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🌊 Slight dispatch delays possible as we catch up with sale orders, please bear with us 🐨

5x5 RGB Matrix Breakout

by Pimoroni

This super-cute 5x5 RGB LED matrix breakout is a neat way to visualise sensor data or for simple animations or notifications, and it's Raspberry Pi and Arduino-compatible.

These little matrices are ideal for visualising data from other Pimoroni breakouts in a Breakout Garden HAT, like graphing environmental data from our BMP280 or BME680 breakouts. Or why not use two together as headlights or brake lights for your Pi-powered vehicle?

Like our other breakouts, this one just pops straight onto your Pi's pins once you've soldered on the included right-angle female header, and we included a trace that can be cut to change the I2C address from 0x74 to 0x77, if you want to use two matrices at once!

It's compatible with our fancy Breakout Garden HAT, where using breakouts is as easy just popping it into one of the six slots and starting to grow your project, create, and code.

Features

  • 5x5 (25 total) RGB LEDs
  • Uses the IS31FL3731 driver chip
  • 15x15mm active area
  • 3.5mm LED pitch
  • I2C interface (address 0x74/0x77 (cut trace))
  • 3.3V or 5V compatible
  • Reverse polarity protection
  • Compatible with Arduino
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi (Python library)
  • Compatible with Raspberry Pi Pico (C++/MicroPython libraries)

Kit includes

  • 5x5 RGB Matrix Breakout
  • 1x5 male header
  • 1x5 female right-angle header

We've designed this breakout board so that you can solder on the piece of right-angle female header and pop it straight onto the bottom left 5 pins on your Raspberry Pi's GPIO header (pins 1, 3, 5, 7, 9).

Software

We've put together a Python library to make it really easy to drive the 5x5 RGB Matrix Breakout, along with a handful of examples to show what it can do. 

You can also use this breakout with Raspberry Pi Pico and other RP2040 boards, using C++ or Pirate brand MicroPython.

Notes

Dimensions: 19x29x3.5mm.

32 customer reviews

a year ago
A really neat and easy to use sensor package. Shouldnt take more than an hour to familiarise yourself with it as the library for it is pretty robust and easy to use. Added it to a project of mine (circuit python) and it works just as expected. I really like it!
by Sony about BME280 Breakout - Temperature, Pressure, Humidity Sensor via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
A great little sensor that is almost 'plug and play'. Just plug it into a board like the Pico Breakout Garden and download the example program to get it going. You really don't need to do much yourself. That said, more accessible, improved documentation, detailing the methods used to set up the device and access data would help deepen understanding of the device and how to develop and modify applications using it.
by Robert about BME280 Breakout - Temperature, Pressure, Humidity Sensor via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Useful sensor with a choice of connectors for soldering. Worked seamlessly with a Pico W. Found the literature and information on the Pimoroni website somewhat arcane and less than straightforward to access, but plenty of help available on YouTube
by Robert about BME280 Breakout - Temperature, Pressure, Humidity Sensor via REVIEWS.io
2 years ago
Bought the BME280 breakout as a replacement for the BME280 sensor on an Enviro+ board that had gone awry. After checking with the excellent Pimoroni forum for help, I soldered the board to the GPIO header on the Enviro+ with the supplied header pins. I made use of the address selection trace on the back BME280 breakout board. All now works and is up and running the Luftdaten python script with a small change to the code to allow for the address change to 0x77. Great service from Pimoroni, ordered on Tuesday and arrived on Thursday.
by Mike about BME280 Breakout - Temperature, Pressure, Humidity Sensor via REVIEWS.io
3 years ago
Instructions on how to use it and set up are good. Got it all working without hassle and used it as a project to team my kids to solder, which went well. Readings seem to be accurate and correspond with other local weather stations in the year.
by John about BME280 Breakout - Temperature, Pressure, Humidity Sensor via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
These sensors work as they should, I couldn't find how to access specific addresses using the pimoroni python library examples but a search led me to install the RPi.bme280 libràry (sudo pip install RPi.bme280) and I was able to read from two dme280 sensors connected in parallel using addresses 0x76 and 0x77.
by Anonymous about BME280 Breakout - Temperature, Pressure, Humidity Sensor via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Handy little sensor.. I am using this to provide a data feed to the magic mirror smart dashboard I have at home to keep an eye on indoor conditions. Fantastic. Try to keep the unit few cms away from the pi..it is quite sensitive to any heat.
by Badrinath about BME280 Breakout - Temperature, Pressure, Humidity Sensor via REVIEWS.io

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