Tindie

Everything works according to expectations, meaning perfect!
Thanks Brian for the fast delivery and the good packaging!
Thanks for the work you have done and shared with us!

Julian | Jan. 20, 2020

Just what I needed

For Feather Huzzah 32 Debug Shield

Swift response from Brian on a question, and to check that I really didn't need the 10pin cable.
I used stacking headers (from pimoroni who are always excellent) and connected up via some jumper wires to a FT4232H CJMCU board which I already had. (My HUZZAH32 didn't have stacking headers, or I wouldn't have needed this board.)

I didn't experience the problem of not being able to program via the original USB cable. Selecting which method to use for programming via platformio.ini was as easy as changing the "upload_protocol" setting between "esptool" for serial, or my custom "cjmcu_4232" setting for JTAG, where most people would use "esp-prog". Debug is enabled for me by setting "debug_tool" to "cjmcu_4232" or for most people "esp-prog".

FWIW, I found it easiest to fork https://github.com/platformio/platform-espressif32 and https://github.com/espressif/openocd-esp32, then work from my checkout, using "platform = https://github.com/my/platform-espressif32.git" and "platform_packages = tool-openocd-esp32 @ https://github.com/my/openocd-esp32.git" so that changes I made to these wouldn't be overwritten by subsequent updates and I can rebase when there are updates that I want. Note that openocd needs to be configured, built and installed to the same platformio dir using "./configure --prefix=$(pwd)", but that seems to be a minor quirk.

Luke | Jan. 15, 2020

Great product & Great Value

Super shield & exceeded my expectations - well worth the price. Happy to recommend this product & Seller.

Delivery
Shipped quickly and arrived within a few days. Well packed.

Soldering etc
Pretty quick to solder and easy to follow instructions
Initially I powered the unit up with reverse polarity & fortunately both hte ESP32 & the Shield survived. Not recommended to do this, but happy it didn't give off smoke :)

Examples Sketches
Managed to get all the examples running on my P2.5 64x64 matrix with an ESP32 D1 Mini.
(Some are designed for 32x64, but still ran on the 64x64 in half screen. Remember to change the #defines to match your Panel in each example.)

PROs
- Initially I had wired up the panel using just Dupont cables between the ESP32 & the Panel, which worked fine, until I wanted to run a second example. Then I realised that I couldn't upload to the ESP32 when it was connected to the Panel...so that became a bit of a pain having to swap in/out the Dupont cables. So I quickly decided to order the Shield & it was then trivial to insert/remove the ESP32 as required.
- A very tidy solution with minimal wiring.
- Shield is well designed and lots of useful info on the silk screen. There are many unused GPIO pins exposed across the PCB, which will be useful for custom/expansion projects.
- Great value, docs, examples & support, don't waste your time & effort on anything else.

CONs
- Can't think of any @ this great price.

Carrie | Jan. 13, 2020

Funny kit, nice boards!

For "Should have used a 555"

Very cool that it came with a few colors of LEDs to choose from. I wish the polarity marking on the LED was a little easier to see, but not really a big deal. Gave these out as little holiday gifts, everyone loved them.

Michael | Jan. 1, 2020

Should have used a through-hole design. No instructions.

For "Should have used a 555"

This is a kit and the description on Tindie states one should go to the seller's website for assembly instructions. In fact, there are no assembly instructions there. I have a fair amount of electronics knowledge and experience, so was able to assemble it without instructions. Most of the components are surface-mount which makes hand-assembly tedious. You need good magnification, a steady hand, a PCB holder, a solder station with a fine-tip iron and hair-thin solder. Alternately, you can use paste solder and an oven. The surface-mount switch broke after just a few operations. I replaced it with a much more robust through-hole switch. It's all a shame. There is plenty of room on the PCB to have used a through-hole or socketed parts design, which would have made assembly much faster and resulted in a tougher product.

Unless you understand electronics pretty well and have experience with surface-mount soldering, don't buy it.

Ben | Dec. 31, 2019

This is what my 3D printer was missing

Works like a charm, and worth every penny. Much better than any hack I would have come up with. A must-have for any 3D printer in my opinion!

Patrick | Dec. 30, 2019

Couldn't be happier

For Christmas THPCB3

My tree arrived amazingly fast and it was super fun to put together! I can't recommend highly enough!

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.

Zac | Dec. 18, 2019

Great Board. Great Support

Bought this board from Brian a couple of days back, and the whole process from great from start to finish.
Tetris Time looks so cool !

Had a couple of questions regarding the led matrix I was about to buy, and Brian helped me out to ensure that I was getting the right one.
Level of after sales support offered was fantastic, and would highly recommend any of his products, purely based on that fact alone.

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!

Josh | Dec. 13, 2019

Great board!

I have 3 of these running right now with two 32x16 panels each, powered by USB (brightness=~75) and they run rock solid!
With both panels, scrolling text, an image, and the time over both panels, I have never seen the total amperage consumption exceed 150ma via USB

Gabriel | Dec. 12, 2019

Very nice, tech Christmas

For Christmas 3 PCB

The product is very, very nice. It is not so easy to assemble the LEDs, but when you finished, it worth the effort because the result is super. I bought all three versions: green, white, and black, and all of them are beautiful.

Brian | Dec. 9, 2019

Great project and excellent support.

For Christmas 3 PCB

All components provided with some extra LEDs. Clear online instructions and great email support when I made a soldering error. My grandson loves the tree lit up.

Giorgio | Dec. 5, 2019

Awesome Kit

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

Ton | Dec. 5, 2019

TOP,TOP.

Iam using it for tetris clock and it works as expected. One of the advantages is no messing with cables.
So iam very happy with it.

regards , Tobo.

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

For BLough Alarm Clock - Shield for Wemos D1 Mini

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.

Mark | Nov. 27, 2019

Excellent kit! Useful and fun to assemble.

Love my BLough Alarm Clock. Well designed, well documented and fun to assemble for any electronics hobbyist. Highly recommended.

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.

Gabriel | Sept. 23, 2019

Excellent!

For TinyPICO Matrix Shield

I bought also a D1 mini matrix shield and I have a very pleasant experience. As the D1 version, this one is also clear how to assemble/solder the kit. Also, it worked from the first moment, and I tested with two models of led matrix. Very nice product. I appreciate very much all of Brian's accomplishments and also the Seon's TinyPICO. They are both on my subscription list on both Youtube and Twitter.

Gerald | Aug. 28, 2019

I love my Pandamonium badge.

For Pandamonium

It came quickly and all the parts were there. It went together as expected. I may be getting more as gifts. Great small project to practice soldering.

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.

Stephen | Aug. 9, 2019

Very Clever Idea

Such a clever idea, I got one for each of my printers, all of which run OctoPrint, The kit is super simple to solder (and assemble with the Thingiverse case).

Patrick | Aug. 1, 2019

Power BLoughR, fabulous little thing

Now the screen is off and OctoPi is switched on which sometimes annoyed me that the screen will be powered from USB even if you unplug the powercord.
I have had a couple of emails with the seller and he is incredibly friendly and helpful so I recommend you get the Power BLough-R if you also want the screen turned off when you turn off the power to your 3D printer

Neil | July 30, 2019

Very useful board for playing with matrix displays

Again Brian has made a handy board to simplify playing with RGB matrix panels. Had a couple of his matrix shields for the ESP8266 so I was sure the ESP32 version would be just as good. These bouards are definitely recommended if you want to very easily knock up a Tetris clock or Morphing clock.

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?

Daniel | May 3, 2019

Awesome!

Great Product, easy to install, well fabricated and it works like a charm! I can highly recommend seller and product.

Matthias | April 29, 2019

Cool product