K128D-B Beaglebone Controller Cap by Kulp Lights
The K128D-B is a cape for the BeagleBone Black designed to drive WS2811 LED pixels via long range differential receivers. It has 32 RJ45 differential ports that can output 128 strings of pixel data. It also has a two UART based differential outputs for driving DMX, Renard, LOR, PixelNet, and etc. The 32 RJ45 ports provide the ability to drive a WS2811 pixel differential receiver board. Each port can drive standard differential receivers or can be configured to use either v1 or v2 Smart Receivers. Using v2 protocol, 6 smart receivers can be chained off of each of the 32 outputs. All ports can be configured to output as many pixels as the WS28xx spec allows, 800 for 40fps, 1600 for 20fps. However, the single core AM3358 processor on the BeagleBone Black cannot process 102,400 pixels (128*800) at 40fps. It will max out at around 80,000 pixels, fewer if the onboard audio is being used. The 80K pixels can be dived anyway you want over the 128 ports. There are no “banks” or similar. For end-user usability, it provides a Real Time Clock, temperature sensors, an OLED display, and four push buttons for navigating menus on the display. The K128A-B also has an on-board, high quality DAC chip for providing sound. It also has two extra headers for additional functionality. One header provides access to the I2C bus and 8 GPIO pins for additional push buttons or other triggers a user may need. The other header provides a mounting point for an optional Si4713 based FM transmitter. NOTE: The optional FM transmitter will NOT come with any sort of antenna attached. The user will need to create a suitable antenna (a simple 75cm wire will work for most cases) and solder it to the transmitter. The FM transmitter requires the Si4713/VAST-FM FPP Plugin to be installed in order to configure and enable the the FM transmission. The K128D-B must be powered by an external 5V power supply through the screw terminals on the board.
