Adafruit has recently released the Adafruit Sparkle Motion Stick, a compact, WLED-friendly Neopixel USB controller board built around an ESP32-S3 Module designed for audio-reactive LED projects, cosplay props, holiday lighting, and more.
The module comes with a USB Type-A port for programming and power input (5V, 2A max), and a simple enclosure for protection (not weatherproof). It includes a built-in I2S microphone for audio-reactive effects, an IR receiver for remote control. Other than that it has a user-programmable button, an onboard NeoPixel LED, and a red status LED with two 5V-level shifted signal outputs with power and to connect the LEDs a screw terminal blocks.
Adafruit Sparkle Motion Stick specifications
- SoC – ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 MCU @ 240MHz with 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and BLE 5
- LED Control – 2x level-shifted output channels (5V logic) with terminal blocks (26–20AWG support)
- Audio Input – Built-in I2S MEMS digital microphone for audio-reactive lighting
- Infrared – Integrated IR receiver for remote control on GPIO10
- USB
- USB Type-A port with resettable fuse, for power and programming (5V/2A max)
- Uses CP2102N with auto-reset for programming
- Misc
- User button on GPIO0 and the Reset button (accessible in the enclosure)
- Red status LED on GPIO4
- Built-in NeoPixel on GPIO18
- Power Input
- USB Type-A plug (5V/2A max)
- 2A resettable fuse for over-current protection
- Dimensions – 48 x 22 x 12 mm (with case)
In terms of software, this Adafruit Sparkle Motion Stick fully supports WLED firmware, but can also be programmed with Arduino, MicroPython, CircuitPython, and the ESP-IDF framework. The USB stick doesn’t come with WLED preinstalled, and you have to install it from the WLED website. Adafruit generally provides documentation and a getting-started guide, but for this product, I didn’t find anything on their products page.
Having said that, it should be possible to use the same instructions as for the Adafruit Sparkle Motion board, a larger version of the ESP32-S3 USB stick. Both solutions use an ESP32-S3 as a WLED driver, but the Stick is a tiny USBA dongle, while the Sparkle Motion is a larger board (45 x 33mm) with terminal blocks and mounting holes. The power and output capabilities are very different; the stick is limited to 5V/2A and exposes just two level-shifted LED signal outputs plus power/ground, whereas the full Sparkle Motion offers USB-C Power Delivery (switchable 5/12/20V) and a 2.1mm DC jack with a 5A fuse along with three separate terminal-block LED outputs. We have also written about the YULC (Yes, a USB-C LED Controller) board and SMLIGHT A1-SLWF-03 also compatible with the WLED firmware.
The Adafruit Sparkle Motion Stick is priced at $19.95 with the enclosure or $18.95 without, but at the time of writing, the latter is out of stock.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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