On 18/05/2015 5:23 PM, Mike Harrison wrote: > On Mon, 18 May 2015 08:56:05 +1000, you wrote: > >> These 16x32 P10 RGB LED panels >> >> seem to be cheap and readily available. I've seen DIY projects using >> them that employ a Teensy3 or similar to drive them. >> >> What I'd like to do is use about 8 panels (side by side so 16 x 256 >> pixels) in a message display. No fancy graphics are required, just >> static or scrolling text. >> >> The text input / commands would be via an RS485 port. My main concern >> is refreshing the display reliably while processing comms. >> >> Is this doable with a PIC or ATXMEGA chip? I have been using the unpaid >> version of the XC8 compiler for PIC and Atmel Studio for ATXMEGA project= s. >> David... > Proably a bit of a struggle on an 8-bit part, but I;m sur it's doable - m= uch easier on a faster > device like PIC24 or 32 though > If only due to RAM available. Obviously you can do without a RAM buffer b= y sending data direct from > a character lookup table, but having a RAM buffer makes life a lot easier= .. > An issue is you need to generate six SPI serial streams - with a fast de= vice that has pin mapping, > you can use the SPI hardware and send data sequentially using 2 SPI ports= , mapping them to each of 3 > sets of pins in turn to do each colour. Hi Mike, I'm happy to learn PIC32 for this. Great idea on the on-the-fly pin=20 mapping. In your opinion is it worth getting the optimised compiler? David... --=20 ___________________________________________ David Duffy Audio Visual Devices P/L Unit 8, 10 Hook St, Capalaba 4157 Australia Ph: +61 7 38235717 Fax: +61 7 38234717 Our Web Site: www.audiovisualdevices.com.au ___________________________________________ --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .