“This is bigger than I expected — but that's no bad thing, as it makes for a more exciting display to tinker with. This is no beginner's display, and just getting the thing to turn on is a challenge for those new to this kind of thing (like me!). Even finding a power supply that works with it was a long research project in itself!
I'm yet to find a good use for it, but I'm excited to try it out properly when I do.”
“This panel (64x64) is really very good. The standard library (https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix) unfortunately does not display anything by default though. This is due to the controller chips (FM6126A) being used I believe. Also, either the standard AdaFruit bonnet installer does not quite work on Raspbian Lite or python is just missing - in any event, to get things running on Rasbian Lite, you will need to install python manually.
Here is what I did to get this panel running the adafruit demos and functioning normally on a Raspberry Pi Zero (and presumably others) using the AdaFruit Bonnet -
(As noted in the product description, the pads on the Bonnet must be bridged to the 8 position for this panel.)
1. Follow the AdaFruit tutorial at https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-rgb-matrix-bonnet-for-raspberry-pi/ and use their installer. It is pretty good and (mostly on my Pi Zero with Rasbpian Lite) works
2. run the command 'sudo apt install python3-gpiozero' to install python (I was using Raspbian Lite - this may not be required for other distributions of Raspbian). This is discussed in issue #807 (https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/issues/807) as an aside.
3. run the script attached to issue #746 of the library's GitHub issues log (https://github.com/hzeller/rpi-rgb-led-matrix/issues/746) making the changes to the brightness variables as discussed there.
the demos should now run and be visible. If the images don't come out quite right (eg a band missing horizontally in the middle) specify the size of the panel on the demo's command line (--led-rows=64 --led-cols=64).”
“I bought 6 of the 32x32 ones and my goal is to put them together in a 3x2 configuration. I just got the first one working in less than an hour with the tutorial on Adafruit (look for "Adafruit RGB Matrix + Real Time Clock HAT for Raspberry Pi").
The panel super bright and gorgeous. I recommend getting the RGB Matrix Bonnet for Raspberry Pi for your first panel to make getting started easier. You'll need a 5V 4A power supply, which I found on Amazon for about £13. The nice thing is that, with the bonnet, it powers the Pi as well so you only need one power source for a single-panel setup.
I'm looking forward to playing with this more. Great product!”
