LED matrix project

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello all! I am looking for some help. I have been studying different codes, libraries, and other peoples projects. I would really like to learn more about using the MAX72xx chip to drive LED matrixes. I have been working with the MD_MAX72xx and MD_PAROLA libraries. I don’t know enough about code to figure out how to get what I need to make this project work. I would like to learn more about it.

The project I am trying to assemble is a display for a desk. I would like it to print the persons name, then position, display date and time, then temp. For fun I would like to add “lunch time” at noon “go home” at 3:30 and do something with the temp. Maybe a :frowning: when it’s hot. I have 8 fc-16 matrixs ds1302 rtc and am2302 temp sensor. I am using a Arduino Nano.

I hope I have given enough info to get my point across. What is uint8_t ? I am thinking I should know what that is. I have seen things like that a lot looking at examples. Anyway I’m just looking for some direction so I can learn enough to ask the right questions.

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As a simple start make your project work with the Serial Monitor or a LCD display. Apart from that, make a matrix show a character, then multiple matrices, and finally combine both projects.

The uint##_t types are unsigned words of ## bits.

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austinibew145:
What is uint8_t ?

8-bit unsigned integer. The signed one is int8_t.
Also has 16 and 32 bit versions, probably bigger as well. I never needed anything bigger.
It's used where you want to be sure about the actual size of your variable. The unsigned int is defined as 2 bytes on ATmega328, but 4 bytes on ESP8266. That can give rise to problems, as code that works on one system doesn't work on another.

On Arduino Uno and related (should be the same on the Mega):
uint8_t = byte = unsigned char = unsigned short int
uint16_t = unsigned int
uint32_t = unsigned long int
And probably a few more aliases.