11

FIELD TEST

imple analogue dice work when

playing your favourite board game,

but when you really want to impress

your friends, take out the LED Dice

Kit from SpikenzieLabs and get

playing. Most beginner soldering kits

come supplied with a circuit board and a bunch of

parts which once soldered together can be fairly

fragile, and honestly, a bit unappealing. Not this kit!

SpikenzieLabs has designed a really nice acrylic base

which allows you to proudly display your kit, as well

as actually use it.

With a simple tap on the table, the LEDs will light

up depicting the ‘roll’ of the dice. And those aren’t

hen you need a lot of LEDs,

the Adafruit 64×64 RGB LED

Matrix, with its 4096 LEDs,

aims to please. Because of

the fine pitch, or 2.5 mm space

between LEDs, and fast refresh

rate, you essentially have a low-resolution full-colour

TV screen. No, it’s not 8K or even 4K, but it’s totally

retro cool! It can easily display full-colour animations

when controlled by your Raspberry Pi. Unfortunately,

we can’t show you just how beautiful this LED panel

is in a print magazine, but for now you’ll just have to

trust us, or head over to the Adafruit website where

they have a video demo.

any ordinary LEDs either: they used extra-large 10 mm

LEDs to depict your fate. The kit is available in red or

green, and does not require any programming, just a

basic knowledge of soldering.

S

W

SpikenzieLabs Dice Kit

Adafruit 64×64 RGB LED Matrix

SPIKENZIELABS $19.95 spikenzielabs.com

ADAFRUIT $74.95 adafruit.com

Chance your luck

Four thousand lights

Seven large LEDs

and a fun user

interface make

this a great first

soldering kit.

VERDICT

10 / 10

When you need

a lot of RGB

LEDs, this is it!

VERDICT

9 / 10

Left

Yes, even dice need

LEDs! Big LEDs!

Left

Imagine being able

to control 4096

RGB LEDs!

One thing to note. These LED panels use a non-

standard five-address multiplexing system. This

means you will need a special driver board, like

the Adafruit Matrix Bonnet for Raspberry Pi, along

with a quick addition of a solder jumper to get it up

and running. It’s easy enough to configure, and like

always, Adafruit has a great tutorial to get you up and

running fast.