Why?

Published on 2019-07-04 in Matrix Sanitizer.

Have you ever used one of those tiny 8x8 LED matrices? Have you noticed anything peculiar about their pinout? Here’s something to refresh your memory:

Not only it’s totally random, without a rhyme or reason, but also the only diagram you have to go by is backwards, giving your pin numbers in reference to physical locations of the LEDs, instead of giving your physical locations of the pins in reference to row and column numbers. Sure, you can work it out on paper, but it’s easy to make a mistake.

But don’t worry, we have a technological solution to this obvious problem! Introducing Matrix Sanitizer, which is basically just a tiny little PCB that rearranges the pins for you into a saner configuration!

Thanks to years of research of our best engineers, it does it without any vias, while keeping the same pin spacing, and even lets you insert the male pin headers without soldering (the matrix still needs to be soldered for good electrical contact).

The bottom rows are the anodes, and the top row are the cathodes. The PCB goes flat against the bottom of the matrix, only making it 1.6mm higher. The resulting contraption fits into a prototyping breadboard perfectly, and because it uses regular goldpins in place of those flimsy thin legs, it provides excellent contact.