Adafruit sells massive particular person LED matrix panels. In addition they supplied a devoted board referred to as Matrix Portal to make driving them simpler. Nonetheless, provide points have made these tough to construct. So, Adafruit launched Matrix Portal S3, an replace primarily based on an ESP32-S3 module.
The Matrix Portal S3 is an add-on board for HUB75-based LED matrix panels. It has an ESP32-S3 module with a dual-core processor, 8 megabytes of flash, 2 megabytes of PSRAM, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth LE (BLE.)
The unique Adafruit Matrix Portal used a Microchip SAM D51 microcontroller for the matrix and an ESP32 for Wi-Fi. For the reason that SAM D51 has been difficult to acquire, Adafruit determined to revamp the Matrix Portal to make use of the dual-core ESP32-S3.
Each embody options like an IS3DH accelerometer, a GPIO breakout strip, a NeoPixel, an I2C STEMMA QT connector, and different usability options.
There are two connectors for the LED panel. A 2×10 socket connects first snuggly onto the HUB75 port on the again of the matrix. And if you wish to use the board with the cables that include the matrices (from Adafruit), there may be additionally a 2×8 IDC plug connector.
Whereas the unique and new S3 have very comparable function units, they’ve a minimum of two important variations.
First, the ESP32-S3 helps native USB. It’s potential to behave as a USB HID or music system. And, like different ESP32-based boards, it has a big arrive of IO/protocol choices.
One other distinction to the SAM D51-based Matrix Portal is that the ESP32-S3 doesn’t have a digital-to-analog converter. When you want that functionality, Adafruit recommends utilizing an I2S amplifier for audio.
Final, a probably important distinction is that the ESP32-S3 accommodates a parallel output drive peripheral. Matrix Portal S3 makes use of this function to drive the matrix with out bit-banging! In different phrases, there may be extra CPU time obtainable on your code.
You may program the Matrix Portal S3 with the Arduino IDE or CircuitPython. Consider, nonetheless, that CircuitPython doesn’t assist BLE on the ESP32-S3. It solely helps Wi-Fi. The Arduino IDE helps each.
Matrix Portal S3 is now in inventory and obtainable to ship. The fee is $19.95 USD earlier than transport and doesn’t embody an LED matrix. It comes programmed with a demo for a 32 x 64 LED matrix.
