Daisy chaining 74HC595 to control LEDs aka Logic Outputs

This is one of my first posts and I wanted to contribute something for other beginners.

My aim is to eventually build and program an 8 by 24 LED matrix, not relying on pre-written code, as it's supposed to be a learning process. So my first steps are to deal with daisy chaining some 74HC595s. Well, I have been playing about with two chips and a row of 16 LEDs, and I wanted to share what I've learned so far.

I have uploaded six super-simple, almost self-explanatory sketches to my Github site and a simple explanation of connecting the 75HC595. And few warnings!

You can download the sketches at

I will be adding more sketches in the future and any constructive criticism will also be most welcome.