Drostex

Hyperspace HyperCube · editor and controller

Everything your cube can do, and then some.

Your HyperCube shipped with 95 effects burned into its firmware and no way to add one. Drostex drives all 95 from your browser, then streams your own looks to the cube at up to 60 fps. Two commands and it is running.

Run it View source

Free and open sourceFinds your cube automaticallyOpens on your phone tooNothing leaves your network

Five of the built in patterns, previewed live in your browser.

> what it does

The whole cube, from one page.

Two tabs. My looks is everything you make. Built in effects is everything the cube came with. One brightness slider sits over both, and a small server on your machine does the work.

  • your looks

    Make your own, no code needed

    Eleven patterns to start from, or chain space, wave and colour into something new. Click one and it is on the cube before you let go of the mouse.

  • its effects

    Every built in effect, in reach

    Search, filter and drive all 95 of the cube's own effects, with colour swatches for its palettes so you can pick by eye.

  • phone

    Control it from your phone

    Scan the QR code in the top bar and the same controls open on your phone. No app to install, no pairing.

  • playlists

    Shuffle, save, star, auto cycle

    Hit Shuffle until something surprises you, then save it and star it. Auto cycle rotates your looks and the cube's own effects in one playlist, from five seconds to ten minutes apart.

  • preview

    See every frame before it lands

    A live wireframe cube, lit from the exact frames the server just sent. A readback, not a simulation.

  • server

    Walk away. It keeps going.

    The server does the rendering, so close the tab and the animation keeps running. No account, no telemetry, nothing leaves your network.

  • Speed 0.1x to 3x
  • 10 to 60 fps
  • Sparkle
  • Six symmetry modes
  • Warp drive
  • Pulse to music
  • The cube's own three rotations
  • Power and brightness
  • Rename your cube
  • Light and dark theme
  • Terminal player and scripts

Write the 96th effect.

An animation is one pure function: take a context, return a colour. Declare the parameters you want and the UI builds the sliders for them. Drop it into src/animations.mjs and it shows up in the UI, in auto cycle and as a savable look, with no registration step. How to write one.

> quick start

Two commands. No build step.

Everything it needs ships with Node 20 or newer. Nothing to install, nothing to compile, no account to make.

01

Get it

Clone the repository.

git clone https://github.com/thepixelabs/drostex
cd drostex

02

Run it

Your browser opens. It finds the cube on your network by itself.

npm start
# http://127.0.0.1:7847

optional

Pick a cube by hand

Only if it finds nothing, or the wrong one.

cp config.example.json config.json
# "host": "192.168.1.50"

> the honest part

What it does not do.

Built on one cube on one desk. Here is what that means in practice.

  • one cubeBuilt and measured on a HyperCube Nano, one cube per server. The 10 SE and 15 SE are set up from the vendor's own LED counts and have never been run against a real one. Own one? Run it and open an issue. You will be the first.
  • no passwordRemote opens the controls to everyone on your network until you switch it off. Keep it on a network you trust.
  • not packagedNode, a terminal and a process you leave running. Close the laptop and the animation stops.
  • no audioSound reactive effects use the microphone on the cube itself, so they do nothing in a silent room.

The complete list is in the README's Limitations.

> questions

Short answers.

What is the Hyperspace HyperCube Nano?

A desk sized LED infinity mirror cube that stands on one corner, with 132 LEDs along its twelve edges and a WLED based controller inside. It ships with 95 built in effects, 27 palettes and three rotating playlists.

Can I write my own effects for the HyperCube Nano?

Not with the stock firmware, which is why Drostex exists. It streams frames computed on your own machine to the cube, so an animation you write as one small JavaScript function runs on the object like a built in one.

Does Drostex work on the HyperCube 10 SE or 15 SE?

In principle. It recognises them and knows their LED counts from the vendor's spec sheet, but it has never been run against a real one. If you own one, run it and open an issue with what happened.

Will Drostex work on other WLED devices?

Streamed looks should reach any WLED device that accepts DRGB on UDP port 21324, though only a HyperCube Nano has been tested. The built in effects tab is written for this cube's firmware and will not work on plain WLED.

Does Drostex send anything to the cloud?

No. There is no account, no signup and no telemetry. Every network call goes to your cube or to the app's own local server, and it is free and open source under the MIT licence.