Interfacing LED matrix displays with the MAX7219 driver [PDF datasheet] in Python using hardware SPI on the Raspberry Pi. The particular kit I bought can be acquired for a few pounds from http://www.banggood.com/MAX7219-Dot-Matrix-Module-DIY-Kit-SCM-Control-Module-For-Arduino-p-72178.html?currency=GBP

This library has recently had a major overhaul, and is not compatible with the earlier version. It now supports:

• multiple cascaded devices
• LED matrix and seven-segement variants

For the matrix device, initialize the matrix class:

import max7219.led as led

device = led.matrix()
device.show_message("Hello world!")

For the 7-segment devce, initialize the sevensegment class:

import max7219.led as led

device = led.sevensegment()
device.write_number(deviceId=0, value=3.14159)

The MAX7219 chipset supports a serial 16-bit register/data buffer which is clocked in on pin DIN every time the clock edge falls, and clocked out on DOUT 16.5 clock cycles later. This allows multiple devices to be chained together.

When initializing cascaded devices, it is necessary to specify a cascaded=... parameter, and generally methods which target specific devices will expect a deviceId=... parameter, counting from zero.

For more information, see http://max7219.readthedocs.org/

Ensure that the SPI kernel driver is enabled:

$ dmesg | grep spi
[    3.769841] bcm2708_spi bcm2708_spi.0: master is unqueued, this is deprecated
[    3.793364] bcm2708_spi bcm2708_spi.0: SPI Controller at 0x20204000 (irq 80)

And that the devices are successfully installed in /dev:

$ ls -l /dev/spi*
crw------- 1 root root 153, 0 Jan  1  1970 /dev/spidev0.0
crw------- 1 root root 153, 1 Jan  1  1970 /dev/spidev0.1

Follow the advice in the references below if the devices do not appear before proceeding.

The breakout board has an two headers to allow daisy-chaining:

For Raspian:

$ sudo apt-get install python-dev
$ sudo pip install spidev
$ sudo python setup.py install

For Arch Linux:

# pacman -Sy base-devel python2
# pip install spidev
# python2 setup.py install

Run the example code as follows:

$ sudo python examples/matrix_test.py

or

$ sudo python examples/sevensegment_test.py

NOTE: By default, SPI is only accessible by root (hence using sudo above). Follow these instructions to create an spi group, and adding your user to that group, so you don't have to run as root: http://quick2wire.com/non-root-access-to-spi-on-the-pi

• http://hackaday.com/2013/01/06/hardware-spi-with-python-on-a-raspberry-pi/
• http://gammon.com.au/forum/?id=11516
• http://louisthiery.com/spi-python-hardware-spi-for-raspi/
• http://www.brianhensley.net/2012/07/getting-spi-working-on-raspberry-pi.html
• http://raspi.tv/2013/8-x-8-led-array-driven-by-max7219-on-the-raspberry-pi-via-python
• http://quick2wire.com/non-root-access-to-spi-on-the-pi

See MIT License.