bertware / microdot-phat

Python Library and Examples for Micro Dot pHAT. A 6-matrix driver for retro 5x7 displays!

https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/microdot-phat

Micro Dot pHAT is an unashamedly old school LED matrix display board, with up to 30x7 pixels, using the Lite-On LTP-305 matrices. Perfect for building a retro scrolling message display or a tiny 30 band spectrum analyser.

Installing

Full install (recommended):

We've created an easy installation script that will install all pre-requisites and get your Micro Dot pHAT up and running with minimal efforts. To run it, fire up Terminal which you'll find in Menu -> Accessories -> Terminal on your Raspberry Pi desktop, as illustrated below:

In the new terminal window type the command exactly as it appears below (check for typos) and follow the on-screen instructions:

curl https://get.pimoroni.com/microdotphat | bash

Alternatively, on Raspbian, you can download the pimoroni-dashboard and install your product by browsing to the relevant entry:

sudo apt-get install pimoroni

(you will find the Dashboard under 'Accessories' too, in the Pi menu - or just run pimoroni-dashboard at the command line)

If you choose to download examples you'll find them in /home/pi/Pimoroni/microdotphat/.

Manual install:

Library install for Python 3:

on Raspbian:

sudo apt-get install python3-microdotphat

other environments:

sudo pip3 install microdotphat

Library install for Python 2:

on Raspbian:

sudo apt-get install python-microdotphat

other environments:

sudo pip2 install microdotphat

Development:

If you want to contribute, or like living on the edge of your seat by having the latest code, you should clone this repository, cd to the library directory, and run:

sudo python3 setup.py install

(or sudo python setup.py install whichever your primary Python environment may be)

In all cases you will have to enable the i2c bus.

Documentation & Support

• Guides and tutorials - https://learn.pimoroni.com/microdot-phat
• Function reference - http://docs.pimoroni.com/microdotphat/
• GPIO Pinout - https://pinout.xyz/pinout/micro_dot_phat
• Get help - http://forums.pimoroni.com/c/support

Unofficial / Third-party libraries

• Java library by Jim Darby - https://github.com/hackerjimbo/PiJava