3

Displays

BEST OF BREED

Micro Dot pHAT

vs Adafruit Bicolor LED Square

Pixel Matrix with I2C Backpack

hen it comes to displays,

it’s hard to beat the look of

something retro. Yes, modern

LCD touchscreens are super-

cool, but they tend to be a

little boring, at least visually.

When you need to display some data, and you

want a little added old-school design flair to your

finished project, these retro-style displays may be

your answer.

Both of these displays use the common I^2 C

protocol for controlling the LEDs; however, the

Pimoroni board has a ‘pHAT’ form factor

which really limits it to be used with

almost any variation of a Raspberry

Pi – not such a bad thing since

it’s such a great platform.

The Adafruit Bicolor LED

Square Pixel Matrix is

platform agnostic,

which allows you

to easily use it

with whatever

controller your

project requires,

including Arduino.

If you aren’t using

a Raspberry Pi

and you really love

the look of the Micro

Dot pHAT, don’t despair.

Pimoroni also sells the individual

LTP-305 LED matrix components

so that you can use them however you

like. Just keep in mind that you will want to

implement a suitable matrix driver to get them up

and running.

PIMORONI $25 shop.pimoroni.com ADAFRUIT $15.95 adafruit.com

W

Below

This Pimoroni display, with

its six individual segments,

looks cool even without

any power being supplied

Credit

Pimoroni LTD

Pimoroni board has

a ‘pHAT’ form factor

which really limits it to

be used with almost

any variation of a

Raspberry Pi

”

”