addressable LEDs with an ESP32 - a little help with DOF Config please?

[jedimasta]

I had some microcontrollers lying around and thought it was about time I upgraded my cabinet's controls from the makey-makey board to something with more potential. Without getting too deep into the weeds, I have a working keyboard emulation and serial setup using 2 super mini ESP32s and some shift registers.

 

I'm now trying to get DOF working to, at least for now, flash the RGD LEDs I've got in a few of my buttons. Eventually I'll probly add under cab and accent lights, but I don't want to burden my brain with all that quite yet. So for now, I have a single arcade button that I shoved a small ws2812b LED into. I've installed all the DOFLinx stuff and now I'm in the ConfigTool. In Devices, I've added 1 device to the WS2811 drop down and saved. In theory, this would be the Fire button. My disconnect is where I tell the config that this particular button is the Fire button and which port(s) I need to assign it to. It's my understanding that it needs to have 3 ports (RGB) but just adding Fire to P1-P3 doesnt do it; i.e. the fields don't change colors and even if they did, I'm 99% sure it doesn't associate the fire button with that specific rgb element anyway.

 

I realize I'm making it hard on myself by not just buying a pinscape-ready board, but it's what I had without spending any extra cash. Thanks for any help.

[Rappelbox]

from my knowledge you need some teensystripcontroller code ported to esp32 platform.

your best start would be to check out the matching github. port the code to esp32

create a cabinet.xml, asign your device (fire MX) to the correct output port (assume "1") on the ws2811 device page.

generate files, copy into directoutput/config folder 

[jedimasta]

17 hours ago, Rappelbox said:

from my knowledge you need some teensystripcontroller code ported to esp32 platform.

 

I gave that a shot with some initial promising results. I was able to figure out the serial commands and formatting DOF expects, but according to the dof tester, it just refuses to shake hands with the com port (no, the Arduino ide is not monitoring).

[Rappelbox]

if you have a teensy 3.2 or 4.0 around then try these for the moment
what's the exact error code or isn't there at all?

 

[jedimasta]

The important bit from the output log when running the config tester is:

Quote

2026.03.25 09:52:53.420    EXCEPTION: Could not put the controller on com-port 'COM4' into the commandmode. Will not send data to the controller.

I went against my instincts and threw it over to Claude.ai last night, so I'm gonna run through some steps it gave me this morning. It's suggestions all focused around forcing the serial monitoring to act a certain way that the Teensy defaults to.

[jedimasta]

If anyone is interested, I've still be hacking away at this with varying results. I can get the tester to initially talk to the microcontroller, but that's more or less as far as I can get. I've uploaded details to git along with the config files and arduino sketch here: https://github.com/ctkjedi/ESP32-DOF-Tester

 

If you have ANY insight, I'm happy to hear it. And if not, maybe someone will come across this thread in a few years and stand upon my shoulders (weak though they may be) to reach their own solution.

[jedimasta]

I ended up going with a Wemos D1 for this, though I may revisit the esp32 at some point.

[Lsatan]

On 4/9/2026 at 7:50 PM, jedimasta said:

I ended up going with a Wemos D1 for this, though I may revisit the esp32 at some point.

Hi,

in case you are still interested in using an ESP32: here is my fully functional firmware. Like the Teensy, it operates at high speed and serves as a complete replacement for it. It is absolutely essential that you use an ESP32-S3. Feel free to check it out—everything is described in the README.

https://github.com/LSatan/ESP32-S3-VPinball-LED-Software

 

Regards