Small 1.2" 8x8 Ultra Bright Square White LED Matrix + Backpack

What's better than a single LED? Lots of LEDs! Matrices like these are 'multiplexed' - so to control 64 LEDs you need 16 pins. That's a lot of pins, and there are driver chips like the MAX7219 that can control a matrix for you but there's a lot of wiring to set up and they take up a ton of space. Here at Adafruit we feel your pain! After all, wouldn't it be awesome if you could control a matrix without tons of wiring? That's where these lovely LED matrix backpacks come in. We have them in three flavors - a mini 0.7" 8x8 , a small 1.2" 8x8 and a 4-digit 0.56" 7-segment . They work perfectly with the matrices we stock in the Adafruit shop and make adding a bright little display trivial.

The matrices use a driver chip that does all the heavy lifting for you: They have a built in clock so they multiplex the display. They use constant-current drivers for ultra-bright, consistent color, 1/16 step display dimming, all via a simple I2C interface. These 1.2" matrix backpacks come with three address-selection jumpers so you can connect up to eight 1.2" 8x8's together (or a combination, such as four 1.2" 8x8's and four 7-segments, etc) on a single I2C bus.

The product kit comes with:

• A fully tested and assembled 1.2" LED backpack
• 1.2" 8x8 Matrix Square Pixel White / w/backpack
• 4-pin headers

A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the backpack but its very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes.

Of course, in classic Adafruit fashion, we also have a detailed tutorial showing you how to solder, wire and control the display . We even wrote a very nice library for the backpacks so you can get running in under half an hour, displaying images on the matrix or numbers on the 7-segment . If you've been eyeing matrix displays but hesitated because of the complexity, this is the solution you've been looking for!

The Arduino playground has a nice set of tutorials introducing the MAX7219 and 8x8 LED matrices 

Using a high power shift register to drive 8x8 matrices with a NETduino 

Datasheet - this is for the Pure Green version, whereas the one we are selling here is White, it's clearly different but otherwise has very similar specs. 

Matrix Dimensions:

• 31mm x 31mm x 7mm / 1.2" x 1.2" x 0.3"
• Height without Pins: 7mm / 0.3"
• Weight: 7.65g

Backpack Dimensions:

• 41mm x 33mm x 2mm / 1.6" x 1.3" x 0.08"
• Weight: 5.2g