Up to 256x128 on ESP32 with ESP32-RGB64x32MatrixPanel-I2S-DMA

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For anyone who needs more than 128x64 on ESP32 (hi @rorosaurus), you may want to look at this
Please help review RGBPanel library comparison · Issue #7 · mrfaptastic/ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-DMA · GitHub

I’ve known that lib for a while, but back when I tried it, it was a less featureful version of SmarMatrix (although it supported GFX natively), so I wrote SmartMatrix::GFX to get GFX on Smartmatrix.
Well, that was 1.5 years ago.

The library has improved quite a bit, and apparent can do 256x128 by taking down color depth, which is 4x better than SmartMatrix (which does not take down color depth below 24bpp and seems to use more RAM for 64x128 than ESP32-RGB64x32MatrixPanel-I2S-DMA uses for 128x128 for a similar color depth from what I understand).

So, if you’re on ESP32, and you need lots of pixels, you probably want to give it a shot.

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hi marcmerlin
I use esp32 + sd card P6 32x32 module only 96x64 px parallel. I want 128x64 px. But SmartMatrix can’t. Can you recommend me?
this clip

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SmartMatrix does support 128x64 on ESP32. However if you add an sdcard driver and a FAT driver, those two may take enough memory away that you don’t have enough anymore.
Have you considered using SPIFFS? Some ESP32 chips have 16MB of flash.
Also, if you have an ESP32 pro with PSRAM, I submitted a patch to SmartMatrix to use PSRAM for some of its memory.

That said, given that you’re short on memory, you should also look at the library I just posted since it’s apparently 3x more memory efficient: GitHub - mrfaptastic/ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-DMA: An Adafruit GFX Compatible Library for the ESP32, ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3 to drive HUB75 LED matrix panels using DMA for high refresh rates. Supports panel chaining.

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hi marcmerlin

So thank you.
I will try.

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Nice. Can the addition of external RAM to the ESP32 help extend that even further?

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You’d have to ask the author, but if I were to guess, outside of the framebuffer, all the rest of the RAM are for bitplanes which cannot be in PSRAM because no DMA with PSRAM (except on that new ESP32 lite, but that one only has one core). Also, PSRAM is 10x slower than regular RAM I believe.

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Also try this new AnimatedGIFs library which is more optimized for memory and speed: AnimatedGIF - Arduino Reference

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Thanks @marcmerlin for pointing out this alternative library. I think it’s a good choice for ESP32 projects that need to be RAM efficient, or drive high pixel counts at the cost of graphic quality.

I posted this as a comment here, but I’m reposting here as well (“you”/“your”/etc is referring to the author): Please help review RGBPanel library comparison · Issue #7 · mrfaptastic/ESP32-HUB75-MatrixPanel-DMA · GitHub

Cool to see that there’s another library option for people wanting to drive HUB75 panels with an ESP32. It looks like we’re going after different goals with just a little bit of overlap. SmartMatrix Library supports minimum 24-bit refresh, ESP32-RGB64x32MatrixPanel-I2S-DMA supports maximum 24-bit refresh. I’m focusing on visual quality over max pixel count, so my library is optimized for that. I do plan on making this more clear in my documentation (which really needs a refresh, I’m just starting to move it to a GitHub Wiki from an unmaintained website), and I’ll steer people to this library and the RPi library for those that need higher pixel count than SmartMatrix Library can handle.

I took a quick look under the hood here to see how memory is being used more efficiently. Here’s some of the differences I spotted, and please correct me if I got any of this wrong:

  • Double buffering in the I2S buffer is disabled by default, and it looks like most of your examples don’t use it, saving a bunch of DMA RAM. Are you doing anything to avoid visible tearing or glitching when the I2S buffer gets updated with new content at the same time it’s being refreshed to the panel?
    • You’ll also save half the DMA Linked List Descriptors which can be large
    • (You could save even more RAM by using an external latch to store the address like SmartMatrix Library optionally does)
  • When drawing a pixel, you can draw directly to the I2S buffer, avoiding any intermediate buffers.
    • What happens if drawing graphics is slower than the refresh rate, doesn’t it result in tearing as some of the new pixels are refreshed on one frame, and some on the next?
    • You also can’t currently read the color of a pixel you’ve drawn to the buffer, but a lot of time that functionality isn’t used.
    • I think a good test case for this is to sweep a vertical line (or scroll text) horizontally quickly across the screen, so there’s pixels on each row. I tried to save RAM in a project I was working on using SmartMatrix Library and removed the double buffering and the tearing showed up with scrolling text and I had to save RAM another way.
  • You do use Adafruit_GFX which uses uint16_t to store pixels, and has double buffering. That saves 1/3 of the RAM compared to SmartMatrix Library’s minimum 24-bit drawing buffer. I believe the Adafruit_GFX buffers are optional, so you can save a ton of RAM if a sketch like AuroraDemo is only drawing directly to the I2S Buffer and not using Adafruit_GFX.

So, compared to SmartMatrix Library, I believe the big savings are: half the I2S DMA Buffer and linked list descriptors, and either no intermediate drawing buffers, or if there are buffers, they’re 2/3 the size.

I don’t think it would hurt to have an option in SmartMatrix Library to disable the double buffering, but I’d leave double buffering on by default. Drawing directly to the I2S buffers is a fundamental change that breaks how SmartMatrix Library is designed, with independent layers that have their own buffers, and a separation between the drawing and refresh memory.

I do like the idea of using Adafruit_GFX as a layer in SmartMatrix Library for those that want to use the Adafruit_GFX drawing routines to save RAM or for sketch compatibility. I wish they had up to 24-bit color support. Their font support has improved dramatically since I last looked at it (SmartMatrix Library used to be better), so it would be nice for people that need better fonts to have access to them.

I also like your idea of taking some patterns from Aurora and turning them into an easy to understand sketch. I’m going to have to add that to a SmartMatrix Library example.

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I tried to save RAM in a project I was working on using SmartMatrix Library and removed the double buffering and the tearing showed up with scrolling text and I had to save RAM another way

@blindman2k you actually pointed out the tearing to me, so thanks for that!

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My pleasure :smiley: The code is extremely stable and reliable. I have had it running on multiple 128x64 devices for weeks.

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Thanks,
Need more example scrolling. Text