This is the magic sauce in our 7-segment and matrix backpacks, now available in breadboard-friendly breakout board format. The HT16K33 is a neat little chip that can drive a multiplexed 16 x 8 matrix (that's 128 individual LEDs). The communication protocol is I2C so it uses only 2 pins, and you can have up to 8 selectable I2C addresses so that's a total of 8 matrices, each one controlling 16 x 8 LEDs for 1024 total LEDs.
Unlike our LED matrix/segment backpacks, this breakout does not have holes for an existing LED module. Instead, we break out all 16 anodes and 8 cathodes as well as the I2C and power pins. You'll need to wire up the anodes and cathodes by checking out your matrix datasheet and lining up the pins. Wire up any matrix you want and use our handy library to write to the display however you wish. Note that the driver can turn LEDs on and off but cannot individually PWM dim them. This chip is rock solid, has Arduino & Pi example code written for it and is easy to use.
The chip supports also reading a 3 x 13 keypad matrix but we do not have an example code for it in our library, check the datasheet for more details about the keypad functionality
Revision History
As of July 30, 2024- We've updated this PCB with Adafruit Pinguin to make a lovely and legible silkscreen - you may get the new PCB or the older version with vector fonts - both are identical other than the fancy silkscreen.
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