Perhaps you’ve seen those animated message board signs and perhaps you even wanted one. However, you may have noticed they tend to be fairly pricey and programming them can be complicated.
This project makes use of the powerful Adafruit MatrixPortal S3 and its large memory capacity to be able to pump out and blend graphics in real time using CircuitPython. It works by using CircuitPython’s bitmaptools module along with displayio to blend, blit and buffer swap images and text together to produce smooth animations.
The code for this project is based on the OpenSign project, which was written for the Raspberry Pi, but was completely rewritten from scratch for this project to make use of strengths of CircuitPython. Certain features such as shadow and text stroke were omitted because of the lack of support at this time. Some library restructuring was also done to make it more expandable and avoid OpenSign’s large library files for memory efficiency.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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