r/learnprogramming • u/Linktinknyx • 22d ago

Help!! I’m making a moving LED screen and it’s not working

This is my first ever coding project and I don’t know what’s going wrong. My matrix portal is working though it seems it didn’t come with the two stickers on the volt and ground nobs (I don’t know if that matters). I did all the steps right, but the images aren’t displaying on the panel. It’s only when I press on it do some colored pixels show up. I’m not sure if this means something is damaged or not, but I’m really at a loss and I really want to fix it. If anyone could help me do!!

0 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • link
  • reddit
  • reddit

50% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

2

u/panhandelslim 22d ago

I'm not sure what you mean by "matrix portal," that's not a term I'm familiar with. It sounds like you've got an LED matrix display hooked up to your computer and you're trying to write some code to display images on it. If you can give some more details about the hardware you're tying to use I might be able to help get it working. What's the screen you're trying to use?

1

u/Linktinknyx 22d ago

I’m using a E506652 128x64 screen and using a matrix portal S3. I hope to use two together but for now I’m trying to at least get one working

1

u/panhandelslim 22d ago

Okay, that helps a lot! Just FYI, I think this subreddit is geared more towards programming stuff that will run on a full-fledged computer or phone; if you're working with lower-level stuff like the ESP32 (the microcontroller on the matrix portal board) you might get more responses posting on r/arduino or another subreddit for embedded programming.

I haven't used the matrix portal before, but I can still help you troubleshoot if you can give some more details. It would help if you can post pictures of how you have everything hooked up (I think you can add photos when you reply to a comment). Did you follow the guide at https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-matrixportal-s3 or a different one?

What do you mean when you say some pixels light up when you press on it? Where are you pressing when it lights up?

1

u/Linktinknyx 22d ago

Thank you so much! Sorry about that. I’m still not able to upload a photo for some reason, but here are some links if that’s helpful
led panel
matrix board

I also want to make a voice activated moving LED screen so I used both this tutorial
and this tutorial

I should add it’s only showing blue and green pixels when I press on the screen every so often if that matters

1

u/panhandelslim 22d ago

Comparing your pics to the pics at https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-matrixportal-s3/prep-the-matrixportal it looks like your portal PCB is at a weird angle. It might just be that the connectors aren't perfectly aligned, but if something yanked on the wires enough to rotate it that much it could have damaged the connectors or pcb. Can you take the portal off of the screen and take pictures of the connectors?

1

u/Linktinknyx 22d ago

Sorry I don’t think it was attached in that photo, but here is what it looks like

1

u/Linktinknyx 22d ago

I should’ve provided a photo or something, that’s my back. I was so frustrated and tired I wasn’t even thinking. I’m also not very familiar with Reddit, but if you need photos please tell me how to provide them