SmartLED Shield (V4), Teensy 3.2, 32x32 LED matrix assembly

Hello Everyone,

First of all, I am very VERY VERY new to this stuff so please forgive my ignorance. When explaining stuff to me, please imagine you are talking to a 5 year old. Long story short, my mom is graduating and I thought it would be great to make her an LED graduation cap. I am outlining the steps I am planning on taking and would like some input.

The guides I have looked at thus far include (but not limited to):

I have bought these items thus far:

STEP 1: Assembling the stuff together

  1. Put pins into SmartMatrix (See photos below)

  1. Attach teensy to SmartMatrix (See photos below)

  1. Solder pins onto SmartMatrix
  2. Attach 2x10 pins from SmartMatrix to 2x8 pins on LED matrix (it says input Hub75D).
  3. HELP: On the adafruit tutorial, they show assembling an SD card reader to the SmartMatrix. Can anyone point me the towards the right direction to do this? I am basically wondering which pins to attach the SD card reader to the SmartMatrix.

STEP 2: Powering the assembly
I am very confused on how to power this assembly. Ideally, I am looking to power this assembly via portable USB power supply. Any input would be highly appreciated here. Again, when explaining anything to me, please imagine I am a 5 year old.

STEP 3: Installing Software

  1. Download Arduino 1.0.5 or 1.0.6, Teensyduino, SmartMatrix Library
  2. After getting the assembly, try loading up the example file and running a gif. I’ll do more research after the assembly is running.

For now, I am basically looking to assemble this thing. More questions to come after I progress with this.

Also for reference, this is what the LED matrix board looks like

Hi Matt,

The Adafruit AnimatedGIFs tutorial is out of date, some things have changed. It’s easiest if you use one of the new Teensy 3.5 or 3.6 shields, which has a microSD card reader built in. If you want to attach a SD reader separately to a Teensy 3.2, use this picture which shows the name of the pins to connect to the SmartMatrix Shield.

You can’t power the panel through the Teensy’s USB port. There’s a fuse limiting the current through the Teensy, it just won’t work. If you want to use a USB power pack to supply 5V, you could use a cable like this, connected to a barrel jack to screw terminal adapter (see the SmartLED Shield V4 instructions page), connected to the 4-pin JST SM cable.

Follow the instructions in the GitHub Readme for the SmartMatrix Library. It says to use the latest version of Arduino and Teensyduino. Don’t use something old like Arduino 1.0.5.

Thank you for the information!

If I were to switch to a teensy 3.6 board, is this how I would set it up? See photos below.

Regarding the suggested barrel jack to screw terminal setup, would one option to do something like this?

In terms of my setup, I am thinking about something like this. Would this make sense?

Thank you again for any help! I am so sorry that I don’t know more about this stuff.

Looks like a good way to wire everything up.

You don’t need do attach the extra pins on the Teensy 3.6 to anything. You can solder short headers (matching the length of the Teensy 3.2/SmartLED Shield) and leave the rest of the Teensy 3.6 unattached.

Hi Matt, someone posted their LED Graduation Cap project on Hackster, might want to check it out: LED Matrix Animated GIF Graduation Cap