Few solutions are as attractive in terms of optical appeal as a display made up of an array of individual LEDs. Würth provides such a system with the IC LED FEATHERWING development board, which is part of the well-liked AdaFruit Feather family of development boards.

The Adafruit ecosystem permits a stackable development board experience similar to the figure\'s. Third-party developers can add their designs to the ecosystem thanks to the open standard.

Smart LEDs Save GPIO Pins

Driving LEDs from a complement of GPIOs has always been an interesting challenge, leading to the development of multiplexing techniques, including the somewhat complex Charlieplexing. In the case of the IC LED FEATHERWING, Würth can make do with just one of the host microcontroller\'s GPIO pins. This is achieved by using smart LEDs from the 1315050930002 family - we discussed them in more detail at https://www.oemsecrets.com/articles/wurth-enters-the-smart-led-market-with-innovative-form-factors. In the case of the IC LED FEATHERWING, a 15×7 array is used - the arrangement follows the one outlined in the figure.

In particular, a classic serial data interface is used, leading to the package format shown in the figure.

Flexible SDK Simplifies Getting Started

Plugging the planar into a host board is not difficult---the connectors line up well, and no soldering is required to add the LED matrix to your Würth Electronics application.

Würth\'s SDK is used for actual software development. It embodies a PlatformIO-based system that integrates itself into the hardware abstraction layer provided by the Arduino environment.

For getting started, Würth provides an example file called main.cpp. It contains 11 different test programs---some of them interact with sensors provided on other development boards.

Widely Certified

Even though the board is a tool intended for the evaluation of the ICLED family, Würth nevertheless made a significant effort to ensure certification in accordance with the following industry standards:

  • CISPR32-FAR
  • 61000-4-4 CDN coupling 
  • EN 55015_MAINS 
  • IEC 61000-4-3
  • IEC 61000-4-6
  • IEC 62471:2006
  • EN 62471:2008

This is beneficial for two reasons: first, it ensures that the operator\'s photobiological safety is maintained at all times. Second, a product using the display can be certified easily, as many tests do not need to be performed once again on the display.

Conclusion

If an Adafruit-based product can benefit from an LED matrix, the IC LED FEATHERWING evaluation board greatly simplifies getting started. Using the venerable 1315050930002 LED, it provides an optically attractive and easy-to-program RGB LED display matrix. In short, it is a product that should not be missing from any optoelectronics laboratory.