Sparklet 256 LED Square
Build your own designs by incorporating the Squared Sparklet 256 LED, 58mm, color display.
Components
This display uses the latest 2x2mm WS2812B-2020 compatible color RGB LEDs, consuming 50% less power and generating 50% less heat than previous components. This translates into longer running times from your battery powered designs.
Protection
RGB LEDs can consume a huge amount of power so this display incorporates an automatic fuse to protect the display itself and your power supply, fortunately the human eye perceives light on a logarithmic scale so for the majority of scenarios you won’t need to drive the display using any more than 500mA. We also added ESD protection circuitry to prevent stray voltage spikes from damaging the display.
Logical Level Flexibility
As this display requires 5V power and microcontrollers can be either 5V or 3.3V a logical level shifter is integrated to make it that much easier for you to wire it up.
Power management in mind
RGB addressable LEDs consume power even when they aren’t emitting light as they’re ready and waiting in their ‘quiescent’ state. We considered this for battery powered designs by incorporating an active-high Enable pin, so the array can be powered down when your design isn’t actively displaying anything.
Included Diffuser
LEDs are fairly harsh to look at with the naked eye, so we’ve included an accompanying diffuser which softens the light.
Integrate
The raw Sparklet display requires 4 connections to its header:
| 5V | LEDs require a 5V power supply, this 256 LED display requires a minimum of 1000mA. Also to ensure a steady supply of power as the LEDs illuminate on and off, ensure you have a 1000uF capacitor as close to the display connection as possible (make sure you get the polarity correct, and the rated voltage for the capacitor is at least 10V). If you are creating a battery powered system then you’ll need a booster module such as the Adafruit Powerboost 1000C |
| GND | Connect to ground |
| ENABLE | The display array is powered when Enable is high (3.3V or 5V) so tie this to a GPIO pin for selective control, or wire high otherwise. |
| DATA | The WS28212B LEDs only requires a single pin to drive them, this display integrates a logic level shifter, so the Data line can be 3.3V or 5V logic. |
