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FAQ

Questions people ask on a first run, in the order they meet them: installing, then first light, then the interface they are looking at, then effects, then the driver that reaches real hardware.

A symptom rather than a question belongs in Troubleshooting, which starts from what you can see.

Installing

  • Which firmware does my board take? The web installer picks it from the board you choose. See Install and first light.
  • Can I run it without a board? Yes, on macOS, Linux and Windows. See Installing to desktop.
  • Which hardware do the heavy effects want? The ones computing a field per light cost CPU, so a desktop or a small always-on machine runs them where a microcontroller cannot. See Installing on Linux.
  • How do I update? Over the air from the Firmware card, or by URL. See Updating firmware.

First light

  • Where do I set the number of lights? On a Layout, not on the driver. See Layouts.
  • Where do I add an effect? Expand a Layer under Effects, then add module: a layer is what composites effects and holds the blend mode. See Build your first light show.
  • Nothing lights up. See Troubleshooting.

The interface

  • What is the number on a module card? That module's own tick time, shown from expert mode up. Hold it to peek at the rate, which inverts it: a module ticking in 22 µs reads as 45K fps. The device's frame rate is fps on the System module.
  • The card is busy, and I do not need half of it. Set mode on the System module to user, expert or developer: each control names the mode it needs.
  • The preview changed resolution. It follows the layout, so a geometry change moves it. See Preview.

Effects and scripting

  • Can I write my own effect? Yes, in MoonLive, on the device, live. See Write your first script.
  • How do I save a look? Presets. See Presets.
  • Can I drive it from a control surface or a DAW? Over MIDI, OSC and DMX. See Control surface.

Drivers and panels

  • Which driver do I need? One per output kind: LEDs on pins, a panel card over Ethernet, HUB75 direct, or a network protocol. See Drivers.
  • Which board drives a panel card? One with gigabit Ethernet, so an S31 or a desktop. An S3 or P4 is 100 Mbit and wants a gigabit switch between it and the card. See Panel cards.
  • My ColorLight card does almost nothing. These cards need a 1000 Mbps link, and the driver reports the negotiated speed in its status line. See Panel cards.
  • My HUB75 panel is one column out. Set clockEdge to falling: some panel chips sample the shift clock on the other edge. See Drivers.
  • The HLS stream lags by seconds. HLS buffers whole segments, so the delay is the format. For a live view use Preview instead of HLS.

Network

  • Ethernet and WiFi fight. Pick one in the Network module's mode, because both leaves two default routes.

Developing

  • What is MoonDeck, and do I need it? A browser console that builds, flashes, runs, tests and checks the project, and drives the boards on your bench. Everything it offers is a script under moondeck/, so the CLI and the console run the same code and neither is required. See MoonDeck.
  • Why not PlatformIO or pioarduino? The ESP32 build is ESP-IDF-native, tracking IDF pre-releases against a pinned commit for chips like the P4 and S31, and the hot-path drivers use the vendor APIs directly. The tooling also covers far more than compile-upload-monitor. See Building.
  • How do I start? uv run moondeck/moondeck.py, then open http://localhost:8420. Build and run the desktop first: it needs no board and proves the toolchain. See Building.

Still stuck

Name the geometry, the driver, the peripheral and the measured refresh. Those four decide which path you are on. See Log an issue.