100 Jumbo Red 5x8 Matrix LED Displays The dot matrix wall poster project begins...

I recently searched on Ebay for LEDs (something I occasionally do), and found Emtel Electronics was selling 100 large 5x8 matrix LED displays at $1.50/ea. They're normally between $6 and $8 a piece, so it was a good deal if you like matrix LED displays, and I do. Not many people do, though, and when nobody else bid, I won uncontested. Using the single display image from the Ebay listing, I threw together a quick mockup of what using these in a 10x10 setup would yield. This was roughly what a 50x80 matrix would appear as, and given the display dimensions, it should be roughly 15"x24", which is poster size! Awesome.

Guessing at 4 levels of brightness for the red LEDs, I created some visualizations of what the final poster might look like with artwork and photos. These are some of the cool ones. This is a quick notebook sketch by my old pal SPUNKY of our friend, Art.

I wanted to test photos, too. I'd love for this thing to eventually handle at least low-framerate (and obviously low-res) video. This is Marcus and Amanda as ghosts at their Halloween party.

A closeup. And of course, these would look better in motion, just as a movie tends to look better than any particular paused frame. If I someday manage to get more than 4 brightness levels, it'll look far better still. It was, I admit, a bit painful to posterize things down to 4 levels in Photoshop, and watch all the defining detail die out. It also required me to level things properly first, to make sure divisions between gradient levels occurred where most descriptive.

It would be great to be able to pivot the display for vertical use. Here's the infamous Incredisuit in glorious 4-bit redscale.

This was the hunormous box that arrived this morning unexpectedly. I was anticipating something so much smaller, somehow.

Inside were 5 'rails' of 20 displays each. They were heavy! I felt like I had some electronic pieces of real value in my hands. Nice and solid. I also realized that the tongue-and-groove edges don't lock the pieces together, like the dovetail idea I had in my head. They serve only to help you line up the displays. It seems better this way. They certainly helped me line them up on the back of the Tony Hawk poster, which I used so I could move it around easier when I was done, and so as not to scratch up my dining room table too badly with all the pins underneath (14 pins x 100 displays = 1400 table scratching pins!).

These are the 5 rails, highlighting the fact that I could make a display that's 5x20 5x8 matrix LEDs, or several displays of other sizes, etc... To that end, I'll be socketing the displays into whatever final panel I create (if any, ever), so I can pull them out and use them in other things. I do, for now, like the 10x10 idea, though.

And there it is. I've waited 2 weeks (1 of watching no one bid, 1 of bidding last minute, winning, and waiting for the shipment), and now it's here! I don't expect anyone reading this to know the joy I feel :)

This one features a quarter for scale, begging the question: "When is the scale too big to continue using a quarter to provide scale?" True to the datasheet specs, 10x10 displays creates an exactly 15"x24" display. Sweet.

A more straight-on view.

Artsy view, blurry background.

Artsy view, blurry foreground.

Now I just have to research the rest of the things I need to know to finish this, like stronger LED scanning techniques, faster data storage/transfer methods, and where I can get 15"x24" circuit board designs prototyped out for me :) When it's done, I'll slap it all into an antique frame for that anachronistic juxtaposition thing artsy people and trendy types so approve of.