Ribbon Wire JST Cables

Use a piece of 4-wire ribbon cable and cut to 9cm in length. Use a second piece of 4-wire ribbon cable and cut to 6cm in length. Use the full length of 4-pin JST SH cable and remove the ends with the jumper connectors. Using wire stripper, remove a bit of insulation from each wire. Tin the wires by adding a small amount of solder. This helps to prevent the wires from fraying.

 

DIY Stemma QT Cable

The 4-pin JST SH connector is soldered to the 9cm long ribbon cable. Insert the connector onto the 4-pin JST SH cable. Solder each wire from the 9cm ribbon cable to the 4-pin JST SH connector.

This requires fine precision soldering, please take precautions.

Wiring LED Matrix Backpack

Use the 6cm long ribbon cable to connect the two matrices. Solder the wires from the ribbon cable and the JST cable into the LED matrix with the A0 soldered jumper. Each pin shares two wires from each cable. Use the 3D printed matrix cover as a jig to hold PCBs in place while soldering.

Wiring Second Matrix

Solder the wires from the 6cm long ribbon cable to the pins on the second LED matrix (with no soldered jumper). Use the colored wires to reference the connections. Ensure connections are similar with VCC to VCC, GND to GND, SCL to SCL and SDA to SDA. 

 

Slide Switch Wiring

Use a 2-wire ribbon cable and cut to 5cm in length. This will connect the slide switch to the Feather Sense.

Solder Switch Wire

Remove one of the the pins on either far left or right but not the middle. Trim the remaining pins short so they're half their length. Solder the 2-wire ribbon cable to the remaining pins on the slide switch.

Connect Switch to Feather

Solder one wire from the switch to the EN pin on the Feather Sense. Solder the second wire from the switch to the GND pin on the Feather Sense. These connections will fit best in the enclosure when they're soldered from the bottom of the PCB.

Test Switch and Battery

Connect the 400mAh battery to the Feather Sense. Use the slide switch to power the Feather Sense on and off. The NeoPixel should power on green with the CircuitPython code loaded on board. 

Connect Matrices to Feather

Solder the 9cm long ribbon cable to the pins on the Feather Sense. Connect 4-pin JST SH cables together. Ensure the connection are correct. Make the following connections.

  • SDA from Matrix to SDA on Feather Sense
  • SCL from Matrix to SCL on Feather Sense
  • VCC from Matrix to 3V on Feather Sense
  • GND from Matrix to GND on Feather Sense

Test Circuit

Use the slide switch to power on the LED matrices.

This guide was first published on Jul 07, 2020. It was last updated on Nov 27, 2023.

This page (Wiring) was last updated on Jun 29, 2020.

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