Product Description
This version is the 3mm pitch 64x32 RGB LED Matrix. Please note you cannot use an Arduino UNO to drive this size, its way too big! Use an Arduino Mega, Raspberry Pi, BBB or other device that can handle displaying to RGB matricies and has plenty of RAM.
This panel is a lot like our 4mm Grid 64x32 RGB LED matrix panel, but the LEDs on this one are a little closer together (a 3mm pitch) so you won’t have to stand as far away to appreciate it. It's made to look good indoors, even with a wide-angle view (160 degrees) and look great in ambient light. If you want a wider pitch for a farther viewing distance, check out our 6mm pitch 64x32 RGB LED Matrix or our 5mm pitch 64x32 RGB LED Matrix.
This matrix has 2048 bright RGB LEDs arranged in a 64x32 grid on the front. On the back there are two IDC connectors (one input, one output: in theory you can chain these together) and 12 16-bit latches that allow you to drive the display with a 1:16 scan rate.
These panels require 13 digital pins (6 bit data, 7 bit control) and a good 5V supply, up to 4A per panel. We suggest our 4A regulated 5V adapter and then connecting a 2.1mm jack.
Technical Details
- Dimensions: 191mm x 96mm x 15mm
- Panel weight with IDC cables and power cables: 189g
- Compatible with M3 mounting screws
- 5V regulated power input @ ~4A (with all LEDs on)
- 2000 mcd LEDs on 3mm pitch
- 1/16 scan rate
- Indoor display, wide visibility
- Displays are 'chainable'
Comes with:
- A single 64x32 RGB panel
- An IDC cable
- A plug in power cable
RAM & Processor Requirements
Keep in mind that these displays were designed to be driven by FPGAs or other high speed processors: they do not have built in PWM control of any kind. Instead, you're supposed to redraw the screen over and over to 'manually' PWM the whole thing.
You'll need about 1600 bytes of RAM to buffer the 12-bit color image. You cannot use this size panel with an Arduino UNO (ATmega328) or ATmega32u4 - you need a chip with more RAM! These displays are technically 'chainable' - connect one output to the next input - as long as you have the RAM and CPU to handle it
This display does best with a high speed, high RAM microcontroller like a SAMD21, SAMD51, ESP32, etc. 8-bit micros are going to struggle if they work at all. The good news is that the display is pre-white balanced with nice uniformity so if you turn on all the LEDs it's not a particularly tinted white.
Power Requirements
There's a lot of LEDs! You may need up to 4A per panel. We suggest our 4A regulated 5V adapter and then connecting a 2.1mm jack.
Connection Requirements
These displays require 13 GPIO pins to control. You may have to use consecutive or special pins depending on the driver firmware. We'll be honest: folks who try to wire directly are usually not successful, its easy to get confused and misconnect. For that reason we strongly recommend a ready-to-go board or adapter that makes wiring as easy as plugging in the cables and powering with 5V
- We recommend the Matrix Portal ESP32-S3 for a WiFi-enabled powerful plug-and-play board
- The original Matrix Portal with SAMD51 is also a great plug-and-play board if you happen to want a Cortex M4 as a main processor (we recommend the S3 version, above, as it is faster and has more memory)
- For many Arduino-shaped boards, you may be able to use our RGB Matrix Shield (check the product page and tutorial for which Arduino-like boards can be used)
- We also have RGB Matrix FeatherWings for many Feather boards (check the product page and tutorial for which Feather boards can be used)
- For Raspberry Pi computers, our RGB Matrix Bonnet is fully plug-and-play for powerful Linux-controlled displays.
Please note! These panels are remainder stock from factories that make huge light boards. For that reason, the look and size might vary from batch to batch, even though the basic operation, codebase and tutorial is the same.
