Product Description

What's better than a single LED? Lots of LEDs! A fun way to make a small display is to use an 8x8 matrix or a 4-digit 7-segment display. Matrices like these are 'multiplexed' - so to control 64 LEDs you need 16 pins. That's a lot of pins, and there are driver chips like the MAX7219 that can control a matrix for you but there's a lot of wiring to set up and they take up a ton of space. Here at Adafruit we feel your pain! After all, wouldn't it be awesome if you could control a matrix without tons of wiring? That's where these adorable LED matrix backpacks come in. We have them in two flavors - a mini 8x8 and a 4-digit 0.56" 7-segment. They work perfectly with the matrices we stock in the Adafruit shop and make adding a bright little display trivial.

The matrices use a driver chip that does all the heavy lifting for you: They have a built in clock so they multiplex the display. They use constant-current drivers for ultra-bright, consistent color (the images above are photographed at the dimmest setting to avoid overloading our camera!), 1/16 step display dimming, all via a simple I2C interface. The backpacks come with address-selection jumpers so you can connect up to four mini 8x8's or eight 7-segments (or a combination, such as four mini 8x8's and four 7-segments, etc) on a single I2C bus.

The product kit comes with:
A fully tested and assembled LED backpack
Ultra-bright 8x8 red matrix
4-pin header

A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the backpack but its very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes.

Feature

Holtek HT16K33 LED matrix controller
Ultra bright 8x8 LED matrix
Color RED
i2c interface. This board/chip uses I2C 7-bit address between 0x70-0x77, selectable with jumpers
Soldering is required to attach the LED matrix to the PCB
Brand : Adafruit
Item model num : LYSB01M7W4OQG-ELECTRNCS
MPN(PartNumber) : LYSB01M7W4OQG-ELECTRNCS
EAN : 0717520030119
Product Dimensions(LxWxH) : 8x6x3cm ; 18 g
Package Dimensions(LxWxH) : 11x8x3cm ; 18 g