Was pretty beyond disappointed to not see any physics/live examples included with this kit, like the colored falling sand demo included with the Adafruit (whatever their version of this kit is called). Also, the documentation surrounding secrets.py is frustrating; at first I thought I was missing a library and well looky there is something that comes up when searching “secrets.py” in the Thonny module updater. But it just fails to install with no clear reason and turns out it’s something else entirely. Should really be included on the file system or something. I think you should also list the Qw/ST Pad as a recommended accessory with the Interstate boards, if I knew one of the example programs used it I would have snagged it with my order, but it’s not worth paying $20 shipping to the states after the fact you know? Also, what’s the easiest way to determine how many panels can be daisy-chained before a single i75 2350 board is no longer enough to control things?
But the issues I’m addressing now are:
one of my magnetic panel feet had the magnet come loose and get shattered somehow, I presume before they were even bagged as there were bits of the magnet attached to other magnet feet attached to the broken one, but not nearly the entire magnet was inside the bag. I need a replacement foot, oh oh! Let me know how to work this and if I can pay for a Qw/ST Pad to throw in with my replacement foot I’ll pay for it!
Sup with this weird refresh glitch? The doubling trails behind the super mature and well-respected character? They do not show up in the preview window in the EZGif site before saving into individual images nor the individual images themselves. It’s obviously some kind of refresh / latching glitch and I assume it comes from the method used to turn multiple images into a GIF as opposed to just using a GIF to begin with. Any way around this or no?
Also, I plan on uploading my extremely basic connector pieces I designed to firmly attach two panels together to Thangs as soon as I can confirm they at least have the dimensions right (a few hours from now), but I’m no CAD expert so if someone wants to take them and build something better that would be amazing.
To let the examples that use wifi connect to your wifi, you’ll need to save a file on your i75 W called secrets.py, which should be something like the following:
If I am not mistaken, I think to remember having had 1x4, 4x1 and 2x2 128x64 matrices connected without issues.
The drawn current is sensitive, when all pixels are full white, but I have had only scrolling text lines and a few colored animated lemmings walking across the matrix…this worked without issues with the USB powered Pico…
I just found an early example using three 64x64 matrices connected for a lemming demo (walker and blocker)…later I connected more, but did not find a foto…
I sometimes use this animation as progress bar to show that the device is busy while reading a file, receiving data, doing some calculations, etc.
It’s fun to entertain the user with some fancy stuff to overcome the boring times while something is pending…
I think to remember Even Upton said the other day in an interview he was doing some Lemmings sketches in his early development days, as well… ;)
I just cut the barrel jack off, then trim and tin the ends with solder. Be advised that it will back feed +5V through the USB connector. I made up a Data only USB cable to avoid issues. The +5V wire is cut. ;)
@SooperPoopyPants Thanks for the feedback! Including a blank secrets.py is a good call - I’ve suggested this to our software folks.
If you drop us an email at support@pimoroni.com we should be able to sort out including a Qw/ST Pad with your replacement magnet :)
It’s definitely possible that my hacky way of displaying GIFs results in some visual glitches! I did notice that displaying PNG files with transparency caused weird things to happen, so it might be worth checking that the images are saved/exported with a solid background? If that doesn’t help (and if you can demonstrate the problem with a specific PNG image that’s not displaying as it should) you could open up an issue on Github?
Yes! I got glitching like that when running examples which used very fast RP2350 clock speeds. I changed them to use more sensible defaults yesterday if you want to give the updated versions a try:
