Raspberry Pi Pico W LED Matrix Clock with DST and NTP


Raspberry Pi Peco 2W LED Matrix Clock

An Raspberry Pi Peco powered LED matrix (max7219) which gets time from an NTP server using WiFI and factors in daylight savings time (DST) so that it displays the correct time in the summer.

This uses a basic 8x8 LED matrix to display the time. I've used one with 8 blocks (so eight 8x8 LED matrix connected together) but you could also use the one half the size (so four 8x8) matrix and change the coding so you just display the time as HHMM rather than HH:MM:SS

Why I created my own script / why I wanted an LED matrix clock

  1. I hate having to go round all the clocks in my house when the clocks go back/forward and wanted automated clocks
  2. I wanted a clock that was automatically kept up to date using an NTP server
  3. I wanted a bright / large LED clock that I could see from a distance

GitHub repo / source code

https://github.com/robdotworld/Pi-Pico-LED-Matrix-Clock-with-Daylight-Savings/

Hardware required

  • Raspberry Pi Peco W or Peco 2W
  • Max 7219 LED matrix. One with either 4 blocks (for time in HHMM format) or one with 8 blocks (for time in HH:MM:SS format

How to wire it all up

VCC on LED matrix = PIN 40 on Peco
GND on LED matrix = PIN 38 on Peco
DIN on LED matrix = PIN 5 on Peco
CS on LED matrix = PIN 7 on Peco
CLK on LED matrix = PIN 4 on Peco