Do you guys know of anything like a virtual pixel matrix? Like you could compile code on the Arduino IDE and then upload the code to the virtual matrix on your computer to test it out before ever wiring up anything?
People have been asking for a virtual display for a long time now, myself included. As far as I know, nothing like that exists… yet.
Ugh i would love to make one but i cant even write a simple LED program on my own yet lol. I am working on one thou
I attempted this but I’m not sure how useful it really is. It does have the ability to do some matrix layouts. You still need to have a micro controller hooked up and upload the code to it, but instead of showing the data on real LEDs it sends the data back to your computer via serial to display through Processing.
In my case, I didn’t want to carry a rig back and forth my home and office desks. Particularly when I was still in the design stages and had a few breadboards linked together with jumper wires and multiple components, etc., etc. At the heart of it all was a regular Atmel running an Arduino bootloader, be it Uno or more recently the Leonardo version. I wanted to be able to work on the hardware when I’m home and work on the coding when I’m at the office. However, the coding can’t be tested without the hardware so … kinda got stuck there. In the end I gave up and only relied on whether the code compiles and I would test it on the hardware when I got home.
If there was some sort of virtual setup, that would’ve solved that part, to some extend. It won’t account for physical hardware issues. 
When I was messing with this I was just using an UNO for basic tests so figured that was easy enough to carry when traveling. Not needing to haul LED strips and addition external power supply was key for me.
Right, since I was building custom controllers and what not, I couldn’t rely on just the Uno/Leonardo. I needed the additional hardware components to read from an SD card, test button switches, etc., etc. At one point I was carrying a medium sized red (Sparkfun) box with everything in it but in the end I gave up doing that.
@marmil awesome man! Unfortunately my LED matrix’s are not built like the regular zig zag and serpentine patterns. I make mine in weird shapes lol
@Ashley_M_Kirchner_No i agree having a whole virtual platform that you could use to build your project in before ever wiring anything up would be amazing. It would save a whole lot of nightmares trying to figure out why things are not working and possibly burning stuff out crossing the wrong wires lol
But, burning out stuff is the pinnacle of any project! I always look forward to something blowing up, or magic smoke exiting somewhere … I wouldn’t give that up.
The only magic smoke ive seen is the melting soldermask on the bottom of a PCB i cooked for too long lol
That’s not magic smoke, that’s just stuff burning. Magic smoke comes from within. Ask any IC, it’ll tell you all about its internal magic.
Lol i havent been that unlucky yet. All my ICs have survived shorts and plugging power supply in backwards without a diode. No magical explosions yet. But if i try hard enough and keep working on 4 hours of sleep itll happen lol
Ah you haven’t gone through the initiation process yet then. Gotta experience it.
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