6x TLC5940 32 rgb leds

I guess that was a general question about buffer chips as i'm not sure what to order.

You need a high side switch or current source buffer like the BTS6143 or the 2981.
You should have a pull up resistor from the TLC output to the +ve. Then connect your buffer input to the TLC output.
However then you no longer have a constant current output and need to do something else to limit the current.

I was referring to buffer the signal lines since they are getting split to 6 tlc's, not the outputs.

In that case a 74HC04 will act as an inverting buffer, two in series will give you a non inverting buffer. As you get 6 in a chip this will buffer 3 signals.
Alternatively a 74LS07 is 6 non inverting buffers with an open collector output, that means a pull up resistor is needed.

Sweet, I've ordered a bunch of those. The regular knight rider code works ok but it still has a shifting problem if I try to power on 32 leds or more. I'm hoping that the buffer chips on the signal lines will help but also wanted to add bigger decoupling capacitors to filter out the lower frequencies that the .1uf caps can't filter out. I've got 10uf, 47uf, and 100uf caps, besides putting them on the power line of the tlc chip is there any other place I want to put them?

Keep the 0.1uFs in as well to handle the high frequency stuff. I would put the extra ones at the power at the end of the line, and maybe another in the middle.

Mike... I think that you have it... poor power wiring and lack of proper bypassing would well explain his issues. Sometimes the order in which things are powered up has a GREAT deal to do here...
Particularly if the chips are manufactured by different outfits. Back in the day there were always issues, about power supply sequencing. Some Chips will latch up IF they have 'hard' control inputs that are biased on before the Vcc connections for the chip come active. The issue seems to come from 'input protection diodes' biasing the IC substrate before the Vcc is valid. I do remember 'hacking' a display/memory board (Surplus) and it wouldn't work unless the inputs were connected... The Engineer? that did that design {Not ME}, forgot to connect the Board Vcc, (actually a missing trace on the pc board) the board was powered by it's I/O and one of the reasons that 24 megs of Static Ram sold on a big pc-board... for $20.00 in the late 80's was that it was 'unreliable'.

Doc

I put caps on all the boards and stress tested the system by eventually turning all the outputs on and it does not glitch (extremely bright though). It sure does get toasty hot on my heatsinks but normal operation should be fine.

It does still glitch when I run a code to increase the power on each delay, hold at peak, then decrease and choose a different color so that gives it a pulsing effect, but instead half the leds turn on, the others glitch so I'm thinking there is still noise on a signal line somewhere.

I just had a quick question about the buffer chips that i'm about to put in. See my wonderful paint skills in the attached pic.

Go with number 2.
Note that the 74LS04 inverts the signal, so use another 74LS04 before the first one so that the signal is the right way round when it finally gets applied to the TLC chip.

Yup, I also plan on buffering the first Sin so it is not out of phase by a clock pulse, but the other Sin's should be fine tied to the Sout's of the other boards.

Buffer chips all hooked up and working.

I have written code to increment the power by 10, hold when it maxes out, then decrement by 10, choose a different color and repeat for 0-15 and 16-32.

Here is the video of it VID_20120513_132835.mp4 - YouTube I noticed that it is tripping the power supply but only on this particular program. I can turn on all the outputs and get white light out of it without any problems but it seems that when I have it fluctuating a lot it trips the circuit protection.

The power supply is out of my gaming computer, currently I have the anodes (v2) hooked up to a 12v 20amp rail. I'm thinking a very large capacitor will fix this issue, my other thought would be to move it to the dual 12v line meant for the processor, maybe both.

After putting a bunch of different caps on the 12v rail the system runs fine now.

Alrighty, I wanted to add a color organ to this beast. I was thinking on using this circuit and instead of the 3904's just connect to the input of the analog inputs.

I figured the code would go something like:

value1 = analogRead(pin);

if (value1 > somearbitrarynumber){
Tlc.set(0, 4095);
}
if (value1 > someothernumber){
Tlc.set(1, 4095);
}
...etc

Or maybe something like this:

value1 = analogRead(pin);
value2 = analogRead(anotherpin);
power = value1 * multiplier; //(multiplier most likely will be 4)
power2 = value2 * multiplier;
for (int channel = 0; channel < 16; channel += 1) {

Tlc.set(channel, power);
}
for (int channel = 16; channel < 32; channel += 1) {

Tlc.set(channel, power2);
}

In that schematic I found i'm not sure what the pin 11 and pin 4 connected to vcc and gnd are going to. I'm assuming I can ignore it. I'm also assuming 12v is VCC.

I'll have videos of the fully strung fiber optic this weekend, I"m so excited to see how this turns out.

the 11 and 4 pin are for IC1

The only thing i'm not too sure on is how to calibrate for the input analog range of 0-5v for the arduino without an oscilloscope. Will the 20k pots be enough? Will this circuit produce wave forms 0-12v?or ??

As that circuit can output up to 12V you better include some diode protection on the inputs to the arduino to prevent damage.

Isn't that what the 1N4002's would be connected to?

No, those are the envelop follower diodes.
You need a seriese resistor and catcher diodes to each rail.

Here it is wired up with the fiber optic. I can't wait to program morepatterns

Well done looks cool.

As far as calibration without an oscilloscope goes I should be able to play a sine wave respective to the frequency being passed, then slowly turn up the pot and print the analog read out to the serial line. Or could I use a volt meter with respect to ground (or vground?) and read it as the RMS value and adjust it for P-P value?