Datasheet

Amps

That's if all the LEDs are on at once, which is not likely - but still, its good to have at least half for the power supply in

case you get bright!

5V power from a wall plug goes into the DC jack on the HAT which then goes through a fancy protection circuit that

makes sure the voltage is not higher than 5.8V - this means that if you accidentally grab a 9V or 12V plug or a reverse

polarity plug you will not damage the HAT, Pi and panels. (Please note, this does not protect against extreme

damage, if you plug in a 120VAC output into the DC jack or continuously try to plug in the wrong voltage you could still

cause damage so please do be careful!)

We recommend powering your driving Raspberry Pi from the Pi's microUSB port but we do have a 1A diode on board

that will automatically power the Pi if/when the voltage drops. So if you want, just plug in the 5V wall adapter into the

HAT and it will automagically power up the Pi too!

The green LED next to the DC jack will indicate that the 5V power is good, make sure it is lit when trying to use the

HAT!

Matrix Drive pins

The matrix does not work like 'smart' pixels you may have used, like NeoPixels or DotStars or LPD8806 or WS2801 or

what have you. The matrix panels are very 'dumb' and have no memory or self-drawing capability.

Data must be constantly streamed to the matrix for an image to display! So all of these pins are always used when

drawing to the display

All these pins go thru a 74AHCT145 level shifter to convert the 3.3V logic from the Pi to the 5V logic required by the

panels