ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 vs 1.0 RGB LED on GPIO48

[wdstepho]

Hi All,

A while back I purchased an ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 (version 1.0), which has an on-board RGB LED controlled via GPIO48. I understand there has been a hardware revision to resolve a 1.8v SPI supply issue (which GPIO47/48 use instead of the regular GPIO supply due to PSRAM) and hence the control for the on-board RGB LED for version 1.1 is now GPIO38, which uses the regular GPIO supply voltage.

My question: is there an easy way to alter the PCB to overcome the control signal supply issue to the RGB LED on hardware vs 1.0? It is currently getting 1.8v, which isn't enough to robustly control the RGB LED which should use 3.5v for the control signal. Or, because of this design issue I'm left with a non-functional RGB LED?

Cheers,
Wes.

[liaifat85]

You can use a 1.8V to 3.3V logic level shifter like the Texas Instruments SN74LV1T34/SN74LV1T34-Q1 Logic Level Shifter.

[wdstepho]

Hi @liaifat85, thanks very much for taking the time to reply.

Ok, so level converter makes sense, but I'm wondering the best approach to implementing it on an existing development board. Should I break into the board trace and try to add the level converter? Or throw the board in the bin (or just use it for everything except the RGB LED)?

Cheers,
Wes.