A multi-function display by your bedside!

The 64x64 LED Matrix is a great platform to display anything you care about. Like the time and what day it is. :) With the motion and light sensor, the display can be made to dim or blank out so it will not disturb you while sleeping. A simple wave motion in the dark room is enough to re-enable the display for a short period.

The 3D printed harness file is available with this project, so you can adapt it to suit your bed or desk space needs.  In the current form, two printed parts are glued together with regular table pin connectors. You will also need four M3x5mm flat head screws in order to connect the matrix display to the printed frame.

The code is written in Python and has lots of potential for easy improvements. The current implementation gives you the ability to connect to an MQTT broker for subscribing and publishing events in a canonical IOT setup. But you need not to worry about that if a clock is all you care about. Underneath the Python code, this project uses the display driver written by Henner Zeller, which makes the display fast and stable when used together with the Adafruit parts.

Prerequisite Guides

I suggest walking through the following guides to get a better understanding of the electronics.

Parts

1 x Raspberry Pi Zero WH (Zero W with Headers)
Offers all the benefits of the Pi Zero W and includes a pre-soldered GPIO header
1 x Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet for Raspberry Pi
Create a dazzling display with your Raspberry Pi with the Adafruit RGB Matrix Bonnet.
1 x 64x64 RGB LED Matrix
2.5mm Pitch - 1/32 Scan
1 x Adafruit APDS9960 Proximity, Light, RGB, and Gesture Sensor
This breakout is chock full o' sensors!
1 x 5V 10A switching power supply
5V DC up to 10 Amps, running from 110V or 220V power
1 x SD/MicroSD Memory Card (8 GB SDHC)
8 GB class 4 micro-SD card. It comes with a SD adapter.
1 x USB to TTL Serial Cable - Debug / Console Cable for Raspberry Pi
The cable is easiest way ever to connect to your microcontroller/Raspberry Pi/WiFi router serial console port.

This guide was first published on Dec 30, 2018. It was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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