Adafruit 8x16 LED Matrix FeatherWing w/o Matrices

You will chirp with delight when you see how easy it is to make your very own 8x16 LED matrix display for any Feather. At 0.8" square, the little 8x8 matrices have everything a big LED matrix has, but bite sized!

A Feather board without ambition is a Feather board without FeatherWings! This is the Adafruit 8x16 LED Matrix FeatherWing! This FeatherWing backpack makes it easy to combine and control two of our adorable mini 8x8 LED matrices with a FeatherWing driver board. Double them up for 128 total bright LEDs. Works with any and all Feathers!

Normally, wiring up 8x16 matrices would require a breathtaking 24 GPIO pins, which is way too many pins. That's where this lovely 16x8 LED matrix backpack PCB comes in. It contains a HT16K33 I2C LED matrix driver that does all the multiplexing work for you and is controlled over the two I2C pins.

It's easy to use, has a portable library that runs on any of our Feathers to turn on/off each LED. The 16x8 backpack is also great for making scrolling displays or small video displays. In our example, we set it up to display small bitmap emoticons but you can also display text that moves – kind of like a sign in front of a miniature car dealership.

This product kit comes with: a fully tested and assembled Adafruit 8x16 LED Matrix FeatherWing, two sixteen pin headers. A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the FeatherWing but it's very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes! This version does not come with the 8x8 mini LED matrix displays, but we have lots available in the shop. We also have combo-packs available in White, Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, and Yellow-Green. Check out our tutorial for assembly instructions, pinouts, CircuitPython and Arduino library code, schematics, and more!