Rpi Pico Learning Notes - Part 2 (Pico Scroll Pack)

Introduction

Pico Scroll Pack








A sparkly 7 x 17 grid of snugly packed, individually controllable white LEDs to bling up your Raspberry Pi Pico, accompanied by a quartet of useful buttons.

Take a moment to appreciate the simplicity and elegance of a bright white LED, so often overlooked next to its flashy RGB cousins. Pico Scroll Pack incorporates 119 white LEDs in a tidy 7 x 17 matrix, along with four tactile buttons for interacting with your Pico-based contraption. 

The brightness of each LED is individually controllable, and it's very nice for displaying graphs, scrolling messages, soothing snowfall animations or for visualising cellular automata. Shiny.

Features

  • 17x7 matrix of white LEDs (119 total)
  • Individual PWM brightness control of each LED
  • IS31FL3731 LED matrix driver chip, I2C address: 0x74
  • 4x tactile buttons
  • Pre-soldered female headers for attaching to Pico
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico.
  • Fully assembled
  • No soldering required (as long as your Pico has header pins attached).
  • Dimensions: approx 65mm x 25mm x 10mm (L x W x H, including headers and buttons)
  • Pinout
  • Programmable with C/C++ and MicroPython

Getting started

The labels on the underside of Pico Scroll Pack will show you which way round to plug it into your Pico - just match up the USB port with the markings on the board.

The most straightforward way of getting started with our Pico add-ons is by downloading and copying our custom MicroPython firmware to your Pico. You can find the latest release as well as code examples for MicroPython and C/C++ here.

Pinout

Pico Scroll Pack talks to the IS31FL3731 LED driver chip over I2C requiring only SDA and SCL pins.

The four switches are wired up as SW_A, SW_B, SW_X, and SW_Y.

Power is supplied through VSYS meaning that you can use Pico Scroll Pack both on USB power and from external supplies (so long as they can supply 3V+) making it ideal for battery powered projects.

This leaves the majority of pins on your Pico free for other uses!


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