Pi 3 B+ - Driving large-ish pixel displays

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Lonney
 
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Pi 3 B+ - Driving large-ish pixel displays

Post by Lonney »

Ahoy hoy!

I'm looking to create a large-ish pixel display, probably using 3x 64x32 LED matrices in a chain.
Because of the size I'm looking towards getting a Pi with an RGB matrix bonnet/hat to drive them.
  • Would anyone know if just one Pi 3 Model B+ would be powerful enough to drive a 32x192 display?
  • If not and I had to use multiple Pis, what are some good ways of syncing them together?
Thanks!
Lonney

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Pi 3 B+ - Driving large-ish pixel displays

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

You should probably be able to chain three 32x64 matrices and run them from a single RasPi. That's only 50% more load than a single 64x64 matrix, which is known to work.

Syncing multiple RasPis would be a serious headache.

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Lonney
 
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Re: Pi 3 B+ - Driving large-ish pixel displays

Post by Lonney »

Thanks Mike, when the panels are back in stock I'll give it a try!

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mlemos
 
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Re: Pi 3 B+ - Driving large-ish pixel displays

Post by mlemos »

Hi,

I'm planning a larger installation 4 x 64x64 Matrices (128 x 128 RGB pixels in the end).

Do you know if a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ will be able to drive that?

What do you suggest to power those 4 64x64 matrices?

Can I just use a stronger 5V power supply connected to the bonnet?

Do you believe that framebuffer mirroring would work on that setup?

[]s

Manoel

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: Pi 3 B+ - Driving large-ish pixel displays

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

The C version of the hzeller library should be able to handle a 128x128 array, but the Python version probably can't. Interpreted languages are always slower than straight executables.

Each 64x64 panel can use up to 7.7A if all the pixels are white, so as a worst-case value you'd need about a 30A power supply. You can probably get away with a 15A supply if you plan to leave most of the pixels dark at any given time.

The voltage control circuit on the Matrix Bonnet can only handle 10A though, so you'll be better off connecting the power directly to the matrices instead of running it through the Bonnet.

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