7x16 Pico Unicorn LED Array Pack

Pinout

The Pico Unicorn Pack drives its display via the PIO function of the RP2040.

The display is updated one line at a time (but very quickly, so you won't notice!), by selecting one of the pins SR1 .. 7 which control the line driving FETs.

The column data are entered into the registers via SIN / SCLK then LATCH to hold them during the display.
BLANK allows the FET driver columns to turn on the LEDs and produce the image.

The four switches are wired as SW_A , SW_B, SW_X and SW_Y .

The power supply is provided via VSYS, which means you can also use the Pico Scroll Pack with USB power and from external sources (provided they can supply 3V +), making it ideal for battery-powered projects.

Using the RP2040's Programmable I/O (PIO)

The LEDs are controlled by the programmable I/O on the RP2040, which means they update in the background with very little CPU usage. The programmable I/O is so fast that we can achieve 14-bit resolution instead of the 8-bit resolution usually achieved with LED drivers.

These extra bits of resolution allow us to apply gamma correction to the displayed colors, which means that gradients are smooth and linear.

LEDs work wonderfully over their entire brightness range rather than being poor at handling lower light levels.