Seeed Studio's XIAO LED Lighting Range Goes Small with the New COB LED Driver Board
New 3V, seven-channel driver board targets accent lighting, decoration, and model kits in need of seamless LED strips.
Seeed Studio has announced another new add-on for its compact XIAO family of microcontroller development boards, this time targeting seamless smart accent lighting: the COB LED Driver Board.
"Creating smooth, uniform, and ultra-bright lighting has never been this simple," claims Seeed's Josie Wu of the latest entry in the XIAO range. "Today, we're excited to introduce our new COB LED Driver Board for Seeed Studio XIAO — a compact yet powerful expansion board that redefines what small-form-factor lighting systems can achieve. With integrated battery management, high-power output, and compatibility with ultra-narrow 1mm 3V COB LED strips, it delivers a true plug-and-play lighting platform for makers, designers, and embedded engineers."
The new add-on, designed for use with any of the thumb-sized XIAO microcontroller development boards, builds on the company's earlier LED Driver Board — though boasts a much more compact layout. Where the original drives 5V or 12V single-color or addressable RGB LED strips, the new COB variant is designed for 3V lighting strips. Built with battery-powered projects in mind, including decoration, smart accent lighting, and even illumination for model kits like Gunpla, it comes with a 1A (3W) total power limit.
It may be less powerful than its non-COB counterpart, but the new board certainly packs in the features: it can power itself and the connecting lights either from the USB input on its host XIAO board or from an optional 3.7V lithium-polymer battery, complete with charging and protection circuitry. There are seven lighting channels in total, three of which are high-power 300mA channels that support only on-and-off switching while four are pulse-width modulation (PWM) dimmable with an 80mA limit. Finally, there's a Grove I2C connector for expansion with optional sensors or displays.
The COB LED Driver Board is now available on the Seeed Studio store at $4.90 before volume discounts; buyers will also need a XIAO development board and a suitable COB LED strip.