MAX7219 LED Driver

Operating Voltage

4.0 V

Operating Voltage

5.5 V

Interface

SPI

Interface

QSPI

Interface

MICROWIRE

Clock Speed

10 MHz

Operating Supply Current

150 µA

Shutdown Supply Current

150 µA

Operating Temperature Range

0 °C

Operating Temperature Range

70 °C

Operating Temperature Range

-40 °C

Operating Temperature Range

85 °C

Package

24-Pin DIP

Package

24-Pin SO

Operates from 4.0-5.5 V (per the datasheet specs) over an SPI-like interface; it's a 5 V LED driver, so level-shift data from a 3.3 V MCU.

• Driving 8x8 LED matrices and 7-segment displays
• Daisy-chained scrolling-text panels
• Bar-graph and indicator banks

• Set segment current with the ISET resistor — don't omit it.
• Decouple VCC heavily (the LED switching is bursty).
• From a 3.3 V host, level-shift DIN/CLK/LOAD up to 5 V.

• ATmega328P MCUATmega328P · Microchip
• ESP32 DevKitC (WROOM-32)Espressif · ESP32-WROOM-32
• ATmega2560 MCUATmega2560 · Microchip

Community starter examples — minimal, unofficial, and provided to get you wiring fast. Verify against the manufacturer datasheet before relying on them.

// MAX7219 8x8 LED matrix driver (hardware SPI) — community starter example
#include <MD_MAX72xx.h>
#include <SPI.h>

#define HARDWARE_TYPE MD_MAX72XX::FC16_HW   // try GENERIC_HW if rows/cols look wrong
#define MAX_DEVICES   1
#if defined(ESP32)
  #define CS_PIN 5
#else
  #define CS_PIN 8
#endif

// Uses hardware SPI: DIN->MOSI, CLK->SCK, plus this CS pin.
MD_MAX72XX mx = MD_MAX72XX(HARDWARE_TYPE, CS_PIN, MAX_DEVICES);

void setup() {
  mx.begin();
  mx.control(MD_MAX72XX::INTENSITY, 5);
  mx.clear();
}

void loop() {
  for (uint8_t r = 0; r < 8; r++) { mx.setRow(r, 0xFF); delay(80); }
  mx.clear();
  delay(400);
}

# MAX7219 8x8 matrix (ESP32) — community starter example
# lib: mcauser/micropython-max7219 (max7219.py on the board)
from machine import Pin, SPI
import max7219, time

spi = SPI(2, baudrate=1000000, sck=Pin(18), mosi=Pin(23))
disp = max7219.Matrix8x8(spi, Pin(5), 1)   # CS/LOAD on GPIO5
disp.brightness(5)

while True:
    disp.fill(1); disp.show(); time.sleep(0.5)
    disp.fill(0); disp.show(); time.sleep(0.5)