In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to build and assemble a mini replica of the PET commodore. This isn’t necessarily useful or an actual computer, it’s just a cool prop. You will however, hopefully gain some experience, learn something new and have fun 🙂 There’s 144 LEDs in the Adafruit 16×9 charlieplexed matrix. It’s a classic LED matrix look that uses the IS31FL3731 chipset and can PWM each individual LED in a 16×9 grid so you can have beautiful LED lighting effects.
Tutoral on the Adafruit Learning System.
For a full list of parts, circuit diagram, code and files, check out the tutorial on the Adafruit Learning System.
Code written by Phillip Burgess @PaintYourDragon
// Animated Commodore PET plaything. Uses the following parts:
// – Feather M0 microcontroller (adafruit.com/products/2772)
// – 9×16 CharliePlex matrix (2972 is green, other colors avail.)
// – Optional LiPoly battery (1578) and power switch (805)
Taking a cue from our animated flame pendant project, this code addresses the CharliePlex driver chip directly to achieve smooth full-screen animation. If you’re new to graphics programming, download the Adafruit_IS31FL3731 and Adafruit_GFX libraries, with examples for drawing pixels, lines, etc.
Animation cycles between different effects: typing code, Conway’s Game of Life, The Matrix effect, and a blank screen w/blinking cursor (shown for a few seconds before each of the other effects; to imply “loading”).