Blog 13 - WS2811/WS2812B Digital Brightness Control Available in New Pixblasters Firmware Upgrade
Over the past period we have had quite a few inquiries from Pixblasters users regarding brightness control in WS2811, WS2812B and other 3-wire compatible RGB LEDs based displays.
While APA102 and compatible 4-wire LEDs have an integrated brightness control mechanism, explained in our blog https://pixblasters.com/blog-7-apa102-led-support-is-coming-soon/, WS2812B and other 3-wire LEDs does not have this feature and always light at the maximum brightness.
To enable 3-wire LED video displays dimming, we added digital brightness controls to the latest Pixblasters firmware. Updated User’s Manual and firmware files are available for immediate download from: https://pixblasters.com/deliverables/.
New Firmware Updates Testing
The new firmware features additional 5 control bits in the AUX1 auxiliary register, which theoretically enable 32 levels of brightness. In display architectures that use multiple Pixblasters MS1 Video LED Controllers, the global brightness level must be setup for the Master board only. The chained Slave Pixblasters controllers automatically work with the dimmed brightness levels.
Besides new brightness controls, we have also slightly improved gamma controls. The new firmware offers two internal gamma correction tables tuned for the Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS operating systems. Of course, the internal gamma correction can be fully bypassed and controlled from an external video source. However, please remember that addressable LEDs give low quality image without a correct gamma correction.
