STC8G-based PWM/RGB cascaded LED strip controller

Frustrated by the inability of computer motherboards' ARGB to drive single-color LED strips, this controller was designed.
The controller hardware
features the following characteristics:

based on the STC8G1K08A chip, low cost,
simple serial port control (TTL), easy to program on a host computer.
It supports dual-channel PWM single-color LED strip brightness control or a single RGB channel (WS2812 LED strip).
In RGB mode, it theoretically controls a maximum of 340 LEDs, with 128 LEDs controllable in the program.
It supports controller cascading, with a theoretical maximum of 190 cascaded units.

Usage notes:

The controller only supports 5V power supply and drives 5V LED strips.


In brightness control mode, the maximum current for both channels should not exceed 1A, as this may overload the MOSFETs and cables.
Channel 1 only supports PWM; Channel 2 can switch between PWM and RGB. In RGB mode, Channel 1 operates at full 5V brightness.
Cascading is not supported in RGB mode; RGB mode can only be used as the last control board.
The more control boards cascaded, the fewer RGB controllable LEDs there will be.
PWM mode and RGB mode are switched via a jumper cap, but do not switch during operation as this may cause malfunction.
Independent power supply is recommended for the first-level controller; when multiple controllers are cascaded, additional power is recommended. You

can get a free board from JLCPCB; a single-chip controller can be found for under 5 yuan.
I designed a casing and stickers to indicate the ports and included magnet positions for easy magnetic attachment. The STL file can be found in the attachment. Heat a knurled copper nut into the top stud hole, then screw it onto the M2 screw on the base plate. Alternatively, you can use a wide heat shrink tubing to cover it.
The program is developed
and compiled using VSCode + SDCC open-source tools. The packaged source code provides the SDCC toolchain, make tool, and compilation scripts for Windows. Simply execute the `./build.ps1` script in PowerShell. The hex file is generated in the `build` folder.
During programming, connect the TX and RX pins of the STC8 serial port. The RX pin on the control board is the data input (Data), and the TX pin is the data output (Data). Configure the clock to 20MHz during programming.
Lighting effects:
Future development plans

include enabling fixed-length data reception for RGB mode, and allowing RGB to be cascaded for
full-featured host computer development
.