3 light chaser of 6 led each with the arduino uno?

Ok so i've never programmed and never used an arduino. I've order an arduino uno kit and i would like to make 3 light chaser of 6 led each. do I need 18 pin on the arduino (for each led) if i want the those 3 chaser to have different sequence ?

Again, sorry if that as been posted before but i couldn't find any answer on that

Thanks!

3 light chaser of 6 led each. do I need 18 pin on the arduino (for each led)

Sorry, I don't understand that.... Are all of the LEDs supposed to be individually-addressable? i.e. Do you have to turn one LED on or off without affecting the others? It sounds like maybe you just need 6-channels with each set of 6 operating identically...?

For example, I have a "4-channel" chase effect and I can connect 4, 8, 12, or 16-lamps, etc. It's always a pattern of 4, but I can have a "string" of unlimited length. (It used AC powered lamps and solid-state relays, so I can handle lots of electrical power.)

I've got another 7-channel effect with 8 groups of 7 lamps (56 total).

With some external hardware, there are ways to serially-address and individually-control an almost-unlimited number of LEDs/lamps.

If you can understand how the [u]Blink Example[/u] (or the blink without delay example) works, you should be able to "blink" more than one LED in a sequence.

There are ways of using arrays or binary variables to "shift & loop" a pattern, and that will make a "simpler" program. But, you should be able to get started making some chase effects/patterns without anything like that .

You have never programmed….. Then the number one task is to take on a cource in programming. Getting a functioning program is not like buying this or that kind of milk in the shop.

IMHO...

"different sequence" means NOT identical.

Also (IMHO).. yes.. without anything extra to help with the load/communication.. you will need 18 pins.

pins 1-6 for leds 1-6 (sequence 1)
pins 7-12 for leds 7-12 (sequence 2)
pins 13-18 for leds 13-18 (sequence 3)

Are you looking to do a 'chaser' with only 1 led on at a time? Or more like the KITT chasing effect? where 1 led is on full brightness.. and the surrounding/trailing leds are lit, but somewhat dimmer...etc..

You have never programmed….. Then the number one task is to take on a cource in programming.

While I agree that taking a class is the BEST WAY way to learn anything, and ESPECIALLY the best way to learn programming, I'd guess that most Arduino users have never taken a programming or electronics class...

And, the Arduino is an easy way to get started with programming. The downside is that you may need to learn some electronics at the same time.

The basic [u]Arduino C++ Language[/u] is fairly simple and it doesn't take too long to read through the whole language reference (although you won't understand the whole thing if you've never programmed before, and probably nobody remembers the whole thing!). (There are additional\optional libraries to "extend" the language beyond what's in the language reference.)

Most of the Arduino language is NOT standard C/C++. Standard C/C++ expects you to have a (standard) keyboard, display, and disk/file storage. And there's no way in standard C++ to do low-level things like turn-on an LED...

It still wouldn't hurt to take a class in C or C++ to learn the concepts (and to learn more about the language).

That said, in general programming is HARD and it's "different" from almost anything else you'll learn, and not everybody is good at it. (Electronics is a little "hard" too because you can't "see" what's going on.)

Most programing books (and online tutorials) teach the language without teaching programming concepts. That's where a class could really help, although my 1st programming class didn't really teach concepts (at least not clearly) and although I did OK (and I got the misimpression that programming was easy) I kind-of felt lost the whole time.

While we are on the subject - The two most important concepts in programming are conditional execution (if statements, etc.) and loops (doing something over-and-over, usually until some condition is reached).

The other thing I never learned from a class or a book is how to "develop", test, and debug, my own code. The trick is to write, test, and debug, small bits of code at a time. As a beginner, that means writing one or two lines of code at a time. But, that takes some skill and experience because the compiler needs to see a "complete program" so you can't just start at the top and work down. The program also has to "make sense" to the compiler and it has to do enough that it can be verified & tested.

So my advice to beginners is: Add to your program little-by-little, test-compiling and test-running as you go-along, and Don't try to write the whole program at once! Of course, professional programmers can write more than a couple of lines at a time but NOBODY writes the whole program at once. (Of course, pros are usually working on bigger programs.)

@DVDdoug
I bow. Your post is perfectly describing the world of programming. I joined my first class 1974, had some more classes the following years and finally a class in "C" 1994. Working, learning and practizing a number of languages before that, and afterwards, I learned the importance of debugging, sending test messages etc. That helped me in successfully correcting really large programs written by other people.

I feel sad when people ask questions "how to do this and that" having no programming experience at all as well as not even know how to combine a battory, a bulb and two cables. I feel like answering "go for taking down the moon" instead.

You can use a serial latch IC , you use one pin for the data one for the clock and one data line for each chip select

Each chip will have eight outputs , just use the first 6 ,, you click in the binary pattern you want on the output, they all share the clock and data lines and a sperate cs goes to each ship

It will depend on which chip you use the the basics of getting the data are, pull the chip select line high, then pulse the clock line, simultaneously, present your data on the data line

If you use individually addressable LEDs you can do this from a single pin. You can actually control hundreds of WS1812B LEDs from a single pin. Maybe a bit overkill if all you need is just red but it does make life easy.