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We have some important news to share about HackSpace: Issue 81 was the last issue of HackSpace as a standalone magazine, and HackSpace has become part of The MagPi, the official Raspberry Pi magazine. Starting with issue 145, We’ll be adding pages to The MagPi to make room for the stories and tutorials you’ve come to expect from HackSpace.

Crowdfunding now: Maker LED display

By Ben Everard. Posted

LED matrices are a staple maker project. You can get modules and connectors for most common microcontrollers to wire everything together. However, wouldn’t it be easier if everything came on one big board? That’s what the Maker LED Display is. An ESP8266 controller (which has in-built WiFi), packaged together with a battery charger, and either a 32×8 LED display or a 64×8 display. Either size comes in a range of colours (though each display is a single colour LED, rather than RGB).

The LEDs are driven by IS31FL3731 drivers, which means that you still have four GPIO pins left for general use. In addition, there’s an I2C connection in the EasyC form factor – this is similar to, but not as common as, the Grove or Qwiic connectors. An EasyC connector comes with the board, so you don’t need additional hardware to connect I2C devices.

There’s nothing unique about this board – you could do everything that it can do by connecting together a few commonly available modules. However, by bringing everything together into one device, it keeps the cost down and makes it easier to use. There’s an Arduino library to help you get your code started, and 3D printer files for enclosures. This looks like it’ll be the quickest and easiest way to custom programmed LED displays. 

From $29 hsmag.cc/ERVEsF Delivery: May 2019

Ben Everard

Ben is the editor of HackSpace magazine. He plays with electronics and grows mushrooms, but hasn't yet combined the two.

https://hsmag.cc

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