HDSP clock with SCD5583 display

Here is another interesting "intelligent" LED matrix display, whose name actually makes some sense (unlike HDSP-2354, among many others): SCD5583A. I reckon it means: "Serial Character Display with 5x5x8 dot matrix". 3 is the code for green (0 for red, 1 for yellow).
This display is now obsolete (replaced by touch screens in avionics, the industry for which it was designed), but it is still available on ebay for a reasonable price (except for incredibly high shipping cost).

Compared to other intelligent displays like the above-mentioned HDSP-2534 employed by the HDSP clock (hence the bland unimaginative name), SCD558X does not have an internally-defined font and requires the user to provide one. This makes it a little more complicated to use, but also allows for more flexibility, making it truly international (non-English character set). Even more, each pixel can be addressed individually, like a graphical 5x40 LED matrix.
The fact that is serial means fewer pins are required for interfacing (3 control pins in this case) and less driving circuitry (no need for the external shift register).

The photo below shows the display connected to an Arduino and running the HDSP sketch adapted for SCD5833.

Practically, the HDSP sketch uses only one function to write to display, aptly called "writeDisplay()", that needs to be re-written. The support for SCD5583 is provided by the class SCD5583, shown below (header + cpp files, compiled with Arduino IDE 1.8.13).

#ifndef _SCD5583_H_
#define _SCD5583_H_

#include  "Arduino.h"

class SCD5583
{
  public:
    SCD5583(byte loadPin, byte dataPin, byte clkPin);
    void clearMatrix();
    void setBrightness(byte b);
    void writeLine(char text[9]);

  private:
    void _sendData(byte data);
    void _getCharDefinition(byte* rows, char c);
    void _selectIndex(byte position);

    byte _loadPin;
    byte _dataPin;
    byte _clkPin;
};

#endif // _SCD5583_H_

-----------------------------------------------

#include "SCD5583.h"
#include "font5x5.h"

#define MAX_CHARS 8   // set to 10 for SCD5510X (10 digits) or to 4 for SCD554X (4 digits);
#define NUM_ROWS  5

SCD5583::SCD5583(byte loadPin, byte dataPin, byte clkPin)
{
  pinMode(loadPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(clkPin, OUTPUT);
  _loadPin = loadPin;
  _dataPin = dataPin;
  _clkPin  = clkPin;
  clearMatrix();
//  setBrightness(0);
}

void SCD5583::clearMatrix()
{
  _sendData(B11000000);
}

void SCD5583::setBrightness(byte b)
{
  if (b > 0 && b < 7)
  {
     _sendData(B11110000 + b);
  }
}

void SCD5583::_selectIndex(byte position)
{
   _sendData(B10100000 + position);
}

void SCD5583::_sendData(byte data)
{
  byte mask = 1;
  digitalWrite(_loadPin, LOW);
  digitalWrite(_clkPin,  LOW);
  for (byte i = 0; i < 8; i++)
  {
    digitalWrite(_dataPin, mask & data? HIGH : LOW);
    digitalWrite(_clkPin, HIGH);
//  delay(10);
    digitalWrite(_clkPin, LOW);
    mask = mask*2;
  }
  digitalWrite(_loadPin, HIGH);
}

void SCD5583::_getCharDefinition(byte* rows, char c)
{
  for (byte i = 0; i < NUM_ROWS; i++)
  {
    rows[i] = font5x5[((c- 0x20) * NUM_ROWS) + i];
  }
}

void SCD5583::writeLine(char* text)
{
  byte rows[NUM_ROWS];
  for (int i = 0; i < MAX_CHARS; i++)
  {
    _selectIndex(i);
    _getCharDefinition(rows, text[i]);
    for (int r = 0; r < NUM_ROWS; r++)
    {
      _sendData(rows[r]);
    }
  }
}

As mentioned previously, the font must be provided too (content of file "font5x5.h" shown below):

#ifndef _FONT5X5_H_
#define _FONT5X5_H_

// ascii characters 0x41-0x7a (32-127);
static unsigned char font5x5[] =
{
  0x00, 0x20, 0x40, 0x60, 0x80, // space
  0x04, 0x24, 0x44, 0x60, 0x84, // !
  0x0A, 0x2A, 0x40, 0x60, 0x80, // "
  0x0A, 0x3F, 0x4A, 0x7F, 0x8A, // #
  0x0F, 0x34, 0x4E, 0x65, 0x9E, // $
  0x19, 0x3A, 0x44, 0x6B, 0x93, // %
  0x08, 0x34, 0x4D, 0x72, 0x8D, // &
  0x04, 0x24, 0x40, 0x60, 0x80, // '
  0x02, 0x24, 0x44, 0x64, 0x82, // (
  0x08, 0x24, 0x44, 0x64, 0x88, // )
  0x15, 0x2E, 0x5F, 0x6E, 0x95, // *
  0x04, 0x24, 0x5F, 0x64, 0x84, // +
  0x00, 0x20, 0x40, 0x64, 0x84, // ,
  0x00, 0x20, 0x4E, 0x60, 0x80, // -
  0x00, 0x20, 0x40, 0x60, 0x84, // .
  0x01, 0x22, 0x44, 0x68, 0x90, // /
  0x0E, 0x33, 0x55, 0x79, 0x8E, // 0
  0x04, 0x2C, 0x44, 0x64, 0x8E, // 1
  0x1E, 0x21, 0x46, 0x68, 0x9F, // 2
  0x1E, 0x21, 0x4E, 0x61, 0x9E, // 3
  0x06, 0x2A, 0x5F, 0x62, 0x82, // 4
  0x1F, 0x30, 0x5E, 0x61, 0x9E, // 5
  0x06, 0x28, 0x5E, 0x71, 0x8E, // 6
  0x1F, 0x22, 0x44, 0x68, 0x88, // 7
  0x0E, 0x31, 0x4E, 0x71, 0x8E, // 8
  0x0E, 0x31, 0x4F, 0x62, 0x8C, // 9
  0x00, 0x24, 0x40, 0x64, 0x80, // :
  0x00, 0x24, 0x40, 0x6C, 0x80, // ;
  0x02, 0x24, 0x48, 0x64, 0x82, // <
  0x00, 0x3F, 0x40, 0x7F, 0x80, // =
  0x08, 0x24, 0x42, 0x64, 0x88, // >
  0x0E, 0x31, 0x42, 0x64, 0x84, // ?
  0x0E, 0x35, 0x57, 0x70, 0x8E, // @
  0x04, 0x2A, 0x5F, 0x71, 0x91, // A
  0x1E, 0x29, 0x4E, 0x69, 0x9E, // B
  0x0F, 0x30, 0x50, 0x70, 0x8F, // C
  0x1E, 0x29, 0x49, 0x69, 0x9E, // D
  0x1F, 0x30, 0x5E, 0x70, 0x9F, // E
  0x1F, 0x30, 0x5E, 0x70, 0x90, // F
  0x0F, 0x30, 0x53, 0x71, 0x8F, // G
  0x11, 0x31, 0x5F, 0x71, 0x91, // H
  0x0E, 0x24, 0x44, 0x64, 0x8E, // I
  0x01, 0x21, 0x41, 0x71, 0x8E, // J
  0x13, 0x34, 0x58, 0x74, 0x93, // K
  0x10, 0x30, 0x50, 0x70, 0x9F, // L
  0x11, 0x3B, 0x55, 0x71, 0x91, // M
  0x11, 0x39, 0x55, 0x73, 0x91, // N
  0x0E, 0x31, 0x51, 0x71, 0x8E, // O
  0x1E, 0x31, 0x5E, 0x70, 0x90, // P
  0x0C, 0x32, 0x56, 0x72, 0x8D, // Q
  0x1E, 0x31, 0x5E, 0x74, 0x92, // R
  0x0F, 0x30, 0x4E, 0x61, 0x9E, // S
  0x1F, 0x24, 0x44, 0x64, 0x84, // T
  0x11, 0x31, 0x51, 0x71, 0x8E, // U
  0x11, 0x31, 0x51, 0x6A, 0x84, // V
  0x11, 0x31, 0x55, 0x7B, 0x91, // W
  0x11, 0x2A, 0x44, 0x6A, 0x91, // X
  0x11, 0x2A, 0x44, 0x64, 0x84, // Y
  0x1F, 0x22, 0x44, 0x68, 0x9F, // Z
  0x07, 0x24, 0x44, 0x64, 0x87, // [
  0x10, 0x28, 0x44, 0x62, 0x81, // \
  0x1C, 0x24, 0x44, 0x64, 0x9C, // ]
  0x04, 0x2A, 0x51, 0x60, 0x80, // ^
  0x00, 0x20, 0x40, 0x60, 0x9F, // _
  0x0A, 0x2A, 0x40, 0x60, 0x80, // '
  0x00, 0x2E, 0x52, 0x72, 0x8D, // a
  0x10, 0x30, 0x5E, 0x71, 0x9E, // b
  0x00, 0x2F, 0x50, 0x70, 0x8F, // c
  0x01, 0x21, 0x4F, 0x71, 0x8F, // d
  0x00, 0x2E, 0x5F, 0x70, 0x8E, // e
  0x04, 0x2A, 0x48, 0x7C, 0x88, // f
  0x00, 0x2F, 0x50, 0x73, 0x8F, // g
  0x10, 0x30, 0x56, 0x79, 0x91, // h
  0x04, 0x20, 0x4C, 0x64, 0x8E, // i
  0x00, 0x26, 0x42, 0x72, 0x8C, // j
  0x10, 0x30, 0x56, 0x78, 0x96, // k
  0x0C, 0x24, 0x44, 0x64, 0x8E, // l
  0x00, 0x2A, 0x55, 0x71, 0x91, // m
  0x00, 0x36, 0x59, 0x71, 0x91, // n
  0x00, 0x2E, 0x51, 0x71, 0x8E, // o
  0x00, 0x3E, 0x51, 0x7E, 0x90, // p
  0x00, 0x2F, 0x51, 0x6F, 0x81, // q
  0x00, 0x33, 0x54, 0x78, 0x90, // r
  0x00, 0x23, 0x44, 0x62, 0x8C, // s
  0x08, 0x3C, 0x48, 0x6A, 0x84, // t
  0x00, 0x32, 0x52, 0x72, 0x8D, // u
  0x00, 0x31, 0x51, 0x6A, 0x84, // v
  0x00, 0x31, 0x55, 0x7B, 0x91, // w
  0x00, 0x32, 0x4C, 0x6C, 0x92, // x
  0x00, 0x31, 0x4A, 0x64, 0x98, // y
  0x00, 0x3E, 0x44, 0x68, 0x9E, // z
  0x06, 0x24, 0x48, 0x64, 0x86, // {
  0x04, 0x24, 0x44, 0x64, 0x84, // |
  0x0C, 0x24, 0x42, 0x64, 0x8C, // }
  0x00, 0x27, 0x5C, 0x60, 0x80, // ~
};

#endif  // _FONT5X5_H_

And finally, the changes in HDSP.ino are:

1. add the following line at the top:

#include "SCD5583.h"

// SCD5583 pins: LOAD to D4, DATA to D5, SDCLK to D3;
SCD5583 scd(4,5,3);

2. replace the function writeDisplay() written for HDSP-2534, with the following:

void writeDisplay()
{
  scd.writeLine(displayBuffer);
}

Hardware-wise, some re-wiring is required on the HDSP board, starting with the removal of the 595 shift register. Then, D3, D4 and D5 (ATmega328 pins 5, 6, 11) must be connected respectively to SDCLK, LOAD and DATA pins (1, 2, 27) of the SCD5583 display.

And there you have it, a working HDSP clock with SCD5583 display.

It is worth mentioning that the measured current drawn was between 10mA (lowest brightness) and 20mA (highest), and that it works similarly well when powered by 3V3.

Upgrade your HDSP clock to an NTP-synchronized WiFiChron

So you have the simple HDSP clock but you wish you had the NTP-based time synchronization and the weather feature of the WiFiChron (not to mention the alarm). The "solution" is to buy the WiFiChron kit :)

The alternative "solution" is to hack your HDSP clock, by adding a proto-shield with an ESP8266 module, a 3V3 regulator (e.g. MCP1700) and a buzzer, the components that make the difference between the two clocks.

Before building the ESP8266 proto-shield, perform the following 4 modifications (highlighted in the next photo) on the HDSP board:

1. isolate the FTDI's CTS pin (second from the top) by cutting its traces to the ground;
2. wire the newly isolated FTDI pin 2 to pin 16 of the processor (D10, used for the buzzer);
3. cut the trace connecting pin 1 of the LED display (RST) to pin 3 of the processor;
4. solder the right angle FTDI male header on the back of the board, towards the USB plug.

The small proto-shield, that looks like in the photos below, will plug in the FTDI header. Naturally, the same FTDI header is used for either the FDTI breakout (to upload sketches) or the ESP8266 proto-shield.

Besides the hardware, one little software change (of the original WiFiChron sketch, available here) is required as well, due to the second button connected to A3 (instead of A1 as in WiFiChron):

    #define PIN_BTN_UP 17  // A3 in hacked HDSP
// #define PIN_BTN_UP 15  // A1 in WiFiChron

Since the 3rd button ("Down") is missing on the HDSP board, only the "Up" button function will be available (the left button).

Follow this post to set up the network connection.
And remember, the ESP8266 baud rate MUST be lower than 115200 (set it to 38400), since the ATmega328 with internal clock cannot handle this speed reliably (according to the datasheet, the drift is about 8%).

Remixed WiFiChron board

Thanks to all buyers who waited patiently for the new batch of re-designed WiFiChron PCBs to arrive.
The new board eliminates the need for the 2 extra wires on the back (that connected Rx and Tx to ESP8266). The XBee socket, intended for the $45 GPSBee, was also dropped, and replaced with a 3-pin header, used for connecting the $5 GPS modules available on ebay.

Here is the list of notable changes:

• the only RTC now supported is DS3231;
• DS3231 is now powered from the regulated 3V3;
• GPS module is now connected to D17 (already supported in software);
• as mentioned above, Rx and Tx already connected to ESP8266 module (no need to solder the 2 wires on the back); as before, remember to unplug the ESP8266 module from its socket when uploading a new sketch;

This is how the new board looks like:

and assembled:

Below is the new schematic (compatible with the old one, just re-mixed):

The latest release of the WiFiChron software should still work unchanged with the new board.

On the assembly front, youtuber 12voldvids put together this nice video:

Here is another video on WiFiChron, courtesy of RayS:

If anyone else would like to make and publish videos on any of my kits, I will gladly support it, with explanations/clarifications and, obviously, discounts :)

GPS-synchronized Mondrian clock

The challenge was to add GPS to this "basic LED matrix clock".

Since I don't see the point of a GPS clock that does not show seconds, I had to figure out how to fit 6 digits on the 8x16 LED matrix. One way to do it is this:

as used by the "Matrix Clock V1.0". Kind of hard to distinguish between 0 and 8 though.

Another way is based on MixiClock, where 4 digits are crammed in a 8x8 (tri-color) matrix. (This was more than 4 years ago. Incredible how little progress I made since.)

As for the name, I settled for "Mondrian" because Kandinsky was already taken :)

The hours are shown in red, the minutes in green and the seconds in orange. After power up, the seconds blink until the GPS time is received (less than 5 minutes in my house, more than 3 meters away from the nearest window). Only the minutes and the seconds are synchronized (but not the hours).

The Mondrian clock is made of 2 boards: the wsduino with the GPS Bee plugged in (and the antenna affixed on the back with double sided tape, as shown in the next photo), and the LED-mini-display shield.

The GPS Bee module is connected on the hardware serial port (there are only a couple of pins left available, D2 and D17).
The clock has two buttons (on the LED matrix shield) used for incrementing the hours and the minutes respectively. The GPS synchronization occurs every 10 hours. That should be more than enough, considering that the highly accurate DS3231 on the wsduino board is responsible for timekeeping.
The clock, powered by 5V, consumes less than 200mA.
The sketch can be found here (compiles on Arduino IDE 1.0.6 and has dependencies on TinyGPS and DS1307 libraries).

Prototype 14-segment-display shield

Update Apr 14, 2019: The kit for this shield can be ordered here.

There are many ways (*) to drive the 6-digit 14-segment common cathode display from Seeed Studio.
This time I chose to multiplex two MAX7221, a method described here (but used for driving a bi-color 8x8 LED matrix).

The code is based on LedControl library, which I extended to cover the definition and display of 14-segment characters (digits, upper case letters, and a few specials). Below is a relevant fragment of the code I added:

/*
* Segment names in the 14-segment (plus DP) display:
*
*     -     A
*   |\|/|   F,I,J,K,B
*    - -    G,H
*   |/|\|   E,N,M,L,C
*     -  .  D,P
*/
// my wiring:
//            GFEDCBAx
// 1st byte: B11111111
//
//            NHJIKMLP
// 2nd byte: B11111111

const static byte charTable14Seg[43][2] = {
    {B01111110,B10001000},  // 0
    {B00001100,B00001000},  // 1
    {B10110110,B01000000},  // 2
    {B00011110,B01000000},  // 3
    {B11001100,B01000000},  // 4
    {B11010010,B00000010},  // 5
    {B11111010,B01000000},  // 6
    {B00000010,B00001100},  // 7
    {B11111110,B01000000},  // 8
    {B11011110,B01000000},  // 9
    {B00000000,B01000000},  // :
    {B00000000,B01000000},  // ;
    {B00000000,B01000000},  // <
    {B00000000,B01000000},  // =
    {B00000000,B01000000},  // >
    {B00000000,B01000000},  // ?
    {B00000000,B01000000},  // @
    {B11101110,B01000000},  // A
    {B00011110,B01100100},  // B
    {B01110010,B00000000},  // C
    {B00011110,B00100100},  // D
    {B11110010,B01000000},  // E
    {B11100010,B01000000},  // F
    {B01111010,B01000000},  // G
    {B11101100,B01000000},  // H
    {B00000000,B00100100},  // I
    {B00111100,B00000000},  // J
    {B11100000,B00001010},  // K
    {B01110000,B00000000},  // L
    {B01101100,B00011000},  // M
    {B01101100,B000100L0},  // N
    {B01111110,B00000000},  // 0
    {B11100110,B01000000},  // P
    {B01111110,B00000010},  // Q
    {B11100110,B01000010},  // R
    {B11011010,B01000000},  // S
    {B00000010,B00100100},  // T
    {B01111100,B00000000},  // U
    {B01100000,B10001000},  // V
    {B01101100,B10000010},  // W
    {B00000000,B10011010},  // X
    {B00000000,B00011100},  // Y
    {B00010010,B10001000},  // Z
};
...
void setChar14Seg(byte pos, byte ascii)
{
  if (pos>7)
    return;

  if (ascii>90 || ascii<48)
    return;

  byte index = ascii - 48;
  for(byte seg=0; seg < 8; seg++)
  {
    SetLed(SEG_AG, pos, seg, charTable14Seg[index][0] & 1 << seg);
    SetLed(SEG_GN, pos, seg, charTable14Seg[index][1] & 1 << seg);
  }

}

This method (hardware and software) can be used for up to 8 14/16-segment displays.


(*) Should be the topic of a future post.

Prototype clock with HDSP-2534 smart display

I recently had the opportunity to acquire a few HDSP-2534 smart alphanumeric displays on the cheap. They seem to be vintage electronics (mines are stamped 9802, by HP), but they are still being made by Avago and sold by digikey (for about $40 a piece).

From the datasheet, the HDSP-253x looks like the LED dot-matrix equivalent of an HD44780-controlled LCD display:

• data is sent on a 8-bit bus;
• ability to decode 128 ASCII characters, which are permanently stored in ROM;
• allows definition of 16 user-programmable symbols that are stored in the on-board RAM.

I wired the display to an ATmega328 (internal oscillator at 8MHz) through a 595 shift register, using the schematic in this post from nycresistor blog.

They use the HDSP-2111 display, which is very similar to the HDSP-2534 I have. They also provide demo source code for writing data to the display. Needless to say everything works as described. My contribution to the code is a function that sets the display brightness at one of the predefined 7 levels.

As shown in the photo above, all components fit on a 5cm x 7cm prototype board. The RTC is DS1307 with backup battery. The hours and the minutes can be set from the two buttons.

The easiest solution to "finish" the clock was to mount it on a phone dock charger I had around (which can be also found on ebay for $3 or so). Plugging the clock board into the dock's USB connector requires a "breakout" miniB (like this one sold by adafruit). I improvised one by cannibalizing a Geiger PCB, as shown in the photo below.

The "breakout" miniB connector is attached to the back of the clock board by soldering a few header pins in matching holes of the 2 boards. The assembly is mechanically solid.

The current draw at the lowest brightness (which is still very visible, as shown in the photo above) is between 20 and 40mA. At the highest brightness, the clock draws about 200mA.

Future improvements may include a Bluetooth module to display messages sent from a smart phone. And of course, designing a proper PCB :)

Update (Jul 20, 2014): A kit for this clock is now available.

MixiClock - 4 digits displayed on 8x8 LED matrix

So far, on a 8x8 LED matrix, I have only seen the time displayed with scrolling numbers (beside the geeky binary/hex/tix/dice/dots/bars or other coded formats). There is simply not enough room to statically display 4 digits at once, since the tiniest set of human-readable digits can be defined in a grid not smaller than 3x5 pixels.

I challenged myself to find an intuitive way to display 4 digits on the "standard" 8x8 matrix. I figured that this is possible if using 2 colors. Even though they may overlap a bit (quite literally), digits of different colors can be easily distinguished. This is because the overlap makes a third color: in the case of the bi-color (red/green) LED matrix, it will be orange.

I focused on two aspects:

• font definition (3x5) as simple as possible, with minimal number of "on" pixels, but still readable;

// tiny 3x5 digits;

byte digit[10][5] = {

  {2, 5, 5, 5, 2},  // 0

  {1, 1, 1, 1, 1},  // 1

  {6, 1, 2, 4, 7},  // 2

  {7, 1, 2, 1, 6},  // 3

  {4, 5, 7, 1, 1},  // 4

  {7, 4, 7, 1, 6},  // 5

  {3, 4, 7, 5, 2},  // 6

  {7, 1, 2, 4, 4},  // 7

  {7, 5, 2, 5, 7},  // 8

  {2, 5, 7, 1, 6},  // 9

};

• optimal placement of the digits on the 8x8 matrix, so the overlap is minimal (sometimes 1 pixel, very rarely 2 pixels). The photo below shows the starting point. There is more tweaking of the positions in the code, depending on the combination of digits.

As for the name, there are not too many choices, most of them are already taken, so I hastily settled for "MixiClock" (I am open to suggestions though :).

The sketch, written for my 8x8 bi-color LED matrix shield (also used in the original glass-domed Wise Clock) can be downloaded from here. It should be easy to adapt it to any other RG 8x8 LED matrix. The code also features setting up the clock using two buttons.

As you may have guessed, the top digits (green) indicate the hours, the bottom ones (red) the minutes. The position of the digits changes slightly depending on the combinations, so that there is no overlap or it is minimal (max 2 pixels, and those will be orange). The code is not final and I am sure it can be improved.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Countdown timer prototype

While waiting for an 8MHz resonator to finish a previous project and post the result, I put together a prototype of a countdown timer that shows the time passing by changing the display color from green, through orange, to red.

This is just a different way to display information, color versus digits, similar to analog vs digital speedometer, if you will.

The timer is built with an Arduino Diecimila (with ATmega168) and the LED matrix shield.

What a difference...

... can a header/connector make.

Until today I used to plug the 8x8 LED matrices into these cheap and ubiquitous 40-pin female headers:

The round and thin pins of the LED matrices won't fit snugly the wide gaps of the above female headers. These headers are designed to work best, I strongly suspect, with the thick rectangular pins of the, also ubiquitous and cheap, 40-pin male header:

My LED matrices did not make firm contact when plugged into the above pictured female headers. Even scarier, every little touch seemed to affect the contacts, regardless of my efforts to find an easy solution (bend outwards the matrix pins a bit, thicken them with solder, insert them as deep as I could etc).

The final and permanent solution was to replace those headers altogether, with these round machined female pins:

They are a bit more expensive, but make a huge difference in terms of firmness of the contact.

They are also shorter, bringing the LED matrix closer to the board. That requires some attention when sockets are to be used: they should be either inside or outside the matrix package itself.

(Unfortunately I am talking from experience, since I had to remove a socket which was spread under two matrices.)

A different topic, but under the same umbrella of lessons learned: buying and using USB adapter power sources.

To shorten the story, this is the conclusion: when you buy such an USB adapter, never assume the output is 5V and just plug it into your expensive device!

Out of about 10 I bought on ebay, shipped from their manufacturers in China, 2 of them output 9V, way above the expected 5V. Although not statistically accurate (is there such a thing?), this is a 20% failure rate. Before plugging it on, always measure the output voltage to make sure it is what you expect.

Assembling the "LED matrix shield" kit

Updated May 16, 2011
Fellow Arduino fan Scott graciously offered this PDF version of the assembling instructions.


Updated Feb 17/2010

The content of the "LED matrix shield" kit was slightly changed: the 40-pin female header used as socket for the LED matrix is now replaced with two 12-pin machined female headers, making a much better quality connector, suitable for the thin pins of the LED matrix.

Since these new headers are not as high, the IC sockets, if soldered, would impede on the complete insertion of the LED matrix in the headers; therefore, they have been dropped.

The LED matrix shield for Wise Clock kit includes the following components (also shown in the photo):

• PCB, Arduino shield format;
• 8x8 bi-color (red + green) LED matrix, medium size (47 x 47 mm);
• 1 x 40-pin male header;
• 2 x 12-pin machined female header;
• 17 x 100 ohm resistor;
• 1 x 10K resistor;
• 2 x 100 nF decoupling capacitor;
• 2 x 595 shift register;
• 1 x ULN2803;
• 1 x infrared receiver;
• 2 x mini push button.

Like Wiseduino, the LED matrix shield kit requires some basic soldering skills.
One of the most important aspects of correctly assembling the kit is paying attention to the orientation of the ICs and the LED matrix. The ICs must be positioned to match their notches with those on the silkscreen. Pin 1 (and also Pin 13) of the LED matrix are clearly marked on the silkscreen. To eliminate any doubt I also hand-wrote the pin numbers on the back of the LED matrix.

Following are the steps for assembling the board:

1. cut the male headers in 4 pieces (two 8 pins, two 6 pins) and solder them in their right places; the easiest way to perform the soldering is to insert the pins into the Arduino extension connectors, like you had a shield in place already;

2. solder the two 12-pin headers;

3. solder each 100 ohm resistor after placing it vertically (bend one terminal 180 degrees);

4. place and solder the 2 push buttons;

5. solder the remaining 2 resistors, R17 (10K) and R19 (100 ohms);

6. solder the infrared receiver, then bend it 90 degrees so it becomes parallel to the board and also sticks out a bit;
7. insert the 3 ICs, matching their notches with those on the silkscreen, then solder them (before inserting them, don't forget to bend their pins, as shown here);

8. solder the 2 decoupling capacitors (100nF);

9. carefully insert the LED matrix, paying attention to its orientation (the pin numbers are hand-written on the back, for easier identification).

In the end, the assembled LED matrix shield should look like this (shown plugged into Wiseduino):

The code for Wise Clock can be viewed and downloaded here.

Related posts:

• Introducing Wise Clock
• Introducing Wiseduino, an Arduino clone
• Wise Clock sketch