Driving LED matrix displays with an FPGA

Detailed look at methods for driving LED matrix displays, including simple LED displays and full-colour video screen modules.

[Tadesan]

Mike, the beauty and thoroughness of your understanding of this stuff is a joy to behold. You are a true professional.

You can tell a true professional by the aplomb they exercise, no matter what the activity. You've got it sir!

[devjock]

This video is singlehandedly making me reboot my 16x16 led icon t-shirt. Amazingly detailed, and super clear. Much appreciated!

[AppliedScience]

Great info!  I've heard that VHDL is the standard in Europe. Did you actively decide to use it instead of Verilog, or just picked it up because resources were easier to find?  Thanks for the detailed video.

[Falcrist]

I'm not going to tell you you have to make more videos, but I will say I'm glad to see you're getting more active.

Thanks for the uploads! :D

[DrenImeraj]

I wish you could do a series of tutorials on VHDL. Great video, as usual, thank you!

[naikrovek]

This is still one of my favorite videos of all time. more FPGA videos about driving LEDs are always welcome, by the way.

[frollard]

I always think I'm clever when I come up with some solution for coding an arduino 'efficiently'...then I watch one of your videos...This is fascinating. Wiring, fpga, component selection, and code routine...all splendid.

[anthonyroby]

Very informative.  I thought all would be revealed once I saw the code, but knowing nothing about VHDL, it was rather impenetrable!  Mike - any chance you could publish the code so we can look through it and figure it out?

[redtails]

Wow, this Lattice devboard is amazing! The shipping costs are pure extortion, but I'm keeping my eye on getting one

[rogerkerr]

Another awesome video Mike.  You truly are a God of electronics. :)

[jboard]

Great video!

My head hurts after watching the VHDL stuff. I'm trying to learn Verilog in my spare time. Going from "normal" programming to HDL is hard to wrap my head around.

I also enjoyed your iPod screen video series.

[theianwoodbridge]

Great video, thanks for taking the time to make it. There is nothing like a real word project with all the details explained to be interesting and informative. I don't know if you set out to create an instructional video but this is one of the best. Again, thanks.

[tttuberc]

Thanks for creating this excellent video Mike. I have been wondering for a long time how these LED panels work and how to drive them

[Mythricia]

47 min video from Mike? Wow, guess it's time to get some dinner to go with it...

[JensAndree]

Very good video indeed!!!
I'm a software guy who in later years found hardware and have now combined the two in order to make really useful projects. Just like you I'm spending a lot of time to develop visual gadgets and I have outgrown my trusted microcontrollers purely due to their lack of speed. (I develop visual feedback devices for autistic kids)
I have thought about going down the FPGA route for a while now but didn't know where to start, and everything seemed a lot more expensive, so this video was very informative to me!
I would really appreciate if you could make available the code you demonstrated in the end so people like me can have a working boilerplate or similar to analyse whilst learning VHDL. 
I have made quite a few of my own LED panels and the costs you are mentioning are way below even my cheaper solutions so perhaps one should look closer to see what's available in China already?...

[ElGatoLoco]

That is really cool.  I wish I had the wherewithal to play around with LED displays like that.  I'd have the coolest Christmas lights on the block.

[Mulletsrokkify]

Love the Young Frankenstein clips on the top left display! ;-)

[WizzRacing]

Glad I watched to the very end. I was wondering how you got the 8 bit and not 7 plus 1 check on your baud rate, now I know.


Great stuff

[SecondsofAviation]

Good evening Mike ! Love Your stuff, in my eyes, Your god of electronics :D 

[arcadeuk]

Thanks Mike for an excellent video as always. Some of the techniques you have described were new to me and I am sure would be useful to me at some-point in the future