Introduction

When a company launches a product which offers more functionality and better features then previous versions you’d expect a higher price ticket. Well guess again, Matrix Orbital pulls a bright rabbit out their hat with their latest LED display in their MX series.

The MX6 is brighter, cooler, boast better specifications and comes at a lower price. How is this possible, and is the MX6 any good? Read on to find out.

Specifications



MX6 Dimensions

Module size: L116xW37xH27.5mm

Display size: L18.2xW82.2mm

Display & Module Details

Character lines: 2x20

Character Size: 5.5x3.2mm

Background color: Black

Text color: Yellow/Green

7 function buttons

Back Connections

three 3-pin fan connectors

small 4-pin power connector

1 internal & 1 external USB connector

4 temperature sensor connectors

LED indicator connector

“in the box”

When you purchase the standard MX6 unit you’ll receive the following items:

the MX6 unit

external USB cable

CD with LCDC software and installation manual

mounting material

The external USB cable is long enough to pass through an empty PCI slot and loop back so you can plug it in an empty USB port. The unit is mounted with 2 screws on each side in the case. Cases which use rail systems for installation of 5”25 drivers might have problems properly seating the MX6.

There is a quick install manual included, but the real descriptive one is to be found on the mini CD which also holds the latest version of the LCDC software (LCD Control Software), updates and newer version can be downloaded at the LCDC website. A sticker on the CD has a number which allows you to fetch a serial at the LCDC website so you can register the application and have full functionality.

The forums at Matrix Orbital and LCDC provide a rich resource for tips and tricks, problem solving and news updates.

Optionally you can also buy these upgrades and expansions:

internal USB cable

LED indicators expansion

temperature sensors

The internal USB cable is nicely finished but a tad too short, even in a midi-tower case you’ll run into problems attaching the cable. The extra LED indicator panel may seem redundant as you have 2x20 characters on the LCD to play with, but for warning report and events the LEDs can come in handy. New email, or CPU becoming too hot can be easily set to report by lighting up one on the LEDs. Making a nice front for the 3 LEDs is left up to the user and gives you freedom to place them where you need them, but it requires a bit more work to get everything installed.

A total of four temperature sensors can be attached to the unit, the two we received were quite accurate and displayed changes in temperature almost immediately. The heads of the sensors are too big to slide between CPU and heatsink, but they are small enough to fit between the heatsink’s fins.

These extras make the MX6 a truly multifunctional panel and you’d have a hard time finding a similar product out there.


Installation and provided software

After you plugged in the USB cable and started your computer you’re halfway through the installation already, make sure that your USB port delivers at least 500mA, some un-powered USB hubs will only provide ~150mA which is not enough to power the unit.

If you want to use the 3-pin fan connectors you also better hook up the “floppy” power connector, otherwise you’re stuck with a maximum fan voltage of 5v. By swapping the location of a small jumper you can chose between 5v and 12v, per connector you can hook up fans with a maximum amperage of 1000mA, exactly the amount the Vantec Tornado 92mm draws, so you definitely have enough power. PWM (pulse width modulation) is used to control the speed of the fans, this method allows you to run the fans at very low speeds. The PWM frequency can be changed through software in Windows and gives you further fine tuning possibilities to silence the fans connected to the unit.

Once in Windows there will be an unknown device detected, the drivers on the mini CD help you out here. The manual describes the software side of the installation clearly and everything was up on running and the LCD display came to life. If you’re feeling adventurous you can get the display to work under Linux, but nothing is said about this in the manual, better to visit their support forums for this if you are not sure about your tweaking and fiddling skills.



We did run into a small problem, a software conflict between the virtual com-port of the MX6 and the virtual com-port of a Sony-Ericsson docking station. De-installing the docking station software resolved the issue, and afterwards that software was reinstalled and configured to create another “free” virtual com-port.

The LCDC software is especially geared towards Matrix Orbital displays, at start-up you are greeted by a wizard which helps you configure the Control panel so it can communicate with the MX6 unit.

Going into the configuration mode of the software you can add a proxy server, configure the temp probes, set the LCD brightness, add/remove plug-ins, and calibrate the function buttons and much more. When we first hooked up the MX6 one of the buttons refused to work, a quick email to their support and in less then 24 hours they sent a solution; simply move the keypad connector at the back of unit one pin the left or right. After having done this, all the keys worked flawlessly!

Once you are happy with your settings you should head towards the “screen builder” section of LCDC. With the screen builder you control what should appear on the LCD, there are some demo sets included and by seeing how things are done, you soon learn how to customize everything, making animated icons and flashy Winamp steered visualizers.

On the mini CD you find tutorial for getting started with the LCDC software and at their support forums there are tons more of those. Although the multitude of options may seem daunting at first, figuring out what options control what actions on the display is not too difficult.

What does the display of the MX6 look like and what is a PLED, all is revealed on the next page ->

What is PLED?

PLED is a technique for creating illuminated displays, the result is a cool LED display with high brightness and large viewing angle. To learn how PLED’s are created you can find a detailed explanation and photo’s here and here

The most important aspects I’ve summed up here






The MX6 and PLED


The Matrix Orbital MX6 uses the PLED technology to deliver very clear and crisp images, the viewing angle is extremely large, and the LEDs are very bright, even with sunlight shining onto the MX6 unit the display was still readable!




Through the LCDC software you can control the brightness of the PLED’s, from left to right we have 40 to 100% brightness setting:

MX6 in action

The MX6 can be used for a wide range of applications, ideal would be a home-cinema PC or even a CarPC, the buttons on the display are quite convenient, and you can program “events” into the LCDC which shows up information when certain things happen, changing a track in Winamp for example can trigger a separate layout which shows you the action taken and the title of the next song.

The brightness of the unit and the crystal clear characters can be read from quite a distance and the refresh rate is amazing.

I’ve made a movie which demo’s a variety of the plugins and displays you can have pop up with the MX6 and LCDC software:


Download/Full Screen - click here

Some info on the screens in the movie:

you can define the transition effect between each screen, in the movie it’s set to random.

The “Winamp is now:” shows up when you pause/stop/start Winamp

The “MAD” text which is spread over the 2 lines is actually custom build with separate blocks, the animation is also done per line and you can have the characters bounce around or zip past among other things.

The Corsair and ATI logos are custom icon sets downloaded from the LCDC forums

The traffic counter displays total since your last reboot

In order for Winamp to interact with the MX6 you need to install a plug-in for Winamp, a complete tutorial is available at their site.

The CPU temp is read from Motherboard Monitor 5, the “Low” temperature is a bit off, as you might have guessed. It would be cool to see a Speedfan plug-in in the future.

The values for Air In/Out come from the 2 temperature sensors, one placed at the front of the case, the other at the back.

The chicken like sound you hear in the background comes from quail-pet

Conclusion

The MX6 from Matrix Orbital is light years ahead of any display which still uses LCD technology, the VFD displays come closer, but have the tendency to become quite hot after long periods of use. The PLED technology used in the MX6 keeps it running cool and the characters are very bright and readable in different lighting conditions.

At a price of ~$110 they don’t come cheap, but are less expensive then similar displays based on VFD technology.

If you plan on building a home theater PC or CarPC the MX6 would be a near perfect fit, the quality workmanship, fast user support and large user community only increase the value of this unit. If you are happy with 2x20 display size and want one of the best out there, don’t look any further.

A longer internal USB cable, full size 5”25 mounting bracket and the possibility to switch between 5v/12v at the front of the unit (instead of a jumper in the back) are the only small negatives encountered.

Overall we were thoroughly impressed by the MX6, we would like to thank Suzanne from Matrix Orbital for letting us test-drive their latest creation.



Questions/Comments: forum thread