I wanted to create a simple to program LED matrix that runs off of the ESP32 so that it would have Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity. I didn't want it to be overly large like some of the displays already available, and I wanted to have a 16 x 16 grid pattern so that basic "8-bit" style images could be recreated. I decided to go with the incredibly small, fast, and awesome, APA102-2020. They are a 2mm x 2mm addressable LEDs. This will be a part of the Kickstarter Make/100 project which will be launching January 31st.
Here is a run down on how to display a few things on the PIXO Pixel. I have made a python script to convert images into a C++ 8-bit array to put them in your code, show you how to make a quick game of pong, and finally, experiment with some particle physics!