Bitluni Powers Six LED Projectors Using a Single ESP32 Microcontroller

from hackster.io

Bitluni has created a number of projects using the ESP32, including a 10-player console controller hub, timelapse camera, ping pong lamp, and more. His latest build uses the popular microcontroller to drive six LED projectors via a customized VGA hub.

To design the “VGA Madness” board, Bitluni turned to his ESP32 VGA project, specifically an extension board to connect to a VGA display. To get the VGA Madness board to work, Bitluni employed six of his VGA extension boards and tweaked them to handle the ESP32’s limited memory using one bit (instead of 16-bits per pixel) for monochrome projection.

While the ESP32 is limited in the amount of onboard memory, it offers DMA hardware and GPIO mapping, which makes it suitable for this project. Leveraging both methods, Bitluni managed to coax a 640 x 400 resolution using the six projectors, along with a Starfield display. Moreover, he was also able to push the setup to three bits by tying six output pins into two sets of three.