10x32 LED Dot matrix

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Okay so for a project at school i decided to build a 10x32 led dot matrix display. i designed the schematic, designed the pcb and bought myself a arduino MEGA to program it. i want to be able to display messages and animations. The construction part was easy, its a grid of 320 leds, anodes connected as rows and cathodes together as columns. now concerning the programming part; all i have is little knowledge in C so i need some help on this. which way will be the best to program this? right now im thinking all the columns and rows are outputs that will go in the arduino, then from there control each LED individually by having its row LOW and its column HIGH. this seems like a pretty long way when you want to scroll a message.. anyone can give me any advice on a more efficient way of doing this??

really appreciate the help

Drulex

2

you cant get around that, but with some loops and creative thinking you can make it much easier on yourself

please show us what you have at the moment, homebrew matrices can differ in a limited number of ways (and I dont feel like guessing)

3

This is the schematic i have right now

so each end of a row and a column is an output that will go to the arduino.

4

so each end of a row and a column is an output that will go to the arduino.

You are going to need hardware in-between. Arduino I/O pins can only safely handle 20-30mA of current with the entire chip handling a max of 200mA. (Max in this case is the absolute max, which should be avoided long-term.)

You'll need some kind of drivers for the LEDs.

5

yes you stand no chance of getting that to work. See how I drove an 8 by 8 matrix in this project:-
http://www.thebox.myzen.co.uk/Hardware/Econo_Monome.html

You need both current sources and current sinks to make it work.

6

awesome thanks for the help