Is there a common LED Matrix protocol?

[DaveButNotThatDave]

I saved a 160x16 LED matrix from the landfill today. When taking it apart, I see it is basically five 32x16 matrices connected in series. I believe they are RBG LEDs. The controller that it uses is LongReal TF-MU (yeah, I never heard of it either).

The software used to program the matrix is called PowerLED and it seems to be only available on Windows. I am not a Windows user, so I was wondering if there is some common protocol that these companies implement. It would be nice to be able to program this matrix without having to use Windows.

An alternative would be to break it down into the five individual matrices and see if I can control them with my own microcontroller.

[JustMeHere]

Maybe start here: https://github.com/2dom/PxMatrix

[rooppoorali]

Hi, is there any link or picture of the LED matrix that you're using?

[ledtester]

A search for "TF-MU" on aliexpress brings up boards like this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3256804471636351.html

Does it resemble what you have?



In the description there is a bunch of text including:

...
Communication method Serial communication, adjustable rate of 57600, 9600, ...
...

Some ideas: contact these vendors to see if they can lead you to more information about the protocol; see if your USB connection is really a serial connection and sniff the serial traffic to see what the Windows program is sending.

[mikeselectricstuff]

There is a fairly standard way of driving most LED matrix modules, google HUB12 and HUB75 - latter seems to be oriented towards colour video panels, former for simpler signage ones.
It is very simple - clock, data (1 or 2 sets of R,G,B), latch and enable for column drivers, and row select lines.
There are a few variants within that, e.g. different numbers of rows, and I've also seen a shift-register controlled row select for higher res displays, but the lower res ( 3mm pitch and up) are all pretty much the same

[tooki]

There is a fairly standard way of driving most LED matrix modules, google HUB12 and HUB75 - latter seems to be oriented towards colour video panels, former for simpler signage ones.

Out of curiosity, have you ever come across formal documentation or specs? Despite those two standards being extremely widespread, I've been unsuccessful in locating any formal documentation, or even just a history of where the standards come from, who made them, etc. Everything I've found is people's reverse-engineering of them.

[mikeselectricstuff]

There is a fairly standard way of driving most LED matrix modules, google HUB12 and HUB75 - latter seems to be oriented towards colour video panels, former for simpler signage ones.

Out of curiosity, have you ever come across formal documentation or specs? Despite those two standards being extremely widespread, I've been unsuccessful in locating any formal documentation, or even just a history of where the standards come from, who made them, etc. Everything I've found is people's reverse-engineering of them.

No, as is typical of Chinese stuff - these things just seem to emerge, and then get widely copied. The protocol is "obvious" in the sense that it's the simplest way to do it, the only "standard" is the connector pinout. Actual specs in terms of clock frequencies, setup/hold times etc. will vary a little depending on the actual  column drivers used, onboard buffering etc., but are broadly similar.   

[coromonadalix]

You can check on adafruit and arduinos  librairies   you have some infos there

But a written earlier   chineses know their stuff, you configure  in 1 color, 2 colors and rgb or rgbw  mode the width an height in pixels groups


The tiles are known with pxx naming   like p4  is the pixel size dimension     p3 p4 p5 p8 p10 p16 ....  normally start at 16x16 pixels group, 16x32,32x32, 64x64   etc ...

You have many companies / brands and modules types,  some are very powerful to display real time video  ...  linux and or android based modules  etc ...

Normally on the tiles you see the idc connectors,  sometimes you will see the R, G, B, serial clock, serial data, strobe infos printed on the pcb   


The controller can be changed to a more polyvalent one,  but you need to change or do the panel size configuration(s)  before using it

this is the website for your controller card   software   PowerLed 2.75
http://www.lysonled.com/LONG-GREAT.html

PowerLed 2.89
https://www.rousis.gr/en/downloadsuk/file/13-powerled