RP2040 ItsyBitsy - crash after a short while

[DavidMikeSimon]

I've installed v11.0.0 on an Adafruit ItsyBitsy. It's connected to a SK6812RGBW light strip, which is powered by a 5v power supply from Adafruit. When connecting to it with HyperHDR v21 on my Windows machine, the lights work for a short while (~5-30 seconds), and then the connection cuts out and the lights freeze. This is how that looks in the logs:

2026-07-12T12:34:15.547Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:246) Enable the device
2026-07-12T12:34:15.552Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] Serial port auto-discovery. Skipping this device for now: USB Serial Device (\\.\COM3 => COM3), VID: 0x239a, PID: 0xcafe
2026-07-12T12:34:15.552Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] Serial port auto-discovery. Found serial port device: USB Serial Device (\\.\COM5 => COM5)
2026-07-12T12:34:15.552Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] Opening UART: COM5
2026-07-12T12:34:15.552Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:209) _serialPort.open(QIODevice::ReadWrite): COM5, Baud rate [200000]bps
2026-07-12T12:34:15.556Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:214) portName:          COM5
2026-07-12T12:34:15.556Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:215) systemLocation:    \\.\COM5
2026-07-12T12:34:15.556Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:216) description:       USB Serial Device
2026-07-12T12:34:15.556Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:217) manufacturer:      Microsoft
2026-07-12T12:34:15.556Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:218) productIdentifier: 0xa
2026-07-12T12:34:15.556Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:219) vendorIdentifier:  0x2e8a
2026-07-12T12:34:15.556Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:220) serialNumber:      DF64C068977E4D26
2026-07-12T12:34:15.557Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] Detected Rp2040 type board. HyperHDR skips the reset. State: 0, 0
2026-07-12T12:34:15.563Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] ESP sent: 'HyperHDR frames: 0 (FPS), receiv.: 0, good: 0, incompl.: 0, mem1: 0, mem2: 460, heap: 123232'
2026-07-12T12:34:15.563Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] ESP sent: 'RGBW => Gain: 255/255, red: 160, green: 160, blue: 160'
2026-07-12T12:34:15.563Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] DETECTED DEVICE USING HyperSerialEsp8266/HyperSerialESP32/HyperSerialPico FIRMWARE (Welcome! Awa driver 11.) at 1 msec
2026-07-12T12:34:15.563Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:63) Switch on
2026-07-12T12:34:15.563Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:139) Power On
2026-07-12T12:34:15.563Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:366) Starting timer with interval = 20ms
2026-07-12T12:34:15.563Z [COMPONENTCTRL0] LED device: enabled
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [SMOOTHING0] Clearing queued colors before: enabling. Smoothing configuration changed: restarting timer.
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [SMOOTHING0] Smoothing queue is cleared
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [SMOOTHING0] Selecting config (1) => type: Linear, pause: false, settlingTime: 200ms, interval: 40ms (25Hz), antiFlickTres: 0, antiFlickStep: 0, antiFlickTime: 0
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [SMOOTHING0] Using linear smoothing input (1)
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:380) Stopping refresh timer
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] Ignoring user LED refresh rate. Forcing smoothing refresh rate = 25.00 Hz
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:422) Refresh rate = 25.00 Hz
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:366) Starting timer with interval = 40ms
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:432) Refresh interval updated to 40ms
2026-07-12T12:34:15.564Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:447) LED refresh interval adjustment caused by smoothing configuration change to 40ms (proposed: 40ms)
2026-07-12T12:34:15.644Z [SMOOTHING0] Using linear smoothing procedure (1)
2026-07-12T12:34:40.445Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:293) Timeout after 1000ms: 0 frames already dropped
2026-07-12T12:34:41.446Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:293) Timeout after 1000ms: 1 frames already dropped
2026-07-12T12:34:42.447Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:293) Timeout after 1000ms: 2 frames already dropped
2026-07-12T12:34:43.448Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:293) Timeout after 1000ms: 3 frames already dropped
2026-07-12T12:34:44.448Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:293) Timeout after 1000ms: 4 frames already dropped
2026-07-12T12:34:45.448Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:293) Timeout after 1000ms: 5 frames already dropped
2026-07-12T12:34:45.448Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:146) Flush was successful
2026-07-12T12:34:46.055Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (ProviderSerial.cpp:164) Serial port is closed: COM5
2026-07-12T12:34:46.055Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] (LedDevice.cpp:380) Stopping refresh timer
2026-07-12T12:34:46.055Z [LEDDEVICE0_ADALIGHT] Device 'adalight' is disabled due to an error: 'Timeout writing data to COM5'
2026-07-12T12:34:46.056Z [COMPONENTCTRL0] LED device: disabled

I've tried all the following, but with no change in behavior:

• Restarting HyperHDR
• Power cycling the ItsyBitsy
• Connecting via HyperHDR on a Pi 4 instead of my Windows machine
• Using a different USB cable
• Putting a 470ohm resistor in series with the data connection
• Reducing the baud rate setting in HyperHDR
• Turning off the handshake setting in HyperHDR
• Reducing the number of configured LEDs
• Disconnecting the LEDs and external power supply from the board, just to see if HyperHDR could maintain a connection to it even when it's not driving anything. It cannot. :-(

Not sure what else I can do to debug this. Perhaps I just have a bad board?

[awawa-dev]

Hi
You can try this: https://github.com/awawa-dev/HyperSerialPico/actions/runs/29104967345 (a lot of refactoring). But for me it sounds rather like an electrical issue (wrong connection, using USB to power up LEDs or ground loop)

[DavidMikeSimon]

Thanks! I'll check my wiring once more.

[DavidMikeSimon]

Well, I unsoldered everything and tried the configuration out on a breadboard, but ran into the same problem. I suspect that the ItsyBitsy itself has some issue. I switched to a Wemos d1 running HyperSerialEsp8266 with a level shifter, and that's been working perfectly.

[awawa-dev]

Did you test this firmware (even with disconnected LEDs)? https://github.com/awawa-dev/HyperSerialPico/actions/runs/29104967345