Im new to Arduino and was wondering if it could control 100 - 200 different LEDs individually . Ive seen arduinos that can control 8 leds but nothing as big as i was thinking.
Also are there any programs that will simulate the arduino software and/or hardware, where i can maybe draw out plans and programming to test without having the physical parts.
Welcome
Yes you can control almost as many LEDs as you wish, you can use shift registers ( 595s ), run through the examples, and look at sites such as tronixstuff to learn the basics.
Could this be done with another shift register with more outputs while using the same amount of power?
also i saw that you have done this with your bare bones board with 3 AA batteries, and was wondering how long the battery life was with it flashing and constantly on.
The power you have to worry about is the LEDs, not the shift register. You can probably get ones with more outputs, but bear in mind that 40 pins is generally the max for non SMD devices.
also i saw that you have done this with your bare bones board with 3 AA batteries, and was wondering how long the battery life was with it flashing and constantly on.
Not long, I imagine. That was a demo. If I wanted to flash dozens of LEDs I would be running off mains power.