I recently bought the above Portal and Matrix and I cannot get any of the Adafruit Matrix demos to display anything at all. I installed the latest CircuitPython and its library package and get nothing but if I upload the Adafruit ‘Simple Test’, overwriting CircuitPython, that works fine. So the hardware is working. Can anyone help me get CircuitPython working as this seems to be the prefered demo setup with Adafruit. Originally when I received this kit I had the ‘sand demo’ working but only on the top quarter and third quarter of the matrix, the second and bottom quarter were blank. Since installing CircuitPython the matrix is completely blank. Please help with this or some alternative for this hardware. Thank you.
First things first, did you follow the instruction at the bottom of the 64x64 matrix shop page for using it with the Adafruit Matrix Portal?
For 64x64 displays: You must solder bridge the E jumper on the back of the Adafruit Matrix Bonnet to 8, otherwise only half of your 64x64 display will light up.
Adafruit also have this instruction in their product guide page.
Yes, I put the solder link between E and 8. When this made no difference I tried between E and 16, no difference. It is now back to E and 8.
Still waiting for a response from the Adafruit technical support. Had 70 views and 0 replies. Three months after purchase and still got nothing working.
With reference to the quote below. This is for an Adafruit Matrix Portal M4, a completely different micro to the Adafruit Matrix Bonnet, which I presume fits on a Raspberry Pi. Does the same instruction apply.
Yes, the Adafruit Guide for the portal says that you must check the instructions for your matrix, and the Pimoroni 646x4 Matrix says that you need to bridge it to 8. I know you have a portal rather than a bonnet, but the hardware will work the same way in each case.