Controlling 200 LED Chain

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

Hello everyone! Long time reader, first time poster. How's it going?

I developed a little / not so little project to teach myself Processing and Arduino, which has so far been going really well. I am interested in driving a string of about 200 or so LEDs from a single Arduino Diecimila, reacting live to variables sent from Processing over serial.

I wonder if someone out there has some advice for my next step.

I have done a ton of research, and it looks like I need to go with shift registers. I sourced the STP16DP05B1R from Digikey, which is a 16 bit DIP that looks like it would suit my needs nicely, if my wallet is up to it. I plan on following the ShiftOut tutorial pretty closely and adapting it for 16 bits rather than 8 bits, although I'm not completely sure how to do that.

So I guess the question becomes: does my setup sound possible? I know that shift registers can be chained together, but do I run any risks by running so many together? Basically, I just wanted to make sure before making a purchase.

It looks like the STP16DP05B1R is missing the Master Reclear pin that is described in the ShiftOut tutorial, but then the tutorial just tells me to attach it to ground. Do y'all think that will be a problem?

Thanks so much everyone.

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Here's a link to the datasheet: http://www.st.com/stonline/books/pdf/docs/13093.pdf

3

You should be fine, as long as you're planning to keep everything on the same board. The clock and latch signals are the most susceptible to noise, but that's the only real concern. Fanout is not a problem for only 13 chips.

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Thanks, man.

5

Don't forget with that many chips you will need a decoupling capacitor of 0.1uF across the supply of every other chip.

See:-