Friday, 04 July 2014 13:54

Arduino based RGB Matrix LED tester

Arduino based RGB Matrix LED tester

This is a very simple Arduino project which control the 16x32 RGB LED Matrix Panel via an 16pin IDC cable. The Arduino will continuously sending 5 set colours (Red, Green, Blue, White, Black)  to the LED Matrix Panel that allow the technician to find out which part of the LED Matrix Panel is malfunction.

 
 

The story

After completing the large LED screen project, my company always left out many bad 16x32 RGB LED Matrix Panel awaiting me to diagnose. I must light up all the LED Matrix in order to find out where is the actual problem 

Bad 16x32 RGB LED Matrix Panel
 
Normally I have to use a computer plus a sending card & receiving card as shown in figure below to light up the LED, it is consuming power and very troublesome.
LED screen control system 
 
 
By using an Arduino, I'm able to draw graphic such as Lines, Circles, Boxes and Bitmaps on the LED Matrix Panel without using an expensive computer & sending/receiving card.
Arduino based RGB Matrix LED tester 
 
 

Source code and Downloads

To control the RGB LED Matrix Panel, you need to include the Adafruit RGB Matrix Panel library which is available at GitHub. This is an Arduino library for 16x32 and 32x32 RGB LED matrix panels, you can get more information on how to use the library on the Adafruit web site.

 Here is the test code example for this project.

 
 

Connection between Arduino and RGB LED Matrix Panel

This project is based on Arduino UNO/Duemilanove (ATMega328), however you can use it on Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) with some changes in the pin configuration.

Connection table
 
 
 

Arduino PCB and Power Cable

Here is my Arduino PCB design and power cable. The power cable is made for two different types of power connectors as shown in figure below.
Different types of power connectors
 
Power cable
 
Top view of the Arduino PCB
 
Bottom view of the Arduino PCB
 

This is the previous PCB design where the IDC cable is solder directly on the PCB 

Arduino PCB 
 
 

Schematic for 16x32 RGB LED Matrix Panel

This is the 16x32 RGB LED Matrix schematic, I get it from the China website.
Schematic for 16x32 RGB LED matrix panels
Click here to download the higher resolution schematic.
Read 49415 times Last modified on Sunday, 12 June 2016 10:58
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