am i even close?

Using Arduino LEDs and Multiplexing
21

Ruffsta:
i agree, but honestly - my son and i are getting tired of blinking lights on a breadboard... when we want to do so much more with them..

I completely understand your frustration. There is great help available here from most of the people. Some have shorter attention spans than others, some have totally forgotten what it's like to be new to Arduino. Most are very patient and helpful.

As for your LED matrix board, find any project that has code for the max7219 chip, ignore all the wiring related to connecting the individual pins to the LED's as that is what the LED driver board has done for you, and just connect the VCC (power), GND (ground), DIN (data in), CS (load), and CLK (clock) pins to the appropriate pins on your Arduino. In the Arduino sketch, you will see something like:

int dataIn = 2;
int load = 3;
int clock = 4;

That means in that particular code, you would connect the DIN pin on the LED driver board, to pin 2 on your Arduino, the CS pin on the LED driver board to pin 3 on your Arduino, and the CLK pin on the LED driver board to pin 4 on your Arduino. You would connect 5 volt power from your Arduino to the VCC pin on the LED driver board, and ground from your Arduino to the GND pin on your LED driver board.

After you upload the code to the Arduino, you should now see your LED matrix come to life.

22

yeah, i have a topic on this, i was just stating an example..

and i sort of gave up on it because of the bit coding - i don't know how to do it and have the matrix display what i want it to - and then later add more matrix's to it and do more..

ex:

unsigned char disp1[38][8]={
{0x3C,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x3C},//0
{0x10,0x18,0x14,0x10,0x10,0x10,0x10,0x10},//1
{0x7E,0x2,0x2,0x7E,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x7E},//2
{0x3E,0x2,0x2,0x3E,0x2,0x2,0x3E,0x0},//3
{0x8,0x18,0x28,0x48,0xFE,0x8,0x8,0x8},//4
{0x3C,0x20,0x20,0x3C,0x4,0x4,0x3C,0x0},//5
{0x3C,0x20,0x20,0x3C,0x24,0x24,0x3C,0x0},//6
{0x3E,0x22,0x4,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8},//7
{0x0,0x3E,0x22,0x22,0x3E,0x22,0x22,0x3E},//8
{0x3E,0x22,0x22,0x3E,0x2,0x2,0x2,0x3E},//9
{0x8,0x14,0x22,0x3E,0x22,0x22,0x22,0x22},//A
{0x3C,0x22,0x22,0x3E,0x22,0x22,0x3C,0x0},//B
{0x3C,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x3C,0x0},//C
{0x7C,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x7C,0x0},//D
{0x7C,0x40,0x40,0x7C,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x7C},//E
{0x7C,0x40,0x40,0x7C,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x40},//F
{0x3C,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x44,0x44,0x3C},//G
{0x44,0x44,0x44,0x7C,0x44,0x44,0x44,0x44},//H
{0x7C,0x10,0x10,0x10,0x10,0x10,0x10,0x7C},//I
{0x3C,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x48,0x30},//J
{0x0,0x24,0x28,0x30,0x20,0x30,0x28,0x24},//K
{0x40,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x40,0x7C},//L
{0x81,0xC3,0xA5,0x99,0x81,0x81,0x81,0x81},//M
{0x0,0x42,0x62,0x52,0x4A,0x46,0x42,0x0},//N
{0x3C,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x3C},//O
{0x3C,0x22,0x22,0x22,0x3C,0x20,0x20,0x20},//P
{0x1C,0x22,0x22,0x22,0x22,0x26,0x22,0x1D},//Q
{0x3C,0x22,0x22,0x22,0x3C,0x24,0x22,0x21},//R
{0x0,0x1E,0x20,0x20,0x3E,0x2,0x2,0x3C},//S
{0x0,0x3E,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8},//T
{0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x22,0x1C},//U
{0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x42,0x24,0x18},//V
{0x0,0x49,0x49,0x49,0x49,0x2A,0x1C,0x0},//W
{0x0,0x41,0x22,0x14,0x8,0x14,0x22,0x41},//X
{0x41,0x22,0x14,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8,0x8},//Y
{0x0,0x7F,0x2,0x4,0x8,0x10,0x20,0x7F},//Z
{0x8,0x7F,0x49,0x49,0x7F,0x8,0x8,0x8},//Chinese character
{0xFE,0xBA,0x92,0xBA,0x92,0x9A,0xBA,0xFE},//Chinese character

that's all gibberish to me and not to mention the display of that coding on the matrix is NOT unified - the letters and numbers jump all over the place and the number "1" is backwards even.. the code i have is: http://www.linksprite.com/upload/file/1347631413.txt

anyways, getting back to this topic, i bought a pegboard from home depot.. it will hold 1,012 RGB leds (which is what i want to use and control each led individually - (on/of and color).. just wanted to see how the first 10 are connected - from there i could do the rest.

all the projects we have would be considered "large" for beginners i guess.. my son and i can solder and i can code (well, this is new to me - but i'll get it).. it's just hooking up all the parts.. ie: 0.1uF and the pnp and chaining the the 74HC595 - so, i don't consider the projects that big.. just confusing on method of doing it.

23

MAX7219 is nice, but not so much for RGB LEDs.
The 4 74HC595s and PNP transistors will do the job just fine once a building strategy is worked out.
Using a schematic, a piece of perfboard, and a yellow highlighter, is one of the best ways to keep track of what's been assembled.
Making the design on protoboard will be totally awkward given the small component size and the need for the current limit resistors.

I would get some big perfboards like this
http://www.dipmicro.com/store/PCB-UNI18H
Mount the LEDS one row at a time and wirewrap the anodes together, then add the next row and wirewrap the cathodes together, building up to the 10x10 martix.
Then add the PNP transistors and the resistors, and lastl add the 74HC595s and bring the control signals out to a header where the arduino could be mated to it.
Do some intermediate testing with a 5V supply and an 270 or 330 ohm resistor to make sure LEDs were lighting up properly.

My wife made up a 5x20 single color matrix to test a design, took 3 complete long prototype strips and feet of 4-conductor telephone wire with connectors crimped on to plug into two boards like this

768×843 255 KB

with everything all cable tied together in an attempt to keep it stable enough so I could write code for testing. We're both engineers, and it was not an easy task.
So 10x10, your best option is to just build it, and test as you go.
LEDs soldered down onto perfboard are very stable, and the square legs are easy to wirewrap to.

24

CrossRoads:
We're both engineers, and it was not an easy task.

look how cool that is tho.. working with someone (especially with someone you live with) that is in the same field, building something like that.. always a hand right there or someone you can refer to if needed about something you both like to do.. i don't have anyone here in person to help me with this or any of our projects.. the people i know are all into body building, security (which i used to do).. none of them are into this stuff.. i got into it because of my son.. but neither one of us are good enough to be teaching the other.. maybe it wasn't easy, but you guys got it done.. and faster than i would ever get it done that's for sure.

vs

hmmmm... 1,012 rgb leds... either way - it's not gonna pretty.. but atleast we can solder..