dawidziaja:
Well, I have come to the conclusion that my ht16k33 is BROKENIt can't even light a single led. So sad. Should I give the MAX6954 a go?
No, i think you should give up and choose another hobby. You clearly don't have the aptitude for electronics or coding.
PaulRB:
No, I think you should give up and choose another hobby. You clearly don't have the aptitude for electronics or coding.
+1 for that gem. 
No contest!
PaulRB:
No, i think you should give up and choose another hobby. You clearly don't have the aptitude for electronics or coding.
If you don't want to help me then don't. As stated in the title, I'm only a beginner, I'm only 13. I know I don't have such an extensive knowledge of electronics as you, but there is no need to be rude. You are clearly someone who gives away their free time to help others, and I appreciate that you do this, you don't actually have to do this. I think my HT16K33 is actually broken as it does not draw any current when measured with a multimeter. I really took offense in that, people like you really put me off from my hobby. But at the end of the day, someone from the internet won't stop me doing what I love.
Anyway, Thank you anyway for your help,
Dawid
The problem is that it is most unlikely that the chip is "broken" unless you have wired it so incorrectly that you have applied sufficient current to the wrong connections to burn it out. And if you are sufficiently careless to do that with one chip, it is not unreasonable to predict that you are just as likely to do that with every one.
It is much more likely that you simply had a connection wrong. This is particularly easy if you are using a breadboard instead of an assembled module as a single wiring - or coding - mistake will prevent it from working. Presuming it "broken" is quite unwarranted simply because it does not seem to do what you want it to do. And these chips are CMOS, so unless properly configured, they should draw almost no current.
Paul__B:
The problem is that it is most unlikely that the chip is "broken" unless you have wired it so incorrectly that you have applied sufficient current to the wrong connections to burn it out. And if you are sufficiently careless to do that with one chip, it is not unreasonable to predict that you are just as likely to do that with every one.It is much more likely that you simply had a connection wrong. This is particularly easy if you are using a breadboard instead of an assembled module as a single wiring - or coding - mistake will prevent it from working. Presuming it "broken" is quite unwarranted simply because it does not seem to do what you want it to do. And these chips are CMOS, so unless properly configured, they should draw almost no current.
The chip is not working after multiple attempts of rewiring, rewriting code and using different LEDs, I declared the chip broken. I admit, that was a bit naive of me. I will rewire it again and see what that does.
I don't understand this part of the adafruit example code.
static const uint16_t alphafonttable[] PROGMEM = {
for (uint8_t i=0; i<8; i++) {
// draw a diagonal row of pixels
matrix.displaybuffer[i] = _BV((counter+i) % 16) | _BV((counter+i+8) % 16) ;
}
Ok, I have measured something very weird, the voltage across the pins I'm using is negative, so the cathode is actually the anode and anode is actually cathode, I get highly fluctuating reading of -0.5 v on my multimiter. This doesn't look good