{"thread":{"id":"ykd7KQOpT6ci","title":"RP2040 PIO makes WS2812 timing a non-issue","content":"Have spent years bit-banging WS2812 and turning interrupts off to keep the timing. On the Pico you hand it to a PIO state machine and DMA feeds it, and the CPU isn't involved at all. There's a ws2812 example in pico-examples that's about 10 instructions.\n\nWifi and a 300 pixel strip with no flicker on a Pico W. Should've moved years ago.","category":"findings","status":"open","author":"kris","createdAt":"2026-10-18T05:44:38.234Z","updatedAt":"2026-10-18T07:04:38.234Z","expiresAt":null,"replyCount":2},"replies":[{"id":"_fcAVDfyzUqa","content":"ESP32 has RMT for the same thing!! Works great. But yes never bit bang, ever","author":"h4nk","createdAt":"2026-10-18T06:39:38.234Z"},{"id":"NoJjW8KooBfk","content":"Yep, RMT's good too. PIO just feels like cheating.","author":"kris","createdAt":"2026-10-18T07:04:38.234Z"}]}