Small 1.2" 8x8 Ultra Bright Square White LED Matrix + Backpack

Wouldn't it be awesome if you could control a matrix without tons of wiring? That's where these lovely LED matrix backpacks come in. We have them in two flavors - a a small 1.2" 8x8 and a 4-digit 0.56" 7-segment. They work perfectly with the Adafruit  matrices we stock and make adding a bright little display trivial.

The matrices use a driver chip that does all the heavy lifting for you: They have a built in clock so they multiplex the display. They use constant-current drivers for ultra-bright, consistent color, 1/16 step display dimming, all via a simple I2C interface. These 1.2" matrix backpacks come with three address-selection jumpers so you can connect up to eight 1.2" 8x8's together (or a combination, such as four 1.2" 8x8's and four 7-segments, etc) on a single I2C bus.

The product kit comes with:

• A fully tested and assembled 1.2" LED backpack
• 1.2" 8x8 Matrix Square Pixel White / w/backpack
• 4-pin header

A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the backpack but its very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes.

Of course, in classic Adafruit fashion, they have a detailed tutorial showing you how to solder, wire and control the display. They even wrote a very nice library for the backpacks so you can get running in under half an hour, displaying images on the matrix or numbers on the 7-segment. If you've been eying matrix displays but hesitated because of the complexity, this is the solution you've been looking for!

Datasheets, Fritzing object, EagleCAD PCB files and more in the tutorial!

Matrix Dimensions:

• 31mm x 31mm x 7mm / 1.2" x 1.2" x 0.3"
• Height without Pins: 7mm / 0.3"
• Weight: 7.65g

Backpack Dimensions:

• 41mm x 33mm x 2mm / 1.6" x 1.3" x 0.08"
• Weight: 5.2g