8x8 RGB LED Matrix Display Module Sneak Peek
Aristides Alvarez
Posts: 486
Parallax is getting very close to release this Propeller based module, designed and manufactured by SimplyTronics.
In previous products SimplyTronics (under Parallax Hong Kong Limited name) would design a product and Parallax would generate the product documentation but from now on SimplyTronics will have to also generate the documentation. Since this product is released in the middle of the transition, Parallax was really helpful and offered putting together the basic product doc for this release (special thanks to Stephanie for spending extra time in this task).
The SimplyTronics stock code for this product is #ST-00050 and Parallax stock code will be #32324.
I can share some pictures and basic information here. Once the product is released we will continue posting files and information, like module firmware in Spin and C, some PC software (beta release) that can help customers customizing the modules and some projects showing how to use 4 modules or more.
As you can see from the pictures, the modules can be interconnected horizontally and/or vertically so you can assemble your own display. Serial communication transfers the same information to all modules and each Propeller, knowing its own ID that was preset by the customer, can display in the RGB LED matrix display its own piece of the graphic or text message. There are 64 pixels per display and being RGB you have 3 color LEDs per pixel. The Propeller chip is controlling the intensity on each of those 192 LEDs to create a graphic with detailed colors, supporting RGB-888 format.
Since we will be releasing the firmware, the header to connect the PropPlug was included (and installed) in the module. You can operate the modules with just power, ground and serial communication, but if you want to customize the firmware or load custom graphics, you will need to have a PropPlug.
Since this is a finished product releasing soon, we cannot take feedback to improve the product for Rev A release. Once the module is released we will be listening to suggestions that we could include in Rev B.
More information coming soon...
In previous products SimplyTronics (under Parallax Hong Kong Limited name) would design a product and Parallax would generate the product documentation but from now on SimplyTronics will have to also generate the documentation. Since this product is released in the middle of the transition, Parallax was really helpful and offered putting together the basic product doc for this release (special thanks to Stephanie for spending extra time in this task).
The SimplyTronics stock code for this product is #ST-00050 and Parallax stock code will be #32324.
I can share some pictures and basic information here. Once the product is released we will continue posting files and information, like module firmware in Spin and C, some PC software (beta release) that can help customers customizing the modules and some projects showing how to use 4 modules or more.
As you can see from the pictures, the modules can be interconnected horizontally and/or vertically so you can assemble your own display. Serial communication transfers the same information to all modules and each Propeller, knowing its own ID that was preset by the customer, can display in the RGB LED matrix display its own piece of the graphic or text message. There are 64 pixels per display and being RGB you have 3 color LEDs per pixel. The Propeller chip is controlling the intensity on each of those 192 LEDs to create a graphic with detailed colors, supporting RGB-888 format.
Since we will be releasing the firmware, the header to connect the PropPlug was included (and installed) in the module. You can operate the modules with just power, ground and serial communication, but if you want to customize the firmware or load custom graphics, you will need to have a PropPlug.
Since this is a finished product releasing soon, we cannot take feedback to improve the product for Rev A release. Once the module is released we will be listening to suggestions that we could include in Rev B.
More information coming soon...
800 x 706 - 78K
800 x 710 - 89K
Comments
or another IC 's like buffers, 74HCT244 for example or something else?
waiting for more information
excuse my english
http://www.parallax.com/Store/Components/Optoelectronics/tabid/152/ProductID/873/List/0/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName,ProductName
I was thinking the same thing.. Talk about a perfect product. Scale-able sales. (I'm a little jealous)
Yes, we released Spin and C firmware. The Spin firmware could be easier to understand and customize for Spin programmers, but the C version runs a little faster and will be the one we will be making more improvements moving forward. The modules were loaded with the C v1.0 firmware at production time but we already have C v1.1 ready for download with added support for 16x32 Parallax font.
I'm looking forward to see which kinds of improvements and modifications the Propeller community will make to this firmware!
I think we can release some sample code showing how to use 4 modules connected to form a square display of 2x2 modules (or 16x16 pixels) by Friday.
We had more sample code using 11 modules connected in an odd shape, showing different graphics and font configurations, but since we were using images from other companies we cannot release that one (copyright issues). We may be able to remove the copyrighted material and still release a useful demo (if there's enough interest on it).
While playing with this design we developed a simple PC software (for internal use) that allows customizing an image, reading or loading ID values to each module and refreshing the firmware just using a PC with a USB PropPlug (without having to open other software like Propeller Tool or SimpleIDE).
But the problem is that we're not software developers and this software is not thoroughly tested and may not run in some computers so we cannot release it. I thought about releasing it as Open Source Software but the developer did not have that in mind and would be embarrassed if we release it “as is” or he may want to spend a huge amount of time polishing the software and adding comments and documentation for Open Source release. I cannot afford to have him spending that time in software when we have other hardware projects to be completed.
And we don't want to release software that may not work in different systems and could cause frustration with some customers and lots of tech calls/requests. I'm sure some people may be able to use it and they'd love to have this way to control the modules. Do you have any suggestions in how we could share this internal software resource without causing any problems for Parallax or SimplyTronics?
Ari,
There are a number of talented C programmers on the Forums. One of them might be willing to volunteer to clean up the code and work with it to the point it could be released to the Open Source community. Once it is releasable, then the community will determine its fate. Lots of them are even multi-platform users which could turn into multi-platform support. Maybe in exchange for a module to test with and then keep? Sometimes, the volunteer army might surprise you.
EDIT: Oops, yes, SRLM makes a good point. I assumed too much. If the utility is in an cross-platform language, then it's a good thing to share, if not, then it has limited use and at best serves as a template for someone wanting to write an open-sourced cross-platform utility.
What language is it written in? If it's written in a Windows specific language or with Windows specific packages, I don't think it should be released at all.
If it's cross platform, then I think it should be released on the forums as a "tutorial" type program, without any support implied (as a number of other employees have done over the years).
It was written in Code::Blocks and it was being used in a couple of Windows and one Linux PCs.
English is not my mother language, good luck to read these.
I am using the cross-platform C++ library--FLTK for this project. I thought about using the QT, but it turns out the QT is huge. Even though a very simple GUI program, need to pack them with some big size *.DLLs(100+MB). The WxWidgets? I was going to try it, but then I found FLTK. The FLTK looks good enough to this application. Most importantly, it's small and simple(I like these).
And Ari already mentioned that, the source code are really mess, because it's not intend to show to others. And I "developed" the software while I was learning to use C++ in my spare time. I am still learning.
Both Spin code and PropGCC firmwares are releasing, and the C firmware is much faster than the Spin one. So the C firmware is recommended. You need to re-program the module with the latest firmware if you want to try the new features. I still got some ideas of improving the firmware, but I don't have much time for those things now.
About the demo code for 4 modules, the Spin code is done, we are going to port it to PropGCC, Arduino, write the demo for BS2.
And the demo code for 9 modules is similar to the code for 4 modules. I put two QR Codes to the demo code for 9 module, just for fun.
You can use your cell phone to scan the QR Codes(They works on my phone).
Displaying your own BMP files is really simple while using the simple library I wrote, all you have to do is provide a small size 24-bit BMP picture(no compress).
We will upload the pictures & videos after it's done.
Here is the GUI of the software running on Windows.
I'm curious about the use of PropGCC for the official firmware. Does this mean that SimplyTronics (and Parallax?) believe that it's stable and reliable enough for a commercial product?
I would like to see a video of it in action.
And I'm actually leaning towards releasing a (polished) version of the software: the modules, at $50 each, are not inexpensive. So, somebody who orders 9 or more ($500+) of the modules will want to have some quality software to go along with the investment.
What is the intended market for these? Professional lighting installers? The DIY community?
ps: I noticed that your names rhyme. You don't have to answer if you feel like I'm prying, but was the rhyme intentional? I know many Chinese who choose their own English names, so that's what made me notice the rhyme.
Regarding the firmware, we developed it in Spin and PropGCC so we could try both and to intentionally release it both ways allowing customers to select their favorite language. It’s SimplyTronics intention to encourage the customers to tinker with the firmware and play with the Propeller because it’s a highly capable microcontroller that can do more than what we released in our v1.0 firmware.
Parallax posted a video of a single module running under the control of a BASIC Stamp microcontroller executing sample code. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANmZZx8HnMc&list=UURRnwtubciltfF7siUW4ZTQ&index=1&feature=plcp
BOM (Bill Of Material) cost on these modules is very high. Just the raw RGB LED display is retailing for around $20 from reputable sources. We found sources for cheaper displays but their quality was not good enough for a product that can display such a variety of colors. We’re working with Parallax trying to find ways to lower the price but it's hard with such high cost. Maybe they will be able to make qty discount for 4 or 9 units or something that will allow customers buy bundles of modules for bigger projects. A small screen with 16x16 pixels (4 modules) already gets really interesting and you can display more graphics.
I guess I'll answer this one for John. I met John many years ago, when he was recently graduated from Electronics Engineering. In Chinese people usually say their family (last) name first and then their names so when he presented himself and when others would call him, he sounded like "John" and since he didn't have an English name yet, he started going by John.
Changing your name to something easier to pronounce by foreign people may sound strange but that’s pretty normal in China and other places and it goes both ways. My Chinese name sounds like “Ai A-Li” and people calling me by my first name uses “A-Li” which sounds similar to my first name in USA, “Ari.” I think Ken (Gracey) was the first one that started calling me “Ari” in US, while my real name is “Aristides”. Just trying to make the point that changing names depending where you are/live to make it easier to pronounce for the local people is not just a Chinese thing. :-)
Actually John is an old hand here, just under a different (Parallax HK) user-name. You'll see his responses for help on a number of products made under Parallax Hong Kong, like the FM receiver and optical finger navigation module.
I am (was?) tasked with revising John's excellent basic write up, but the timing got messed up, and I was out of town on pressing business when Parallax was wanting to release the product. Ari, are we still on? In any case, my thanks also to Steph for stepping in to get the product guide out.
I was sent a couple of these to play with, and they are too cool for words. The price is also very good, very competitive with other smart 8x8 RGB LED modules.
-- Gordon
How about some more technical information?
How much current does one of these draw with all LEDs on full brightness? I'm assuming there's some sort of buffering circuit, but the PCB looks like there are just resistors between the Propeller pins and the LED array. Does the array have internal buffering? How bright are they?
The video shows the font one character at a time, I'd like to see how some scrolling text looks. I only saw uppercase letters in the video; are there also lowercase letters in the font?
I'd also like to see a demo that shows off the 24-bit color. (I think the product photo ought to have more than just red and green on it.)
These displays do look nice. I just received a couple of inexpensive arrays from an ebay vendor which are nice for the price ($6) but the SimplyTronic arrays look nicer. I made a forum post (and video) of my attempt at driving the array with a QuickStart board.
I'm looking forward to seeing some demo videos showing off what these ST arrays can do.
Edit: I must of missed the statement "Current requirements: 55 mA run time, 150 mA startup ." Is the 55 mA figure true with all the LEDs turned on? I guess they don't need to light up a room, but I was expecting a little more power.
There's some sample code in this post now available: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?143864-Demo-code-for-8x8-RGB-LED-Matrix-Module&highlight=matrix
Regarding the maximum current for the LEDs, we provided the information for the module running the SimplyTronics firmware. If you just turn on the LEDs without using PWM you will find some problems. Not only your current consumption will be really high, but also the intensity of different LEDs in the matrix will be uneven. You can run some tests in the raw matrix displays you have and will find the issue. Just turn on (solid on and without PWM) all the LEDs of a certain color and you will see how they light up at different intensities. With using PWM you not only reduce the current consumption for the whole module, but you also get a consistent brightness from the different LEDs too.
I just got 4 modules myself and will be trying to capture and upload some videos from the demo code than John posted.
Dave
Not sure if the question was intended for me or for somebody already planning in using them, but I'll give it a try.
In ST we always try to add mounting holes to all designs but this project was different. Since there was not much room in the PCB and the modules take up 100% of the front area we couldn't find a way to add mounting holes to the PCB itself (and a hole in the PCB would expose the back of the RGB LED module).
Usually these LED displays are mounted against some kind of plastic that not only protects the LED displays and the electronics behind it but also helps in controlling the light that comes out of the displays and makes the image easier to see. The modules could be interconnected and placed against a sheet of that plastic with a frame around them (with something holding them from the back in a couple of spots). Always a good idea to stay away from glue or anything permanent in the case the modules are needed for a different project or if a new project, even with the same shape, requires new firmware.
Is the Windows software (RGB LED Matrix V1.0) available as shown in the picture?
I just received 4 of these modules yesterday and would like to experiment with them with both the Propeller and Arduino.
Thanks,
Tim
The software is available here:
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?144520-PC-Beta-software-for-8x8-RGB-LED-Matrix-Display-Module&p=1149238#post1149238