Make:

I love shift registers, especially using them with 6 or 8 pin micro-controllers to drive lots and lots of leds.

The video was very hard to follow, I know a lot about electronics, and half the time I was lost. Anyone know what the 'special' led driver chip was? Was it simply a high power relay driver shift register combo like those from Allegro, or something more exotic?

I'd like to buy a kit for this.

Ditto, I'd buy a kit in a heartbeat. I've seen a couple of kits like this in the past but not with so many LEDs.

To justDIY: I had to watch it twice to figure it out myself. I think it might be something like a MAX6969 on the 16 cathodes (sink), and then he uses the separate 8 bit register/driver combo on the anode side (source) to power the appropriate row.

That's beautiful!!

justDIY: it looks like the chip is a ST Microelectronics STP16DP05B1R. Here's the datasheet. It looks like the hobbyist-friendly DIP package may be obsoleted, but I found stock at Mouser Electronics).

The chip does something else important: It regulates the current to the LEDs. The resistor at the bottom right corner of the chip regulates the current for *all* of the LEDs at once. Without this special feature, you would need to include resistors on each LED line -- 16 in total.

here's a big picture of the circuit

To fstedie: It looks to me like he just soldered all 128 LEDs directly together. You could also get a couple of 8x8 led matrix assemblies from places like Futurlec or Sure-Electronics.

Heya, this is Eric Skiff of NYC Resistor, and the interviewer in this video.

Sorry we glossed over a bit of info here here- it was really meant to be an overview of shift registers, not a full implementation guide.

We've all gotten excited about this project, and Dave has agreed to open up his code and document everything, but needs a little help creating the schematics, etc. Zack 'Hoeken' Smith of RepRap will be giving a demo on Eagle at the next NYCResistor meeting so we can create the schematic, and we'll be documenting this whole project from start to finish then.

Soon after that, we're looking to create a kit for this project to make it easy for people to duplicate it at home. It's a great project for learning audio processing, breadboarding using arduino, shift registers, and how to make and use an LED matrix. That, and it's just cool. I want one of these for my desk.

Thanks for all the great feedback :)

That is super fun! I need a LED circuit designer!

JennaSys: Thanks for the info on the LED suppliers. However, that is not the hard part, it is a kit for the electronics for driving the LEDs that I'm really interested in ;)

Thanks for the great project! I just got an Arduino and am wanting to make an LED sign for my kitchen. I want to make a sign with a button that switches between different sayings and this looks like a way to do it. Please make a kit!

Subscribe today, save 42% and get web access to MAKE free. MAKE Digital Edition is available only to subscribers.

$34.95 / 1 year
(4 Quarterly Issues)

Subscribe now