LED Matrix Clock Kit | ESP8266 Clock with MQTT | LED Matrix Info Display

Projects of electronic clocks may probably be the most popular diy projects in maker circle in recent years. Most of these projects are not difficult to build, and meanwhile you will gain a lot on coding in Arduino. With the capability of wifi, ESP series SOCs will add more funs in clock projects. The clock kit introduced here comes with 2 pcb boards, one is for display and the other is the main board. The display board consists of 5 blocks of 8×8 led matrix, and MAX7219 as the driver. On the main board, an ESP8266 as the core, a DS3231 as the RTC, 2 buttons and 1 buzzer are also integrated on the board. Setting the RTC via ntp service is really simple with the ESP8266. The kit comes with sample codes in Arduino C++, you can use the code to make it work as a led matrix clock or you can write your code to let it be a message display board. A python program (with source code) is also provided for sending MQTT messeages (weather or other info) from PC to the clock. You can deploy the program in a raspberry Pi, then it will send the weather info to your clock hourly. The enclosure (cut by plywoods) is also included in the package.

Notice: The price here is valued for the hardware and postage, the firmware code is free, as the code is fully open. We are not responsible for the firmware bugs in current code implementation including python codes. I am not an expert in both of them.

Features:

• Small in size, could be put on your desktop as the desktop onerment.
• 5x8x8 led matrix with wifi, info could be sent remotely.
• For clock, UTC and Local time switchable.
• For clock, it is able to display your name (7 letters only) or callsign (for ham radio, 7 letters or digits only) periodically.
• For clock, clock settings is configured with web.

In Arduino Code:

You have to supply your WiFi SSID and PASSWORD if you use the simple sample code. 

If you use the advanced code, you do not have to supply your WiFi credentials in the code, as it uses your phone to do the WiFi settings and other configurations. But, you have to upload the SKETCH DATA first of all (config.json), and then compile and upload the code.

The config.json file in spiffs.

A python program could be used to send mqtt messages and weather info to the led matrix if the advanced code is used.

Downloads:

• Arduino:  code and libraries (libraries needed: PubSubClient, WiFiManager, ArduinoJson(5.x), put them in your arduino’s libraries folder)
• Arduino: new Arduino code and libraries with ArduinoJson6.0, littlefs(use “ESP8266 LittleFs Data Upload” to upload the config.json file)
• Schematics: display board, main board
• Python: source code and compiled EXE for windows (libraries needed: pysimpleGui, pyOwmGet, paho, json, ast, time)

Specification:

• Voltage In: DC 5V with Type-C
• Working Current: 200mA
• Wireless: WiFi 2.4G
• LED Matrix: 5x8x8
• Size:125 x 54 x 28 mm
• Weight: 100g

Package Includes:

1. LED Matrix Display Board x 1
2. Main Board with ESP and RTC x 1
3. Plywood Enclosure Set x 1
4. Screws and Standoffs Set x 1