? I am having problems setting up more than one chained panel, responsiveness goes to hell, the display flickers horribly, and I can't OTA update it anymore. Would your fork behave better, perhaps? The WF1 does not have any PSRAM to accommodate a larger framebuffer.

golden wing Oct 10, 2024, 7:52 PM

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The ESP only has a certain amount of bandwidth, so if you add another panel, you're going to half something. Refresh rate, color depth, etc.

unique ledge Oct 12, 2024, 1:44 PM

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You just need to use

external_components:

source: github://netmindz/ESPHome-HUB75-MatrixDisplayWrapper@double-buffer
refresh: 0s

then set

display:

platform: hub75_matrix_display
double_buffer: false

unique ledge Oct 13, 2024, 2:51 PM

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Please let me know how you get on @maiden zodiacwith my branch

maiden zodiac Oct 16, 2024, 6:10 AM

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unique ledge Please let me know how you get on <@276635795396231179>with my branch

I have actually packed the panels away for the moment, will get back to them in a week or so.

next atlas Mar 17, 2025, 12:51 PM

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Heya, did ya manage to get it working?

maiden zodiac Mar 17, 2025, 1:01 PM

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I never did get back to this, I'm afraid. Sorry.

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Oh, hmm. Actually, I did makes use of the code in december, and forgot I was supposed to test a different branch. Sorry about that.

sacred lantern Mar 25, 2025, 2:42 PM

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I am struggling to flash the wf1 board through usb A to A port. I can get the board to boot mode and see the com4 port in windows. When i try to flass the firmware with esptool it exists at 2% giring serial communication error. But if I do only the erase process it successfully erases. Any pointers pls...

maiden zodiac Mar 25, 2025, 2:45 PM

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Try a shorter cable, perhaps? Or a USB-A to C (with the C plugged in to your computer, if you have -C ports)

sacred lantern Mar 25, 2025, 2:47 PM

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Cable is shorter... Tried different a to a cable.
Tried A to C cable.. never detect the serial port neither the power led comes on.

maiden zodiac Mar 25, 2025, 3:03 PM

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Dunno what to suggest, I'm afraid. "It worked for me" ™️

sacred lantern Mar 25, 2025, 3:14 PM

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It had worked for me for one board some time six months back.
If I down load the firmware as ota format.. the flash is success but the device never boot up. May be the recent change in esphome (2025) broke something?

sacred lantern Mar 25, 2025, 6:41 PM

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Quick update .....
I have used an espwebtool.. (https://esp.huhn.me) and the factory bin file uploaded successfully and module working as expected.

Before ... I have used different versions (3.x.x) esptool, adafruit esptool... all were giving error.

maiden zodiac Mar 25, 2025, 8:44 PM

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interesting. Run under the same OS?

sacred lantern Mar 26, 2025, 1:24 AM

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Yes same os(windows)

sacred lantern Mar 26, 2025, 1:47 AM

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And same firmware.

next atlas Apr 4, 2025, 1:02 PM

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Welp i gave up after i did something to the board and just kept overheating, ive found i can wire up directly a esp32 to the hub75 port and it reaches 93fps on this plasma sketch

#Huidu WF1 and 8 scan LED panel