Matrix hexpansion lite-loop

Six of these boards would make a loop of 936 single-colour 0603 LEDs surrounding the badge, but its 18 × 8 matrix (with an additional 9th row of 12 in the center) is detailed enough to display scrolling text or animations on its own. This is a daughter board for my matrix-hexpansion (v2, lite).

Status: prototype ordered, but not assembled or tested.

• v1 BOM (lite-loop 2026-05-22)

Updates

May, 2026

Initial concept, created together with the lite version of the matrix-hexpansion. The layout was again generated in JavaScript -- 156 LEDs in a 18x8 + 12 matrix that has gaps in the inner-most row -- and applied to the KiCad board with a Python script. Not sure if the CH32V003 can actually run a 156-LED matrix though (it has enough pins, but may not have enough memory for double buffering the PWM bitstream without further optimisation).