After 40 Years, It Was Time for an Upgrade!

The venerable and original peripheral for the TEC-1 has finally had an update to make it the must-have peripheral for the new TEC-1G. Making use of the Expander found at the top right of the 1G, the new 8x8 LED Matrix makes use of all four ports presented at the Expander to allow for up to THREE 8x8 units chained together (one port for the horizontal rows, the other three controlling the vertical columns) to give a huge "widescreen" effect of 24 pixels wide by 8 pixels tall.

And there is more; Those three vertical ports can also be used to display Red, Greed and Blue pixels! That's right, a FULL RGB 8x8 module has been used in this iteration of the best add-on for the TEC-1G! Other options include stacking multiple modules and stacking them vertically for games like Tetris or race car type games. Each module can be configured with jumpers to connect any of the 3 vertical ports to any selected R, G or B colour.

Kit Options

• Full Kit with PCB and All Parts will get you everything you need to build one full colour 8x8 display, but assumes you purchased the TEC-1G Kit which comes with the difficult to source Expander Connector. See the option below.
• The PCB Only option... only gets you the PCB.

Expander Connector Option

The Expander Connector needs to be both Right Angled and an IDC type of socket. The reason being that they are keyed and are thicker and make for a much sturdier connection than a standard pin header/socket combination. Sure, you can probably get away with just a cheap and cheerful 2x10 pin header (it still must be right angled, though, or you won't be able to connect multiple modules together) but I can assure you they suck in the long run.

Now I have tried VERY HARD to source these rather expensive connectors from anywhere else other than DigiKey, but I have simply not been able to find another source. If you do, PLEASE let me know so I can bring the cost of the kits down! Meanwhile, you can purchase them here, or feel free to get them from DigiKey, their part number is: S9205-ND

Also, if you are buying a second or third 8x8 module, then you will need that Expander Connector again, to allow the next module to the left to plug into your first module, etc.