Hardware refers to any device that can be controlled by LEDSpicer. This includes LED controller boards, restrictors, rotators, or any other physical component that interacts with LED lighting systems. Each hardware device may have specific configurations within LEDSpicer to ensure proper functionality and integration with the overall system.

Every LED controller board is considered a device and is configured in the configuration file. Multiple boards of the same type can be controlled using a boardId or a serial port number to differentiate them. Different models support varying numbers of boards working together.

Restrictors are devices that control the movement range of joysticks, such as ServoStik, UltraStik360, and GPWiz49. They are configured in the restrictors section of the configuration file.

Rotators allow the joysticks to be rotated in their stick axis, like GPWiz40RotoX. They are configured in the restrictors section of the configuration file.

Most USB hardware has a unique board ID to distinguish it from others.

For hardware that uses a serial port connection, the serial port is the location where the hardware is physically attached.

A pin refers to a connector on hardware used to control an LED. Essentially, a hardware board controls an LED through a pin.

A light-emitting diode (LED). Essentially, every output pin on the board controls an LED. When grouped with red, green, and blue colors, you get an RGB LED.

Elements are groups of one or three LEDs (pins), representing physical components in the system, such as an illuminated button, joystick, or trackball. Using a unique name helps map the entire system, and no two elements can share the same name. There are three types of elements:

• Single Color

• RGB

• Timed (for solenoids or any other power-sensitive hardware)

One or more elements, from the same or different boards, can be arranged into groups. Groups are used by animations to affect different areas of the system. They have a unique name to easily identify sections. Different groups can contain the same elements, but a group cannot have a duplicated element. Two groups with the same name will result in an error.

The section in the configuration that holds all the groups and defines the default profile.

An animation is a set of one or more actors that animate the desired areas of the system.

An actor is a plugin that affects the light of a group, affecting the elements inside that group. Every actor can have different parameters, and there are several types of actors that generate different effects.

An input is a plugin that accepts some kind of input from outside the program, like the keyboard, another program, or the network, etc. Using a mapped trigger, you can interact with elements and groups.

A profile is a group of animations and settings that bring the entire system to life. At least one profile needs to exist, the default profile.