8x8 RGB Dot Matrix Display as Multi-Function Display (NEWS, Emoticons, Time, etc)

 8x8 RGB DOT MATRIX DISPLAY as
CLOCK, EMOTICON DISPLAY, NEWS FEED DEVICE

• Would be interesting to build a multi-function RGB color display device. 
• Good to have  display of time, images and any other chamak (custom messages, RSS Feeds,etc)
• ESP has good support for RGB Led via the Fastled library. 
• Bought and interfaced an 8x8 RGB from an online store with an esp8266
• Fabricated a casing with the face and the box from a local vendor
• The FASTLED capabilites/effects are as below. FASTLED is available here 
• Raw images generated by gimp were used to show images as below. 
• Random images could be generated as an 8x8 bit field.
• Could support emoticons.
  

  

  
  
• An RTC DS3231 was added and a smaller 4x4 dot font was added. 
• This was too small to be intelligible and needed familiarity with the font.

  
  
• An AWS instance was used to serve out raw images and also to cache a few RSS feeds.
• This device would just access the service to either sync time/images or use a random headline from an news site like Times of India, NYT, WSJ, etc.
• It could be extended to add other social media support as well.
• The video below shows the usual effects with time, images and RSS. Sadly this was during the COVID-19 times and all the headlines were virus related.