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Showing posts from January, 2023

Driving NeoPixels with Z80

I 've long been thinking about a version two   RC2014 LED matrix module . I've had a matrix with a MAX 7219 on a module. It's a nice enhancement. But there's only so much you can do with a single-colour LED array right? Wouldn't it be cool to have RGB LEDs?  At Liverpool MakeFest I saw a wall-sized ping-pong ball NeoPixel display and picked up some NeoPixels with the intention of making one. Possibly driven by my RC2014.  I enjoy learning about protocols and have had some SPI devices working with the RC2014 - bit-banging SPI works really well because it doesn't care about timing. NeoPixels really do care about timing though. From Adafruit's web page about their 8x8  NeoPixel matrix: If there's one thing I want to get across in this blog post, it's don't just accept what you're told . Question everything. Learn about what's going on and find out why you're being told something isn't possible. Get creative with workarounds. I'...