MAX7219 dot matrix with big text broken?

[Sminter4]

Hi guys, I would like to build a simple digital clock with twice the font size.

Unfortunately, the lower and upper fonts do not have the same character spacing.

Does anyone have any experience? Am I doing something wrong?

[Ath]

You have one Layout set to 'Standard', shouldn't that be the other half of "Double, upper": "Double, lower" ?

[Sminter4]

I had already tried that. Unfortunately, with the same result.

[Ath]

Do both displays work as expected when using the default font, with the standard layout?

Edit:
Does it work as intended when using the "Numeric, double height (1)" font?
NB: For Double height fonts, the Layout should really be set correctly per zone.

[Sminter4]

I tried both.

1) Standard font on both zones: It looks good. The character spacing is the same.

2) Double font height with zone 1 as lower and zone 2 as upper layout. The character spacing is still not the same.

Could the error be in plugin 104?

[Ath]

Have you also tested with the "Numeric, double height" font?

[Sminter4]

I have the latest build:

ESP_Easy_mega_20241222_display_ESP32_4M316k Dec 22 2024

In this one I only find one double font: "Full, double height". In which build can I find the font "Numeric, double height"?

[Ath]

Ah, I'm looking at a MAX build, that has all fonts included

Here's an ESP32 DISPLAY build with that font enabled (it's the ETH build, but that will be the standard, soon):

ESP_Easy_mega_20250308_display_ESP32_4M316k_ETH.zip

(2.36 MiB) Downloaded 153 times

[Sminter4]

Thanks for the build. I was able to find your font here and test it several times.

Here too, the character spacing is not correct. It doesn't matter whether I display 123 or the time. In addition, the first number now also starts on the 2nd LED unit.
Of course, the display is too short. But even so, the "19:" should still be visible correctly in the photo of "19:33".

[Ath]

Hm, that's not how I used and tested it before. I'd have to dig up a couple of MAX7219 modules to test, but because of limited available time, that will take a few days.

[Sminter4]

I have exhausted my options for narrowing down the error further. Great if you can test that!
If I can help you in any way, let me know.

[Sminter4]

Hm, that's not how I used and tested it before. I'd have to dig up a couple of MAX7219 modules to test, but because of limited available time, that will take a few days.

What's the status? Have you been able to find a few days yet?

[Ath]

I've been quite busy, and didn't get to dig up the hardware yet. It will take a few more days, I guess.

[Ath]

I've hooked up a double-height display to an ESP32, and can confirm that you found a genuine bug
And according to the GH commit log this must have been present for at least 4 years, so maybe after the last changes it wasn't tested (or used...) very extensively

Have created a PR #5286 to fix that.

Also found it a bit weird that when using the Clock Content settings, the colon was alternating between the upper and lower zones of the clock display, when 'Clock with flashing colon' option was checked, so fixed that as well.

Here's a build with also the Double height numeric font enabled:

ESP_Easy_mega_20250323_display_ESP32_4M316k_ETH.zip

(2.36 MiB) Downloaded 48 times

Can you please report your findings here (or in the GH pull request comments)?
TIA

[Sminter4]

So, I was able to test the display with double font height using the new build and can no longer reproduce the error. I didn't notice the jumping colon at first because I didn't have it blinking.

Great that both issues are fixed now! Thank you!

[Sminter4]

...Can you please report your findings here (or in the GH pull request comments)?
TIA

Unfortunately, the extended tests still revealed an error.
I now have a matrix with 2 x 8 modules. By default, I use the centered time at double height. For alarms and the longer text associated with them, I want to use the "rules" to switch to a standard font with, for example, "Attention - front door open."

When switching back to the double-height time, the space between the characters becomes twice as large each time. At some point, I can only read the "1" in 10:30 a.m.
Can this error be fixed?

Code: Select all

On flur Do
 if %eventvalue1%=1
   DotMatrix,font,2,4
   DotMatrix,font,4,4
   DotMatrix,layout,2,0
   DotMatrix,layout,4,0
   DotMatrix,txt,4,"Achtung"
   DotMatrix,txt,2,"Fluralarm"
  endif
   if %eventvalue1%=0
  DotMatrix,font,2,1
  DotMatrix,font,4,1
  DotMatrix,layout,2,2
  DotMatrix,layout,4,1
  DotMatrix,txt,2,"%syshour%:%sysmin_0%"
  DotMatrix,txt,4,"%syshour%:%sysmin_0%"
  endif
Endon

[Ath]

Ah, the explanation is clear. I'll see if I can fix that later today (in the evening )

[Ath]

I've fixed the issue in PR #5293, and made an ESP32 Display build for testing:

ESP_Easy_mega_20250403_display_ESP32_4M316k_ETH.zip

(2.37 MiB) Downloaded 61 times

Please report your findings here

[Sminter4]

Now I've been able to thoroughly test the display for font switching and can no longer reproduce the double-space error. Great! Thanks for your help!

[Ath]

Thanks for the feedback