D1 Mini Matrix Shield

Name: D1 Mini Matrix Shield
SKU: 16343
Price: 14.50 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.85 (22 reviews)

(22 Reviews)

A shield for a D1 mini ESP8266 board that connects to a RGB LED Matrix panel.

Designed by Brian Lough in Ireland

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$14.50

Out of Stock

Sold out since Nov 29, 2021

A shield for a D1 mini ESP8266 board that connects to a RGB LED Matrix panel.

What is it? This kit is a shield for easily controlling RGB LED Matrix using a D1 Mini ESP8266 board. This board takes advantages of the cables that come included with most displays. This board is de…

What is it?

This kit is a shield for easily controlling RGB LED Matrix using a D1 Mini ESP8266 board. This board takes advantages of the cables that come included with most displays.

This board is designed to work with the awesome PX Matrix arduino library by 2dom

There are also versions available for ESP32 boards!

Why did you make it?

The RGB LED matrix panels are one of the coolest displays you can use with an Arduino, but there is quite a bit of wiring to connect them up and also they are a little awkward to power. The panels are only about $20 from aliexpress/eBay

This board makes wiring them really simple! The board just slots directly onto the input header pin, uses the ribbon cable that comes provided with most of these panels to connect the pins of the output header and has screw terminals to connect the power cable that comes with most panels.

What makes it special?

This really makes using the display as simple as possible. Making use of the cables that comes with the display allows the board to be smaller and less expensive.

Examples sketches for using these displays.

Here are some Github Repos with examples of things that can be done using the board. - Some images and a peanut butter jelly time dancing banana

A sketch and a webpage for drawing on the matrix in real-time (WIP, need to move webpage onto to the ESP)

What is included?

Each D1 Mini Matrix Shield is a kit and comes with the following:

D1 Mini Matrix Shield PCB
220uF 25V Capacitor
220k Ohm Resistor for discharging the Cap
Schottky Diode (1N5817)
3 pin male header
1 Jumper block
16 pin female header (2x8)
16 pin right angle male header (2x8)
Large Green screw terminals (KF8500-2P-8.4MM)
1 Barrel Jack (5 x 2.0mm)
3 Line Dip Switch (VDG-03HG-R)
2 x standard screw terminals (one red and one black)

What is NOT included?

The following components are not provided, but are required to use this board.

D1 Mini ESP8266 Board (These can be bought on Aliexpress/Ebay for around $2.50)
RGB LED Matrix Panel that is compatible with the PXMatrix library wiring (Described Here)
Most (all?) panels come with a ribbon cable and a power cable, this board requires these.
A 5V PSU cable of running the display (roughly 5A for a 64x32 model). The barrel jack is standard 2.1mm Jack, but you can also use the optional screw terminals to power the board.
LDR and 10K resistor if you want to try automatic brightness adjustment. Sample sketch here

Documentation and assembly instructions

I created a post on my website that has some basic instructions for assembly and setup

Please note that I do not send any documentation with the board. There is a sticker with a link and QR code to the above URL. I feel it's wasteful to send on documentation when I can provide much better documentation on the web page than I could in a small sheet of paper.

Important Size limitations

While this board is was physical dimensions are designed to work with a P3 64x32 display, it should be compatible with most displays. There are a couple of areas where you could get caught up and ways to work around them.

The Ribbon cable being too short - on some larger displays, the provided ribbon cable can be too short to go from the D1 Mini Matrix PCB to the P-Out connector. The ribbon cable needs to be longer than roughly 4cm shorter than the distance between the two connectors of the Display. E.g. on my P3 display, the distance between the two connectors is 13.5cm so my cable needs to be 9.5cm or longer or it will not work
The PCB does not clear the power connectors - On some smaller displays it is possible that the PCB will be too wide and will hit the power connectors. There needs to be roughly a 5cm gap between the P-in connector and the power connector. Probably the easiest way around this is is to add male jumper headers to the P-in connector and use another ribbon cable to connect this to the input of the display as shown in the image below:

Stand-Off Screws

Some of these displays come with magnetic screws for mounting them on a metal surface. The assembled PCB is taller than the screws but I have added the option of stand-offs that will extend the screws long enough to work. I have unfortunately not found a good supplier of the magnetic screws themselves yet.

There are two sizes available, M3 and M2.5. All my displays are M3 but in Bitluni's video he mentioned he used M2.5 screws so you will need to check which are the appropriate size for you.

Other Notes

I have tested this board on a 64x32 1/16th display, but it should work with other displays that are wired as per the documentation of the PXMatrix Arduino Library
Some displays do not use all the pins that are connected to the D1 Mini, you can test if your display uses these pins by checking if they have continuity with ground. If they do, use the red dip switch to turn disconnect these pins from the D1 mini or the ESP8266 may not boot!

Change log of versions

V1.4 (Current Version)

Increased 5V trace width

V1.3

Added space for an LDR
Rounded the corners of the PCB and added mounting holes

V1.2

Updated Silk screen to aid with assembly

V1.1

Addition of the dip switch so it can be used with all types of displays
Added cutout for under the USB port of the D1 mini so cables could be plugged in even if soldered directly to the board.

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Brian Lough Shipping Policy:

We are currently limiting the amount we go out for social distancing reasons, and usually go to the post office once a week. Usually on a Wednesday or Thursday

Brian

Quantity	Price
1	$14.50
2+	$13.50

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (4.86)

Documentation: (4.77)

Shipping: (4.86)

Communication: (4.91)

Giuseppe | Nov. 28, 2020

Great Product

Great Product worth the money, I have been play with it and woks amazingly cool .
you can display many things with it.

Bennett | Oct. 11, 2020

Just what I needed for my matrix project

Great documentation with plenty of examples. I had been powering my projects with a Arduino mega and pi over serial but this is so much smaller and more efficient! Its great that I can use the barrel connector for power, a big plus!

Zhang | Sept. 4, 2020

Wonderful design, easy to use

The board arrived well packed, fast (international) shipping, and was easy to assemble. This shield was very well designed, and got my LED matrix display up and running in no time.

David | April 9, 2020

D1 Mini matrix Shield for ESP8266

I was very p;leased with this board, it enabled me to get a P3 matrix display running in minutes, little more than plug-and-play. Brian has put a lot of thought into the design and it shows with everything about the board.

I would buy again from Brain based on the quality and service received.

Spencer | March 11, 2020

Great kit. Gets the job done!

Excellent kit. It's top quality and was delivered really quickly. Documentation is great and the example code got me up and running really quickly. I used it for the Pixel Purse 16*32 screens. It works great with 2 screens daisy chained, but with 3 there is some colour tearing (Not a fault of this kit, but a limitation on the screens I was using).

Nigel | Jan. 29, 2020

Fantastic bit of kit

Have watched a lot of Brian's videos on youtube and this shield saves the spaghetti of wiring when working with matrix panels. The online institutions and assembly were easy to follow. The board is well made and thought out so will have fun with the programming. I have ordered another along with one for the tiny pico

Michael | Dec. 27, 2019

works very good

The Product works as expected. The Assembly is really self explaining. (Another 30 Characters......)

Alex-Justin | Dec. 25, 2019

easy way of working with led matrix screens :)

Ordered the D1 mini matrix shield to get the led matrix working for 36C3.
easy to setup and program to make every working.

Andreas | Dec. 18, 2019

Great Kit

It is well designed and easy to assemble. Thanks Brian also for the info about the different panels. Very nice project!

Giorgio | Dec. 5, 2019

Awesome Kit

Very usefull Kit Clock for led panel matrix, easy to mount ad very beatiful clock effect " catches eyes ".

Stefan | Dec. 2, 2019

Cool life made easy

My first (not last) project with these led panels - the Tetris clock. This shield is perfect. Working out oft the box. No ugly wires anymore.
I seriously need to check out what else to do with this panels. Very cool and easy with Brians' shield.

Gabriel | Sept. 23, 2019

Careful to details. Very useful product

It is very easy to assemble/solder the kit. It worked from the first moment as I expected (I confess I follow Brian on both Youtube and Twitter so I knew before what should happen). It wasn't necessary, so far, to ask for support but I'm sure the communication with Brian is more than ok (I saw from other messages how kindly he is). Overall, I will buy again and I will recommend to my friends his Tindie shop.

Andrew | Aug. 15, 2019

Making Life Very Easy and Decluttered

These are fantastic, So good that I bought one, and then another, and.. another!

Without dupont cables everywhere and the ESP hanging out in the wind, it's easy to mount the matrix somewhere and not have to worry about it falling apart.

Paul | July 22, 2019

The product went together well but has not worked at all

After assembly, I tried it on a P3 and P4 display and neither would display even though the sketch uploaded correctly.

Response from Brian Lough | July 22, 2019

Hey,

Sorry that you are having issue with it, send me a message through Tindie and I can help you debug.

Brian

Ben | July 9, 2019

Well designed, easy to construct

This kit is a lot of fun to put together - and it is well-marked. I was flashing the morphing clock sketch in minutes. The matrix is beautiful and bright. Great project.

M | July 7, 2019

Very nice board

Board works great with the D1 mini and the recommended led matrix board.
Everything fits well, only the long cables from the matrix board are a bit fiddly looping under the board.

The dancing banana 🍌 example worked straight out of the box.
Very happy with this kit.

As an added bonus I got the new stands to try out and they also fit great 👍 The power jack has no problem passing through the stand.

Thanks,
Mark

Allen | June 7, 2019

Excellent product and works well with my LED Matrix Display.

Very pleased with this shield and it is easy to fit on my matrix with no need for a nest of wires. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to use an LED Matrix Panel with ease.

David | May 18, 2019

The D1 Mini Matrix Shield works like a charm.

Brian Lough's D1 Mini Matrix Shield works as advertised. It eliminates the need for a lot of DuPont wires that are needed to interface between
the D1 Mini and the 36 x 64 LED Matrix that is described in his channel. It is easy to assemble and streamlines the Matrix down to just the power
cord coming in.

Karl | May 9, 2019

Great Product!

I found the purchasing and building experience with this board to be excellent. If I had been paying just a bit more attention, I wouldn't have soldered the angled box header to the wrong side of the board. Perhaps some great big letters on the silkscreen might have helped. In my case, even that may not have been enough. :-p I managed to de-solder the connector, but destroyed it in the process. One month later, new connectors arrive, and assembly is complete.

On my version of the P3 32x64 matrix (I think it came from AliExpress), the ribbon cable header is oriented so that it lays right on top of the 4-pin power connection, preventing both of them from being plugged in at the same time. I know I could just solder some wires on down low, but I'm evaluating some other possible workarounds. Anyone else run into this?

Matthias | April 29, 2019

Cool product

Used the shield in my video on YouTube. Turned out really cool.
Brian helped a lot when I messed up by not rtfm

E. T. | April 29, 2019

very usefull

The assembly instructions are OK. Because the flat cable included with my P5 display was too short and I forgot to order one as an option I used some (5) female-female Dupont wires. Then I used the wiring that was shown in the diagram. That did not work! Of course the flatcable is making parallel connections! After correcting this, it works fine. Maybe this could be explained a bit in the documentation.
One mod I made was an On/Off switch I gluewed on the pcb in series with the power input at the barel connector and cut the trace on the pcb. Just as a conveniance when developing sketches.
All in all a very nice product.

Response from Brian Lough | April 29, 2019

Hey,

Thank you for the review!

I added a section about the ribbon cable to the listing just this weekend as it has also caught out another buyer. I was also able to source some longer ribbon cables that will hopefully suit all screen and added them as an option too.

That's a good suggestion regarding the power switch, if I am re-visiting this design its definitely something to consider!

I have added an additional piece of information on my website that hopefully clears up the confusion around the extending of the wiring. But please let me know if it could be improved!

Thanks

Haris | April 29, 2019