Make a scrolling sign, or a small video display with this 8x8 gridded bi-color LED matrix. Only 1.2" on a side, it is quite visible but not so large it wont plug into a breadboard! 128 LEDs are contained in the plastic body, 64 red 320mcd and 64 green, in an 8x8 matrix. Every grid has two LEDs inside so you can have it display red, green, yellow or with fast multiplexing any color in between. This display is bright, beautiful and funky with nice diffused square lenses for a striking look. There are 24 pins on the side, 12 on each, with 0.1" spacing so you can easily plug it into a breadboard with one row on each side for wiring it up.

Since the display is in a grid, you'll need to 1:8 multiplex control it. We suggest either using two 74HC595s and TPIC6B595 (using the 74HC' to control the 16 anodes at once and then using the TPIC' to drive one cathode at a time) or using two MAX7219 which will do the multiplexing work for you.

The Arduino playground has a nice set of tutorials introducing the MAX7219 and 8x8 LED matrices

What's better than a single LED? Lots of LEDs! A fun way to make a small colorful display is to use a 1.2" Bi-color 8x8 LED Matrix. Matrices like these are 'multiplexed' - so to control all the 128 LEDs you need 24 pins. That's a lot of pins, and there are driver chips like the MAX7219 that can help control a matrix for you but there's a lot of wiring to set up and they take up a ton of space. Here at Adafruit we feel your pain! After all, wouldn't it be awesome if you could control a matrix without tons of wiring? That's where these adorable LED matrix backpacks come in. We have them in three flavors - a mini 8x8, 1.2" Bi-color 8x8 and a 4-digit 0.56" 7-segment. They work perfectly with the matrices we stock in the Adafruit shop and make adding a bright little display trivial. It's called a Bicolor LED, but you can have 3 colors total by turning on the red and green LEDs, which creates yellow-orange. That's 3 colors for the price of 2!The matrices use a driver chip that does all the heavy lifting for you: They have a built in clock so they multiplex the display. They use constant-current drivers for ultra-bright, consistent color, 1/16 step display dimming, all via a simple I2C interface. The backpacks come with address-selection jumpers so you can connect up to four mini 8x8's or eight 7-segments/bicolor (or a combination, such as four mini 8x8's and two 7-segments and two bicolor, etc) on a single I2C bus.The product kit comes with:

A fully tested and assembled LED backpack

1.2" Bi-color 8x8 LED Matrix

4-pin header

A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the backpack but its very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes.Of course, in classic Adafruit fashion, we also have a detailed tutorial showing you how to solder, wire and control the display. We even wrote a very nice library for the backpacks so you can get running in under half an hour, displaying images on the matrix or numbers on the 7-segment. If you've been eyeing matrix displays but hesitated because of the complexity, his is the solution you've been looking for!

Looking for an unashamedly old school LED matrix display board? Lookie here! The Pimoroni Micro Dot pHAT is made up of six red LED matrices, each 5x7 pixels (for an effective display area of 30x7) plus a decimal point, using the beautiful little Lite-On LTP-305 matrices.

Perfect for building a retro scrolling message display, a tiny 30-band spectrum analyzer, or a retro clock. Far out!

As with the other pHATs, it works with all of the 40-pin Raspberry Pi variants - 3/2/B+/A+/Zero - but using it with the Pi Zero makes for a super-tiny package.

Features:

3x onboard IS31FL3730 LED matrix driver chips

Drives up to 6 x LTP-305 red LED matrices

Up to 30x7 pixels (5x7 per matrix plus a decimal point)

Kit includes:

Assembled Micro Dot pHAT PCB

2x20 0.1" female GPIO header

6 Red LTP-305 LED modules

Micro Dot pHAT also works well with other pHATs and HATs. You could use it in combination with pHAT DAC to display the audio spectrum, or with Enviro pHAT to display its temperature, pressure and light readings. Give it a try!

Note: These pHAT boards require you to solder on the headers and LTP-305 modules (through-hole components). Works with any 40-pin Raspberry Pi variant.

One segment? No way dude! 7-Segments for life!

A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! This is the Adafruit 4-Digit 7-Segment LED Matrix Display FeatherWing! This 7-segment FeatherWing backpack makes it really easy to add a 4-digit numeric display with decimal points and even 'second colon dots' for making a clock.

This version does not come with an LED matrix. Its also available in combo packs of Blue, Green, Red, White, or Yellow which we recommend since you'll know you have a working LED matrix. Not guaranteed to work with any other 7-segment modules.

7-Segment Matrices like these are 'multiplexed' - so to control all the seven-segment LEDs you need 14 pins. That's a lot of pins, and there are driver chips like the MAX7219 that can control a matrix for you but there's a lot of wiring to set up and they take up a ton of space. Here at Adafruit we feel your pain! After all, wouldn't it be awesome if you could control a matrix without tons of wiring? That's where these LED Matrix FeatherWings come in!

The LEDs themselves do not connect to the Feather. Instead, a matrix driver chip (HT16K33) does the multiplexing for you. The Feather simply sends i2c commands to the chip to tell it what LEDs to light up and it is handled for you. This takes a lot of the work and pin-requirements off the Feather. Since it uses only I2C for control, it works with any Feather and can share the I2C pins for other sensors or displays.

The product kit comes with:

A fully tested and assembled Adafruit 4-Digit 7-Segment LED Matrix Display FeatherWing

Two 16-pin headers

A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the FeatherWing but its very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes!  Note: Feather board and seven-segment display are not included, but we have lots available in the shop.

Check out our detailed tutorial for pinouts, assembly, Arduino and CircuitPython usage, and more!

Display, elegantly, 012345678 or 9! Gaze, hypnotized, at ABCDEFGHIJKLM - well it can display the whole alphabet. You get the point.

A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! This is the Adafruit 0.56" 4-Digit 14-Segment Display FeatherWing! This 14-segment FeatherWing backpack makes it really easy to add a bright alphanumeric display that shows letters and numbers in a beautiful hue. It's super bright and designed for viewing from distances up to 23 feet (7 meters) away.

Works with any and all Feathers!

14-Segment Matrices like these are 'multiplexed' - so to control all the fourteen-segment LEDs you need 18 pins. That's a lot of pins, and there are driver chips like the MAX7219 that can control a matrix for you but there's a lot of wiring to set up and they take up a ton of space. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could control a matrix without tons of wiring? That's where these Alphanumeric LED Matrix FeatherWings come in, they make it really easy to add a 4-digit alphanumeric display with decimal points.

The LEDs themselves do not connect to the Feather. Instead, a matrix driver chip (HT16K33) does the multiplexing for you. The Feather simply sends i2c commands to the chip to tell it what LEDs to light up and it is handled for you. This takes a lot of the work and pin-requirements off the Feather. Since it uses only I2C for control, it works with any Feather and can share the I2C pins for other sensors or displays.

This product kit comes with:

A fully tested and assembled Adafruit 4-Digit 14-Segment Alphanumeric Display FeatherWing

Two sixteen pin headers

A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the FeatherWing but its very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes!  Note: Feather board and 14-segment display are not included, but we have lots available in the shop.

Of course, in classic Adafruit fashion, we also have a detailed tutorial showing you how to solder, wire and control the display. We even wrote a very nice library for the backpacks in both Arduino & CircuitPython so you can get running in under half an hour, displaying letters or numbers on the 14-segment. If you've been eyeing matrix displays but hesitated because of the complexity, this is the solution you've been looking for.