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FastLED for the Apple II: Hack to the Future!

Posted: February 16, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Art, Coding, Creations, DIY, Explorations, That Totally Worked, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |6 Comments

These days, I hack LEDs.  I’m the co-author (with Daniel Garcia) of the FastLED library for driving tons of high speed LED pixels and strips using microcontrollers like Arduino and Teensy.

But back in the day, I hacked a lot of Apple II.  I published a couple of shoot-em-up games (with Geoffrey Engelstein), all written in lovingly hand-crafted 6502 assembly language.

Finally I decided it was time to link the present to the past: to connect a hundred high-speed RGB LEDs to an Apple II, somehow, and ‘port’ our FastLED library to 6502 assembly language.

Well, I did it, and it works.  My new creation, “FastLED6502”, can drive a hundred 24-bit RGB pixels at more than 30 frames per second from an Apple //e :

The Details

Here are the details of “FastLED6502”:

  • “FastLED6502” is a lightweight port of FastLED’s core functions to 6502 assembly language for the Apple ][, Apple ][+, Apple //e, and Apple //gs.
  • Supports APA102 / Adafruit DotStar LED strips, as well as LPD8806 and WS2801 (though those two are not fully tested yet).
  • The LED strip is connected to the Apple II using the 16-pin DIP game port on the computer’s motherboard.  The 9-pin DB joystick/mouse port on the back of the //c, //c+, and //gs cannot be used, as it lacks the TTL digital output signals needed to drive the LED strip.
  • 24-bit FastLED Rainbow colors are included, along with FillRainbow, Random8 and a number of other useful functions from FastLED’s main library.
  • Everything had to be re-written from scratch in 6502 assembly language.  Luckily(?), I still remember how to do that.
  • The assembly code knows the binary serial protocols for the APA102 (Adafruit DotStar), LPD8806, and WS2801 LED driver chips.  Depending on which one you select, FastLED6502 transmits the LED colors in the correct protocol over the game port TTL digital output lines.
  • Considering that the Apple II sports a 1MHz 6502 so slow that even a “NOP” takestwo cycles, overall performance is pretty good: more than 30 frames per second for a 100-pixel strip.
  • Speaking of speed, or lack thereof, “three-wire” clockless LED strips such as the WS2811 NeoPixel are not supported now, nor will they ever be.  The CPU is would need to be at least 20X faster to support them, and it isn’t.  For that you want an Arduino or Teensy, and FastLED proper: http://fastled.io/
I gave the code its public debut at Veracode Hackathon 7.  (The theme was “Cozy Cabin” — I don’t usually wear plaid.)
I don't usually wear plaid.

FastLED6502 at Veracode Hackathon 7

How’s it work?

So how does this all work? Well, you connect the CLOCK and DATA_IN pins from the LED strip to a couple of pins on your Apple II’s DIP game connector port, add power, and you’re ready to go.  The Apple II’s game connector not only has inputs for joysticks, paddles, buttons, and so on, but it also has a few digital outputs — and that’s what FastLED6502 uses to deliver signals to the LED strip.  On all the 16-pin DIP Apple II game ports (except for the //gs!), there’s even one pin that delivers a super-fast digital pulse; pin 5 is the C040STROBE line, which can pulse twice as fast as the other digital outputs.  If you choose that for your CLOCK pin, the FastLED6502 code automatically shifts into high gear, and you get faster performance.   FastLED proper does this, too, in a much fancier way; it’s amusing that ‘little’ FastLED6502 does some of this, too.

The Code

The code is in the “extras” directory here (and eventually on FastLED’s main branch, but not yet)
https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/tree/FastLED3.1/extras
Here’s the FastLED6502.s65 source code itself:
https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/blob/FastLED3.1/extras/FastLED6502.s65And here’s the RainbowDemo.s65, as shown in video:
https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/blob/FastLED3.1/extras/RainbowDemo.s65

This is Crazy

Overall, this bit of code is completely nuts, and we don’t expect anyone to use it.  At all.  Ever.  Accordingly, we’re not going to really support it, either.  At all.  Ever.  It was a labor of love and a creation of pure modern retrocomputing insanity.  But here it is, in all it’s insane glory, “FastLED6502”.
And now, if you cut me, I’ll bleed 16,777,216 colors at thirty frames a second.

6 Comments on “FastLED for the Apple II: Hack to the Future!”

  1. Open Apple #45 (March 2015): Mark Kriegsman, FastLED, Transwarp GS Clone, and Newsapalooza | Open Apple says:
    March 28, 2015 at 2:06 am

    […] FastLED6502 – If an Arduino can do it, the Apple II can do it better. […]

    Reply
  2. steveC says:
    April 4, 2015 at 10:37 am

    https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13304
    If you think a ][ could drive that, I’m in!

    Reply
  3. davron12 says:
    June 7, 2019 at 11:19 am

    I think I’m going to have to pull my IIgs out of storage now and try this

    Reply
  4. Bertrand says:
    March 16, 2021 at 2:27 pm

    Is it possible to have more possibilities on an Apple IIgs in fast mode (2.8Mhz)?

    Reply
  5. WS2812B RGB lights on a 6502! – ABNielsen.com says:
    December 23, 2021 at 3:20 am

    […] even the co-author of the FastLED library, Mark Kriegsmann, says it’s can’t be done, you know it’s not going to be easy. “The CPU would need to be at least 20X faster […]

    Reply
  6. Open Apple #45 (March 2015): Mark Kriegsman, FastLED, Transwarp GS Clone, and Newsapalooza | Open Apple says:
    March 24, 2023 at 8:21 am

    […] FastLED6502 – If an Arduino can do it, the Apple II can do it better. […]

    Reply

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