RPI-RGB-LED-Matrix is base on 74HC595 chip and it's an 8x8 matrix that you can make a small toy with it.
It communicates with your development board or your chip with SPI protocol, it's very easy to set up and use.
You can use Arduino or Raspberry Pi, even the STC89C51 chip to driving it.
You can use it to do a lot of interesting things, such as musical backdrops, music spectrum analyzers, and even in your bicycle taillights.

Compatibility List

• Compatibility

Platform	Screen and driver board	Notes
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B Plus	√
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B	√
Raspberry Pi 2 Model B	√
Raspberry Pi zero/ zero w	√
Arduino	√

Feature

• Based on 74HC595 chip support
• Support SPI protocol
• Low power consumption
• RGB three-color combination can be a lot of bright colors

Presentation

Package includes

• 1x RPI-RGB-LED-Matrix module

How to wire it up

Raspberry Pi	8x8 RGB Matrix	Arduino
5V	Vcc	5v
BCM GPIO 11	CLK	Pin 13
BCM GPIO 8	CE	Pin 10
BCM GPIO 10	MOSI	Pin 11
GND	GND	GND

How to use it

• 1. After power on and login to system. you can open a terminal and edit /boot/config.txt file to enable SPI function.

 Please according to your Pi model to change the device_tree, for example, i got a raspberry pi 3B, I will change the config.txt's parameter to following code:

sudo vim.tiny /boot/config.txt

 device_tree=bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb
 dtparam=spi=on

• 2.Edit a file named it matrix.c and input following paragraph:

sudo vim.tiny matrix.c

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#define RED_DATA 0
#define BLUE_DATA 1
#define GREEN_DATA 2
int main(void)
{
 static uint8_t data[4] = {0x0,0x0,0x0,0x0};
 wiringPiSetup();
 wiringPiSPISetup(0,500000);
 while(1)
 {
 static uint8_t heart[8] = {0x00, 0x66, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0x7E, 0x3C, 0x18}; // this is a array of heart
 int j;
 int x=2;
 for ( j=0;j<8;j++)
 {
 data[0] = ~heart[j];
 data[2] = 0xFF;
 data[1] = 0xFF;
 data[3] = 0x01 << j ;
 wiringPiSPIDataRW(0,data,sizeof(data)); // send data to SPI channel 0, and the length of the data
 delay(x);
 };
 };
}

• 3.Compile it.

sudo gcc -o matrix matrix.c -lwiringPi

• 4.Run it.

sudo ./matrix

• 5.You will see it ligths up.

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Other Examples

There are some pictures here:

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• 1. Static Heart Sign

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#define RED_DATA 0 //define the red data source
#define BLUE_DATA 1 //define the blue data source
#define GREEN_DATA 2 // define the green data source
int main(void)
{
 static uint8_t data[4] = {0x0,0x0,0x0,0x0}; // initialize RGB data source
 static uint8_t i = 0;
 wiringPiSetup(); // initialize wiringPi
 wiringPiSPISetup(0,500000); // initialize SPI information, 0 is channel 0, 500000 is clock rate.
 while(1){
 int j;
 int x = 2;
 static uint8_t heart[8] = {0x00, 0x66, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0x7E, 0x3C, 0x18}; // this is a array of heart
 for ( j=0;j<8;j++)
{
 data[0] = ~heart[j];
 data[2] = 0xFF;
 data[1] = 0xFF;
 data[3] = 0x01 << j ;
 wiringPiSPIDataRW(0,data,sizeof(data)); // send data to SPI channel 0, and the length of the data
 delay(x);
 }
 }
}

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• 2. heart beating:

All you need to do is copy following codes to a file named heart.c , and save it, and then compile it.
sudo vim.tiny heart.c

#include 
#include 
#include 
#include 
#define RED_DATA 0
#define BLUE_DATA 1
#define GREEN_DATA 2
int main(void)
{
 static uint8_t data[4] = {0x0,0x0,0x0,0x0};
 static uint8_t i = 0;
 wiringPiSetup();
 wiringPiSPISetup(0,500000);
void heartbig()
 {
 int j;
 int x = 2;
 static uint8_t heart[8] = {0x00, 0x66, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0x7E, 0x3C, 0x18};
 for ( j=0;j<8;j++)
 {
 data[0] = ~heart[j];
 data[2] = 0xFF;
 data[1] = 0xFF;
 data[3] = 0x01 << j ;
 wiringPiSPIDataRW(0,data,sizeof(data));
 delay(x);
 }
};
void heartsmall()
 {
 int j;
 int x = 2;
 static uint8_t heart[8] = {0x00, 0x00, 0x24, 0x7E, 0x7E, 0x3C, 0x18, 0x00};
 for ( j=0;j<8;j++)
 {
 data[0] = ~heart[j];
 data[2] = 0xFF;
 data[1] = 0xFF;
 data[3] = 0x01 << j ;
 wiringPiSPIDataRW(0,data,sizeof(data));
 delay(x);
 }
};
void matrixoff()
{
 int j;
 int x = 2;
 static uint8_t heart[8] = {0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00};
 for ( j=0;j<8;j++)
 {
 data[0] = ~heart[j];
 data[2] = 0xFF;
 data[1] = 0xFF;
 data[3] = 0x01 << j ;
 wiringPiSPIDataRW(0,data,sizeof(data));
 delay(x);
 }
}
while(1){
 int m = 10;
 for ( m=10; m>0; m--)
 {
 heartbig();
 };
 matrixoff();
 delay(100);
 for ( m=10; m>0; m--)
 {
 heartsmall();
 };
 matrixoff();
 delay(100);
 }
}

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• 2. Compile it and run it.

sudo gcc -o heart heart.c -lwiringPi
sudo ./heart

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You will see a view like this:

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How to use Arduino to light up 8x8 matrix

• 1. Open an Arduino IDE and paste this code and upload to your Arduino board.

#include  // include the head file to enable the library.
static uint8_t data[4] = {0x0, 0x0, 0x0, 0x0}; // defined a data matrix
static uint8_t i = 1; // defined a variable vector
const int CE = 10; // defined the CE function pin
void heartbig() // defined a function called "heart big".
{
 int j;
 int x = 2;
 static uint8_t heart[8] = {0x00, 0x66, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0xFF, 0x7E, 0x3C, 0x18}; // you need to calculate which led should be light up by this array, it defined line by line on your matrix, for example , 0x00 means the led of the first line is off, and the 0x66 means the second line's first led will go off and the fourth led will go off and fifth led will go off and eight led will go off. others will turn on....and so on.
 for ( j = 0; j < 8; j++)
 {
 data[0] = ~heart[j]; // color red
 data[2] = 0xFF; // color green
 data[1] = 0xFF; // color blue
 data[3] = 0x01 << j ; // display the data on matrix.
 digitalWrite(CE, LOW); // when CE is low, it begin to receive data.
 SPI.transfer(data[0]); //transfer data[0] to the matrix(red)
 SPI.transfer(data[2]); //transfer data[2] to the matrix(green)
 SPI.transfer(data[1]); // transfer data[1] to the matrix(blue)
 SPI.transfer(data[3]); // tansfer data[3] to the matrix( scanning and display the data on matrix)
 digitalWrite(CE, HIGH); // when CE is High, means that matrix begin to display the array's information to the matrix.
 delay(x); // a little bit delay, let the led light up and stay for a while so that it looks like it brightness.
 }
};
void heartsmall()
{
 int j;
 int x = 2;
 static uint8_t heart[8] = {0x00, 0x00, 0x24, 0x7E, 0x7E, 0x3C, 0x18, 0x00}; // change the hard to be the smaller one, all you need to do is change this parameter.
 for ( j = 0; j < 8; j++)
 {
 data[0] = ~heart[j];
 data[2] = 0xFF;
 data[1] = 0xFF;
 data[3] = 0x01 << j ;
 digitalWrite(CE, LOW);
 SPI.transfer(data[0]);
 SPI.transfer(data[2]);
 SPI.transfer(data[1]);
 SPI.transfer(data[3]);
 digitalWrite(CE, HIGH);
 delay(x);
 }
};
void matrixoff()
{
 int j;
 int x = 2;
 static uint8_t heart[8] = {0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00}; // you can see, all of the led will go off here.
 for ( j = 0; j < 8; j++)
 {
 data[0] = ~heart[j];
 data[2] = 0xFF;
 data[1] = 0xFF;
 data[3] = 0x01 << j ;
 digitalWrite(CE, LOW);
 SPI.transfer(data[0]);
 SPI.transfer(data[2]);
 SPI.transfer(data[1]);
 SPI.transfer(data[3]);
 digitalWrite(CE, HIGH);
 delay(x);
 }
};
void setup() {
 pinMode(CE, OUTPUT); //initialized the pin's mode.
 SPI.begin(); // start spi function
}
void loop() //defined a loop function
{
 int m = 10;
 for ( m = 10; m > 0; m--) { // make a for loop to let the data displayed on the matrix.
 heartbig();
 };
 matrixoff(); // turn off the matrix
 delay(100); // delay 100 ms
 for ( m = 10; m > 0; m--) { // let the data displayed on the matrix
 heartsmall();
 };
 matrixoff();
 delay(100);
}

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Then, You will see this: