ESPHome Stepmania Lights

This is a bare bones project to turn your ESPHome devices into lights for StepMania. It's not in a very polished state yet, so you'll fare better if you have a knowledge of Python + Linux.

This also targets a relatively niche intersection of the IoT and rhythm game community. If you feel right at home with all this stuff, we should probably hang out. :P

ESPHome setup

When you configure a new device, create a light component called main_light. This will be used to turn the light off completely when StepMania starts and exits.

You can then use other light components or partition components to create individual lights. As long as you give them a name from the following list, they will be picked up automatically.

Cabinet light names

• marquee_upper_left
• marquee_upper_right
• marquee_lower_left
• marquee_lower_right
• bass_left
• bass_right

Player light names

• player_1_menu_left
• player_1_menu_right
• player_1_menu_up
• player_1_menu_down
• player_1_start
• player_1_select
• player_1_back
• player_1_coin
• player_1_operator
• player_1_effect_up
• player_1_effect_down
• player_1_1
• so on and so forth
• player_1_19

These repeat for player_2.

Example

This is an example ESPHome configuration for a D1 Mini with the RGB Shield, which has 7 WS2812B LEDs in a circle. The center LED is set to blink with the start button on the cabinet, and the LEDs around it flash with the bass lights.

esphome:
  name: itglights1
  platform: ESP8266
  board: d1_mini

wifi:
  ssid: "your_password"
  password: "your_password"

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "Itglights Fallback Hotspot"
    password: "fallback_password"

captive_portal:

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  password: "itglights"
  reboot_timeout: 0s # This is necessary so the device doesn't reboot when there is nothing controlling it

ota:
  password: "itglights"

light:
  - platform: partition
    name: "player_1_start"
    segments:
      - id: main_light
        from: 0
        to: 0
  - platform: partition
    name: "bass_right"
    segments:
      - id: main_light
        from: 1
        to: 6
  - platform: fastled_clockless
    chipset: WS2812B
    id: main_light
    pin: D6
    num_leds: 7
    rgb_order: GRB
    name: "main_light"
    gamma_correct: 1.8
    color_correct: [70%, 70%, 70%]

StepMania setup

Edit your Preferences.ini file, and

• set the LightsDriver= line to LightsDriver=SextetStreamToFile.
• set the SextetStreamOutputFilename= line to a path StepMania can write to, e.g. Save/StepMania-Lights-SextetStream.out

If you're on Linux, create the named pipe.

mkfifo /path/to/stepmania-5.0/Save/StepMania-Lights-SextetStream.out

If you're not on Linux or want more info, check the SextetStream lights documentation.

Running the script

Install the required dependencies.

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Make a copy of the sample configuration file in the script's folder.

cp config.yml.sample config.yml

Open the configuration file, and set stepmania_sextet_file to the path of the SextetStream named pipe.

Under the lights section, add entries for each of your devices. password should correspond to the API password in the ESPHome device configuration.

Start the script.

python3 main.py

You have to start the script first in order for StepMania to run! If nothing is reading the SextetStream file, StepMania will get stuck.

Now you can launch StepMania. Enjoy the light show!