Pico-RGB-Matrix-P3-64x32

RGB LED Matrix Panel 64 × 32 Pixels 3.0mm Pitches

Introduction

This product is an RGB LED full-color multi-function digital clock, using the Raspberry Pi Pico master control, onboard a variety of peripheral resources, providing C++/Python demos and learning tutorials, open source software and hardware, suitable for makers or electronics enthusiasts to get started learning, or DIY secondary development into other desktop or wall-mounted display applications.

Features

Standard Raspberry Pi Pico header, supports Raspberry Pi Pico series.
Using P3 fine-pitch RGB LED matrix panel, with 2048 individual RGB LEDs, 64 × 32 pixels, 3mm pitch, allows displaying text, colorful images, or animation.
Onboard high precision RTC chip DS3231, with backup battery holder (battery included), maintains accurate timekeeping when main power is off.
- Real-Time Clock Counts Seconds, Minutes, Hours, Date of the Month, Month, Day of the Week, and Year with Leap-Year Compensation Valid Up to 2100.
- Optional format: 24-hour OR 12-hour with an AM/PM indicator.
- 2 x programable alarm clock.
- Digital temperature sensor output: ±3°C accuracy
Embedded photosensor for auto brightness adjustment due to the ambient light, power saving, and eye care.
Embedded buzzer for alarm or hourly ring, etc.
IR receiver, combined with the IR remote controller, supports IR wireless control.
5 x buttons for configuration, reset, and code programming.
High-quality acrylic back panel and dimmer panel, better looking, more comfortable displaying.
Comes with online development resources and manual (Raspberry Pi Pico C/C++ and MicroPython examples).

Usage Scenarios

Hardware Introduction

Introduction to Onboard Resources

Directions for Raspberry Pi

Please refer to github information: Demo, wiring reference
If the overall brightness of the indicator is dim, click setting to set the brightness.

User Guides for Pico

Pico connection pins

Board	Pico	Pin description
Pins used by RGB LED Matrix (HUB75 interface)
R1	GP02	R higher bit data
G1	GP03	G higher bit data
B1	GP04	B higher bit data
R2	GP05	R lower bit data
G2	GP08	G lower bit data
B2	GP09	B lower bit data
A	GP10	A line selection
B	GP16	B line selection
C	GP18	C line selection
D	GP20	D line selection
E	GP22	E line selection
CLK	GP11	clock input
STB/LAT	GP12	latch pin
OE	GP13	output enable

Board	Pico	Pin description
Pins used by other resources of the board
K0	GP15	KEY0 button, the MENU menu of the digital clock, can also be customized
K1	GP19	KEY1 button, + / Down button of digital clock, can also be customized
K2	GP21	KEY2 button,-/ UP button of digital clock, can also be customized
RUN	RUN	RESET button, can be used for Pico reset
BOOTSET	BOOTSET	BOOT button, can be used for Pico burning program (long press BOOT, then press RESET to enter the firmware download mode)
SDA	GP06	I2C data pin, used to control DS3231 RTC clock chip
SCL	GP07	I2C clock pin, used to control DS3231 RTC clock chip
BUZZ	GP27	Buzzer control pin
AIN	GP26	Photoresistor control pin
IRM	GP28	Infrared receiving control pin

See detailed hardware design of the circuit diagram.

Carrier Board	Pico	Pin Description
Pins used by other resources on the baseboard
K0	GP15	KEY0, MENU for the digital clock, can be customized
K1	GP19	KEY1, + / Down button for digital clock, also customizable
K2	GP21	KEY2, + / Down button for digital clock, also customizable
RUN	RUN	RESET key, can be used to reset Pico
BOOTSET	BOOTSET	BOOT key, which can be used as Pico programming, (Long press BOOT, then press RESET to enter firmware download mode)
SDA	GP06	I2C data pin, used to control the DS3231 RTC chip
SCL	GP07	I2C clock pin, used to control the DS3231 RTC chip
BUZZ	GP27	Buzzer control pin
AIN	GP26	Photoresistor Control Pin
IRM	GP28	IR receiver control pin

Click here to see schematic diagram.

Hardware Connection

Materials needed

Pico-RGB-Matrix-P3-64 x 32 (this product).
Raspberry Pi Pico (must be purchased separately, if not, it is recommended to buy a version with soldered headers, which is convenient for direct insertion and use).
Micro USB cable (must be purchased separately).

Hardware connection steps

Align the pin header which is marked in red and then connect the RGB LED Matrix panel to the driver board.
Cut the adapter cable (about 10cm) by plier
Connect the cable which is cut in the last step to the RGB LED Matrix and the driver board
Assemble the Acrylic backplane and fix it with magnetic screws
Optional: If you feel that the RGB LED Matrix is too bright, you can stick the black Acrylic font panel on the Matrix.

1. Assemble Matrix panel
2. Cut the cable
3. Connect the cable
4. Assemble Acrylic backplane
5（optional） Assemble Acrylic font panel

Example display

Multi-Features Digital Clock

This example is developed based on the C++ SDK. In order to quickly demonstrate the effects and functions of the example, you can skip the steps of "#C++ SDK Development Tutorial" and "Program Debugging and Development" and directly "#Download and burn programs". After the burning is completed, the effect of the instance running is shown in the following figure:

【Function Description】

Time display screen:
- Display date, day of the week, hour, minute, lunar calendar and temperature
Function setting menu
- Date setting
- time setting
- BEEP setting (buzzer setting)
- Auto brightness
- Language setting (under development)

Fruit machine

This example is developed based on CircuitPython^[1] , and the program is downloaded^[2] . The effects and functions of the example are as follows:

【Function Description】

The display can display a variety of fruits or other small BMP icons
Automatically scroll icons at regular intervals, and randomly display the results of the scrolling

↑ CircuitPython is a fork of MicroPython， For specific usage, please refer to the RGB-Matrix related CircuitPython tutorial
↑ Pico must first install CircuitPython，and then copy the corresponding CircuitPythond code to the recognized U disk to complete the download.

Infrared transceiver test

This example is developed based on CircuitPython,and the example effects and functions are as follows:

【Function Description】

The infrared serial code generated by the corresponding button of the infrared remote control can be recognized

C++ SDK Development Tutorial

Development environment setup

For a complete tutorial on how to get started with the C/C++ SDK, You can directly refer to the Offical manual of Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi development environment setup

If you plan to develop for Pico on the Raspberry Pi, you can quickly set up the C/C++ toolchain by running our "setup script" from the command line.
Instructions: Before running the installation script, you should make sure that the operating system on your Raspberry Pi is up to date.

Windows development environment setup

For Windows development environment construction, please refer to:

Raspberry Pi official introductory tutorial P38~P44

Download and burn programs

C++ SDK program programming

The following is an example of programming a simple "blinking LED" program:

Download blink.uf2 ("Blink LED" flash file)
Press and hold the BOOTSEL button, then plug the Pico into the USB port of your Raspberry Pi or other computer.
It will be mounted as a mass storage device named "RPI-RP2". Drag and drop the blink.uf2 binary onto the "RPI-RP2" drive letter. The Pico will restart and the onboard LEDs should start blinking.

Check out the Github source code for "Blink LED"

CircuitPython Development Tutorial

If you are not familiar with CircuitPython, you can first study the official recommended guide "Introduction to CircuitPython for Raspberry Pi Pico".
This guide covers the basics of getting started with CircuitPython and using the editor.

Development environment setup

In order to facilitate the programming, development and debugging of CircuitPython, it is recommended to use the "Mu Editor" development software. You can use Mu Editor for Pico's CircuitPython development on Windows.
The following describes the development and use of Mu Editor under Windows.

Windows development environment (Mu Editor) build and use

Download Mu Editor and follow the steps to install
After the installation is complete, it is the first time to configure the language and select the mode. Since we are using CircuitPython, pay attention to the mode selection CircuitPython option.
After the configuration is complete, it will show that the device cannot be found, that is because Pico has not downloaded the CircuitPython firmware library.
Download the CircuitPython firmware library and burn it into Pico

Download the CircuitPython UF2 file.
Press and hold the BOOTSEL button, then plug the Pico into the USB port of your Raspberry Pi or other computer. Release the BOOTSEL button after connecting the Pico.
It will be mounted as a mass storage device named "RPI-RP2".
Drag and drop the CircuitPython UF2 file onto the "RPI-RP2" volume. Your Pico will reboot, a new disk drive named CIRCUITPY will appear, and you're done.
The new disk drive will have a default code.py file, you open it with Mu Editor, the content is: "print("Hello World!")", the specific opening steps are shown in the last figure.

Open the serial port, click the blank area and press Ctrl+C, then press Ctrl+D or click the blank area of the code interface and press Ctrl+S to run the program. You can observe the running effect in the CircuitPython REPL window.

select mode
loader
Select program file
Open serial port
run program

User Guides of ESP32-S2-Pico

Environment Setting Up

The demo is based on Arduino, please refer to Arduino Environment.

Examples

Note: A Pico baseplate is required for use here. Click to download the program, after the download is complete, go to Pico-RGB-Matrix-P3-64x32-Demo\ESP32-S2-Pico\Arduino,

Copy RGBMatrix-master to the libraries in the Arduino installation directory;
Go back to RGB-Matrix-P3-64x32-Demo\\ESP32-S2-Pico\Arduino, open the .ino file in EzTimeTetrisClockESP32S2 and follow the steps below to download

Display Effect

【Function】

Time display interface:
- Display date, week, hour, minute, lunar calendar, and temperature
Function setting menu
- Date setting
- Time setting
- BEEP setting (beep setting)
- Auto Brightness
- Language settings

Resources

Document

Development Software

Pico Quick Start

Firmware Download

MicroPython Firmware Download

C_Blink Firmware Download

Firmware Download

MicroPython Firmware Download

C_Blink Firmware Download

Text Tutorial

Introduction

Raspberry Pi Pico

MicroPython Series

C/C++ Series

For C/C++, it is recommended to use Pico VS Code for development. This is a Microsoft Visual Studio Code extension designed to make it easier for you to create, develop, and debug projects for the Raspberry Pi Pico series development board. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced professional, this tool can help you confidently and easily develop Pico. Below we will introduce how to install and use the extension.

Official website tutorial: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/pico-vscode-extension/.
This tutorial is applicable to Raspberry Pi Pico, Pico2, and our company's RP2040 and RP2350 series development boards.
The development environment defaults to Windows as an example. For other environments, please refer to the official website tutorial for installation.

Arduino IDE Series

Install Arduino IDE

Download the Arduino IDE installation package from Arduino website.
Just click on "JUST DOWNLOAD".
Click to install after downloading.
Note: You will be prompted to install the driver during the installation process, we can click Install.

Install Arduino-Pico Core on Arduino IDE

Open Arduino IDE, click the File on the left corner and choose "Preferences".

Add the following link in "Additional boards manager URLs", then click OK.

https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico/releases/download/global/package_rp2040_index.json

Note: If you already have the ESP32 board URL, you can separate the URLs with commas like this:

https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json,https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-pico/releases/download/global/package_rp2040_index.json

Click on Tools -> Board -> Board Manager -> Search for pico, it shows installed since my computer has already installed it.

Upload Demo At the First Time

Press and hold the BOOTSET button on the Pico board, connect the Pico to the USB port of the computer via the Micro USB cable, and release the button when the computer recognizes a removable hard drive (RPI-RP2).
Download the demo from #Resource, open the D1-LED.ino under arduino\PWM\D1-LED path.
Click Tools -> Port, remember the existing COM, do not need to click this COM (different computers show different COM, remember the existing COM on your computer).
Connect the driver board to the computer with a USB cable, then click Tools -> Ports, select uf2 Board for the first connection, and after the upload is complete, connecting again will result in an additional COM port.
Click Tools -> Board -> Raspberry Pi Pico/RP2040 -> Raspberry Pi Pico.
After setting, click the right arrow to upload.
- If you encounter problems during the period, you need to reinstall or replace the Arduino IDE version, uninstall the Arduino IDE clean, after uninstalling the software you need to manually delete all the contents of the folder C:\Users\[name]\AppData\Local\Arduino15 (you need to show the hidden files in order to see it) and then reinstall.

Open Source Demo

Support

Technical Support

If you need technical support or have any feedback/review, please click the Submit Now button to submit a ticket, Our support team will check and reply to you within 1 to 2 working days. Please be patient as we make every effort to help you to resolve the issue.
Working Time: 9 AM - 6 PM GMT+8 (Monday to Friday)

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[1] CircuitPython is a fork of MicroPython， For specific usage, please refer to the RGB-Matrix related CircuitPython tutorial

[2] Pico must first install CircuitPython，and then copy the corresponding CircuitPythond code to the recognized U disk to complete the download.

[1]

[2]