Meet Arachnid Labs’ latest project, the Minishift:
The Minishift is a compact 8x8 LED matrix display and driver that speaks SPI, and can be driven from any microcontroller platform, or with an optional interface board, over USB. Each Minishift module operates independently, and they chain together to form larger displays, limited only by the amount of power you can supply them. They speak a really simple SPI protocol, with each display acting like an 8 byte shift register, making it extremely easy to work with them. Sample code for the Arduino will be available before preorders ship.
An optional USB-SPI interface is available, which makes it easy to drive a series of Minishifts from your computer. Python libraries and sample code, as well as a display driver daemon, will also be available soon. The USB interface can drive 8-9 Minishifts fully lit, or more if you will only be displaying text or other graphics that don’t light all the LEDs at once.
The Minishift is available for preorder now on Tindie. The regular price is $8.99 per minishift, but you can get 20% off for preorders only with discount code 9D903ED, making them only $7.19 each! Kits with more minishifts and USB interfaces are available at a discount too.
Do you have a job in mind for the Minishift? Leave your ideas in the comments!