Feather RP2040 Scorpio - Serial.print while refreshing NeoPXL8HDR ? ?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello,

I'm using a Feather RP2040 Scorpio to drive NeoPixels with the NeoPXL8HDR library but I have a problem.

I followed the NeoPXL8HDR strandtest example and made another sketch to isolate my problem :

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>
#include <Adafruit_NeoPXL8.h>

// NeoPXL8HDR config
#define NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP 60
#define NUM_STRIPS 8

// Using RP2040 SCORPIO :
int8_t pins [8] = { 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 };
Adafruit_NeoPXL8HDR leds(NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP, pins, NEO_GRBW); //using RGBW LEDs

void setup() {
    Serial.begin(115200);
    while (!Serial){}; //Waiting for Serial

    // Initialize NeoPXL8HDR
    leds.begin(true,4,true);
    leds.setBrightness(20); //No gamma correction for simplicity
    leds.clear();
    leds.show();
    Serial.println("setup");
}

void loop1() {
    leds.refresh(); //Same principle as strandtest example
}

void loop() {
    Serial.println("loop0");

//Filling strips with red
    for (int i = 0; i < NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP*NUM_STRIPS; i++) {
        leds.setPixelColor(i, 255,0,0,0);
    }
    leds.show();

    delay(1000);


    // Turning off strips
    leds.clear();
    leds.show();

    delay(1000);
}

The code runs perfectly because I see my strips blinking red but after 2 or 3 loops, I don't see any "loop0" in the serial monitor of my computer.

If I comment "leds.refresh();", the "loop0" is sent to my computer with no problem. Same result if I add a 10ms delay after the refresh but that defeats the whole purpose of the refresh looping alone on loop1.

Can someone help me understand why me Serial.print gets lost after a while ? How could I make sure my Serial.print get sent ? I tried stopping the loop1 before my Serial.print and resuming it after with code below but it changes nothing.

    rp2040.idleOtherCore();
    Serial.println("loop0");
    rp2040.resumeOtherCore();

Thanks in advance.

2

I don't see a setting for NUM_STRIPS. I can't get it to compile so your description is false.

3

You are right. I forgot it while formatting my code. I edited my post to add the #define. It now compiles and runs as described.