I’ve worked through to the end of a project (lucentcube.com) and the non-PWM panels using chipset FM6124 and these work really well, albeit with a slower refresh rate. Given the success of the changes from @kingdo9 that @marcmerlin has managed to leverage for his LED bodysuit project I’m hoping to experiment with PWM based panels. Specifically my issue is partly to do with the current refresh rates effect on the ability to film the panels, but generally I just want to see how the PWM based panels look!
Marc has kindly shared his supplier in China that can provide a variety of panels (my target being P2.5 64x64), his offerings come in FM6124 (non-PWM) and FM6373 (PWM) flavours.
I just wanted to confirm this assumption is correct, and obtaining some FM6373 panels will let me start investigating with these PWM panels, using kingdo9’s updates to support these, and attempt to resolve any issues along the way?
PWM panels kind of work thanks @kingdo9 but his code is not merged, there is a lot of black magic going on (like dozens of potential init sequences per chip that can be sent and should be tried one by one), and I’m pretty sure it also takes more power on the Pi3 to generate this than PWM panels (only matters if you’re running on batteries).
In theory, PWM panels are supposed to refresh super fast on their own and give better pictures, but in my limited testing, it’s not a given with the current code quite yet (but I’m doing 128x192, you’re doing 64x64 which is 6 times smaller and faster) and I have no idea how quickly it refreshes the panels themselves
I opened this
I went to PWM because Azerone did not have any P2 128x64 panels anymore, unless they were PWM, so I had no choice.
Honestly, for simplicity and stability, I would pick the old style panels (FM6124) if available.
And this is with infinite appreciation for @kingdo9’s work who has literally saved my bacon and is allowing my outfit to work, but this code is not on the same production quality than the old code (which makes sense of course, it’s new and on top of that, every PWM chip seems to be different and incompatible, which is maddening).
Thanks Marc for the insight, I really appreciate it. I think I’ll give it a go, I’ve asked our mutual friend in China for details on the PWM panels, I’ll grab some just for fun, even if I only assemble a single version with these panels I reckon it will solve some refresh rate versus camera capture rate woes I’d been having. Will keep this thread updated.
Yeah, for 64x64, you will probably get 400-500Hz at most for a 64x64 in row/scan mode. I just have no idea what actual speed I get from my PWM panels right now
