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o Update doc; more picture for connectors.
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hzeller committed Apr 4, 2015
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22 changes: 20 additions & 2 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -32,6 +32,24 @@ on the board is correct - I once got boards with supplied cables that had red
(suggesting `+`) and black (suggesting `GND`) reversed!). This power supply is
used to light the LEDs; plan for ~3.5 Ampere per 32x32 panel.

The connector on the RGB panels is called a Hub75 interface. Each panel typically has two
ports, one is the input and the other is the output to chain additional panels. Usually an
arrow shows which of the connectors is the input.

Here you see a Hub75 connector to be seen at the bottom of the RGB panel board:
![Hub 75 interface][hub75-arrow]

Other boards are very similar, but instead of zero-indexed color bits
`R0`, `G0`, `B0`, `R1`, `G1`, `B1`, they start the index with one and name these
`R1`, `G1`, `B1`, `R2`, `G2`, `B2`; the functionality is identical.
![Hub 75 interface][hub75]

Throughout this document, we will use the one-index base.

If you plug in a flat cable into your RGB panel, this is how the signals are on the other end
of the cable; note the notch on the right side:
![Hub 75 IDC connector][hub75-idc]

The RPi has 3.3V logic output level, but a display operated at 5V interprets
these logic levels fine, just make sure to run a very short cable to the board.
If you do run into glitches or erratic pixels, consider some line-buffering,
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -68,8 +86,6 @@ If you are using only 1 bit pwm (`-p 1` flag), then this can be a very long
chain. Though full color pwm (color images), the refresh rate goes down
considerably after 6-8 boards.

Here a typical pinout on these LED panels, found on the circuit board:
![Hub 75 interface][hub75]

### Up to 3 Panels with newer Raspberry Pis with 40 GPIO pins! ###
If you have one of the newer plus models of the Raspberry Pi 1 or the
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -495,6 +511,8 @@ However, we just ignore this 'black' time, and switch the row on and off after
the clocking with the needed time-period; that way we get down to 200ns.

[hub75]: ./img/hub75.jpg
[hub75-arrow]: ./img/hub75-other.jpg
[hub75-idc]: ./img/idc-hub75-connector.jpg
[matrix64]: ./img/chained-64x64.jpg
[coordinates]: ./img/coordinates.png
[time]: ./img/time-display.jpg
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