Matrix user forums

Hi Martin!

Thank´s for your effort. I am not home today. Tomorrow evening I am home and I test your new component and program.

Again thank´s. You hear.

Br Jorgen

One of the rotations was wrong - needed to flip the Y axis as well!
Fixes it..

Let us know how it goes.....

Hi Martin!

I have played a little with your new update. Very nice digit but I still not manage to rotate the digit

As you see on picture "not ok" ( yes the digit is fine ) but because of the chip Max7219 I am not able to place them close side by side.

As you on see on "1No space" is the correct place of the Max7219 pcb but now is the orientation of the caracter wrong.

I have made a small testprogram, would you be kind to correct the program so the oritation is correct Please.

Thank´s in advance Martin

Hi,

Okay - I see the problem. I obviously didn't explain PenRot very well....

PenRot is actually used to display the character (it doesn't set it for subsequent Pen calls - I can see the logic, just wasn't the way I went. I should also have called the argument c 'char' or something more descriptive)
I've just disabled the calls to Pen and changed/added calls to PenRot to display AB on displays 0 and 1

Martin

Hi Msrtin!

Yes, now I think I see your point to use the PenRot. And yes now it is the correct orientation , but only one (the first "digit" is working comming strage sign in the other

I change the project to an Arduino Uno and use port B0 1 2.

Br jorgen.

Hi Jorgen,

Nearly there!

I think this is probably a timing / noise issue. Try using very short interconnect wires between the modules - for example I can run 8 displays if I connect the second bank of 4 by 'poking' the 'in' pins into the 'out' sockets of the first array of 4 displays. However - if I use jumper wires (~15cm) then things stop working...

Alternatively some sort of shielding of or heavier gauge wires may help? Changing the value of the prescaler to slow things down a bit might be worth a try as well? Though I've just tried setting to Fosc/64 and although things are a lot slower on 4 displays - things don't improve when using the jumpers...

Occasionally I need to pull the power on the Max7219s as well - seem to get some corruption (always whilst programming the Arduino) - that resists overwriting (takes the form of 'stuck' pixels)

Did you get the demo program to work with the four displays??

[img]five%20displays.jpg[/img]

Hi Martin!

Yaeh, I think you rigth I took some shorter wires and after downloading the program, I removed the USB and restart the Uno and also remove the powersupply and then power up again. Perfect. The orientation also work fine.

Nice job you have done Martin Now I will play with it. Maybe I have some more question later

Thanks again.

Br jorgen

No problem.

If I can help with anything then please don't hesitate to ask...

Martin

Hi again Quicly

Martin would you be so kind to create a little program how to scroll a string with rotating/oritation the text. Please

Jorgen

For fun:

I created a 'tower' clock using an Arduino Nano, a RTC (DS3231) and a 4 x8x8 Max7219 display.

I noticed that the RTC board could plug in opposite pins A2 to A7 and SDA and SCL would be next to the corresponding Arduino pins (A4/A5). I thought a five jumper clock was on the cards - but no. Plugging the matrix display into the breadboard (opposite pins d5..d9) - and (although it's probably pushing the current allowance for an Arduino pin a bit) worked fine. So using A2/A3 to power the RTC and D5/D6 to power the display.

Presenting the ZERO jumper breadboard tower clock
Seconds are displayed as a moving dot on the right of the display - and in the tradition of quick and dirty hacks - I use the redrawing of the time to erase the 'seconds' dot.. I also haven't tested it at the crucial rollover points (am - pm etc). Jazzing it up is left as an exercise to the reader!

[img]P1040023.JPG[/img]

[img]P1040020.JPG[/img]

Very nice Martin. Look good, I have to test it later.

When you get time, would you please make a little program with scroll and orientate the text please.

Br Jorgen

Martin would you be so kind to create a little program how to scroll a string with rotating/oritation the text. Please

Okay - the standard scroll routines won't work (well they will - but they won't give the effect they are supposed too!) - there are several possible approaches. Currently the routines rely on the buffers mirroring the layout of the pixels - so one approach would be to rotate the buffers before pushing them out to the display(*). For now, I'll go for the easier approach of writing PenAt / StringAt routines which allow a character/string to be placed at arbitary pixel positions - so we can scroll the string by moving the position we print it to.

I'll give it a go!

(*) - this would have the benefit that all the routines would work as is - and the whole display would just have an orientation value for plotting etc.

My first attempt at a PenAt - worked ok for two of the four rotations.. However the other two it scrolled horizontally across each display. But, on the plus side - seemed to be plenty fast enough... I'd wondered in the past about 32 x 32 displays (16 Max7219s - saw one for sale on Amazon?) - and I think the approach would work well for this too. But, for the moment, back to the drawing board.

On second thoughts- the horizontal scrolling might be just what you need - I have a vertical stack of displays - but if you have horizontally arranged displays....

Look forward. Thanks

Br Jorgen

Hi Jorgen,

Phew - couldn't seem to get my head around the rotations needed - think I probably should have gone for a new write to the buffer and use an `existing/ write a new scroll routine All the displays are rotated 90degrees making life harder!

Still - got there in the end.....

So for you to (alpha) test. Note that I only have one of the led matrix like the one's you have - and it works on 1

To get it to work with the board plugged into the breadboard I needed swap x and y both set to true (ie chip end or 'in' is down - the PenAt routine likes it this way!). If you use other macros you might need to tweak things slightly. I powered the LEDs from the Arduino as per the tower clock - so get rid of the macros that set the pins to 1 and 0 in the test program if you are doing otherwise (and check the pins in the component.... & don't forget to set the number of digits to what you have (rather than 1))

Note also that there are a few limitations not found in the other component... Strings can be a maximum of 32 characters long (but no check is made) - as using only a byte for arithmetic. The display doesn't really scroll - the string moves, if that makes sense - so that when a new A..Z starts the 'Z' left on the display is overwritten rather than gliding off to the left..

ScrollStr2 - Scrolls the string from the right of the display until the final character is displayed. Uses -

StringAt - which could be used to scroll the string right as well.

If there was interest - I'd like to rewrite to handle bigger / more complicated arrays of LED matrices (I like the 4 x 4 grid model) - however it would be difficult to generalise to either inline / rotated displays. (Possible but likely slower)
(But see next message too!)

I'd recommend the component in earlier message above UNLESS using the specific matrix devices that require a 90deg rotation.
I'm not sure why but with a 4 digit display I get occasional corruption (one display all set / stuck on) With 0 delay it is a lot (big lot) slower than before - and I get a 'speed up' at the start of a string - a delay minimises this effect.... Let me know how you get on!

Martin

And.. It was a lot easier to write a new scroll routine to cope with the altered layout of your display...

So. Try ScrollStr3 in:
That's better Everything running fast and smooth!

Just to tidy up now!

Martin

Hi Martin!

Ohh, thank you for your work Martin. I am on a trip with my work and not home before Wednesday. Again, as soon I am home again, I make a test.

By the way, last time I added your Max component in the component lib I could not find the component in the drop down list in display´s but have to search in the search function, is that correct?

Anyway look forward to test, and you hear from me.

Br Jorgen

Hi Martin!

It work´s. Nice, with correct orientation.

Thank you.

Br Jorgen

Glad it works!

I'll tidy the code a little (get rid of PenAt etc) and re-post. (not tonight though - busy day at work and an eye infection )
Is there a need for other rotations (other way up is easy - rotations slightly less so) or scrolling the other direction?

I'd probably add to 'displays' rather than 'Misc' group - then should show up in menus.

Still not much (read any) simulation content. Offers of help gratefully received!

Martin

Hello,

Thanks a lot for your work !

I'll write an article on my blog to explain Matrix Component for my classroom.

https://sti2d-sin-isn.blogspot.com

JD,french teacher

Thanks,

Welcome to the forums. Any questions - please ask.

Martin

There's a slightly newer version in http://www.matrixtsl.com/mmforums/viewt ... 76&t=20329

With some 'special' effects - and YouTube videos too. Look out Hollywood


Martin

Dear Mr.

I have the FC V6 version, could you support me to generate the component for version 6

thanks for your help