Chain RGB ESPHome Component

Chain RGB is an LED display node in the M5Stack Chain series, equipped with an 8×8 RGB LED dot matrix unit. The device supports independent control of individual pixels, batch pixel writes, and fast full-screen buffer refresh. It also provides built-in ASCII character font rendering, string scrolling, brightness adjustment, and multi-angle screen rotation, enabling a variety of dynamic lighting and pixel animation effects. It is suitable for pixel lighting creation, desktop ambient lighting, creative lighting signs, and smart device lighting prompts.

1. Component Overview

2. Component Details

Include External Components

• M5Stack external component - m5_chain_base
• M5Stack external component - m5_chain_rgb

Configuration Example

• Configure the host UART pins (using the Chain DualKey as an example)

uart:
  - id: chain_uart_right
    tx_pin: GPIO6
    rx_pin: GPIO5
    baud_rate: 115200

  - id: chain_uart_left
    tx_pin: GPIO47
    rx_pin: GPIO48
    baud_rate: 115200

• Include the external components

external_components:
  - source: github://m5stack/esphome@feat-m5-chain
    components: [m5_chain_base, m5_chain_rgb]
    refresh: 0s

• Add the Chain RGB node

m5_chain_rgb:
  id: chain_rgb
  uart_id: chain_uart_right
  chain_index: 1

• Add the Chain RGB light node

light:
  - platform: m5_chain_rgb
    id: chain_rgb_light
    name: "Chain RGB Matrix"
    m5_chain_rgb_id: chain_rgb
    restore_mode: RESTORE_DEFAULT_ON
    effects:
      # width 8 spans one full hue cycle per row of the 8x8 panel.
      - addressable_rainbow:
          name: "Rainbow"
          speed: 10
          width: 8

You can use effects to add various light effects to the light. The example above adds a flowing rainbow effect.

• You can also add a display component to let Chain RGB show content

font:
  - file: "./assets/fonts/unscii-8.ttf"
    id: chain_rgb_font
    size: 8
    bpp: 1
    glyphs: "A"

display:
  - platform: addressable_light
    id: chain_rgb_display
    addressable_light_id: chain_rgb_light
    width: 8
    height: 8
    update_interval: 1s
    lambda: |-
      it.print(0, 0, id(chain_rgb_font), Color(255, 0, 0), "A");

The configuration above uses a local font to draw a red character 'A' on the Chain RGB.

3. Reference Example

After the Chain RGB expansion module is connected, you can view the corresponding Light entity on the device page: