Daisy-chaining RGB LED matrices using Rainbowduino V3.0b

Hi!

First what I am trying to do:

  • I want to daisy-chain several 60mm 8x8 matrices together, in order to build a 16x8 LED Display (eventually there it should be 24x24, but I would be happy if just two matrices would work, to begin with).
  • I am using an two Rainbowduino V3.0b with built-in USB-to-UART and I have a Arduino Duemilanove available.

I tried several methods and code. Especially the one including the Rainbowduino Firmware 3 (code.google.com/p/rainbowduino-firmware/).
I tried to connect the Rainbowduino V3.0b directly to my PC with the built-in USB-to-UART, whicht did work. I was able to run some basic code on the Rainbowduino, displaying single characters and shapes, but without serial communication. Neither from PC to Rainbowduino directly, nor over I2C with a connected Arduino (code from the link above).

Now my questions:

  • How can I communicate with the Rainbowduino V3.0b over serial port or any other option from my PC? I would like to be able to send new data from Processing / Java to the Rainbowduino. Probably the best thing would be to send data to the matrices over the built-in USB port, but I was not really able to get it to work.
  • If sending continuous data over USB does not quite work, an Arduino in-between PC and Rainbowduino works for me as well, but I can’t get it to work.
  • How can I chain 2 or more Rainbowduino V3.0b together and send data to the display?
  • Am I using a wrong library?
  • Is there anyting I need to do different?

I found lots of examples and code for the old version 2 of the Rainbowduino, but nothing really works for me with the V3.0b.

I am thankful for any suggestion you might have!
Thanks!
Tim

Hi,Tim
The Rainbowduino V3.0 is not compatible to Rainbowduino V2.0,So the firmware is also not compatible.
For now,the firmware of the rainbowduino is not updata anymore.What is using in rainbowduino V2.0 is :http://code.google.com/p/neorainbowduino/
So,for now,we don’t have a new firmware for the rainbowduino V3.0 to contral bu I2C or serial.
But our engineer is working on it.
So we will release the firmware after our engineer is finish.

Hi Tobe,

thank your for your fast reply, which at least clarifies my problems a little.
Unfortunatley those are bad news. Is there any other option to achieve serial communication with the PC yet?
What is the state of the new firmware? Do you know any time schedule, when it might be released? Even a rough estimate could help

Thanks again for your answer!
Tim

any news on the I2C / Serial Library for v3.0?