If you followed my previous post, you’ll know that I’ve been battling with one of those $20 LED 8x8x8 matrix kits recently. It was very frustrating, there’s little support out there and confusing information, and when you’re in that state you start to doubt yourself and assume you must have done something wrong. But I tested everything I could possibly test and I was convinced I did everything right.
At that point, all signs pointed to a chip that needed programming, and I tried with numerous sets of instructions and at least four separate programming adapters. Nothing was working, and the display stayed in its broken state.
I came up with two final plans. First, I would buy a new 12C5A60S2 IC, and see if that one would program correctly using the various adapters I have. Failing that, I would fork over the $20 for an entire new kit, build the base and test it extensively before attaching the LED faces to it.
The replacement chip was $5 shipped, so I pulled the trigger and waited. The chip arrived last night, but I wasn’t motivated last night, so I hit it first thing this morning.
Keep in mind, this is a “new” chip, allegedly.
I pried out the old chip, and carefully inserted the new one into the socket. I powered the unit up, thinking I’d spin around in my chair to access the programming interface (I’m using a Pi4 with the USB programming interface because linux supports the drivers natively). Imagine my surprise when the animations start scrolling on the LEDs.
What the everloving fuck? I bought what I thought was a brand new chip, assuming I would have to program it. Only to install it and discover it already has the animation firmware I need for my project?
Best as I can guess, this project is by far the most popular reason for people having these chips, and either it’s a return that someone programmed, or they preprogram all of them as a burn-in test. I might actually have to follow up with the ebay seller, because this has broken my brain.
Anyhow, I’m glad it’s finally working.
Update: The seller got back to me. Turns out some of his sales are parts broken out from kits as spare parts. So I just got lucky.