So I got this large LED array (32x8) and I can't quite seem to figure it out. Has anyone had experience with one of these before, and have any tips and tricks? Obviously its pretty easy to see where the power connector is, and where (presumably) the control signals come in at on "in" and "out" headers, but I have no idea on how to actually control this thing. If anyone could please help me, I would be very happy!
On the red headers, I can individually control some of the LEDS this way and that helps. In between rows that are connected there are connections to something else. I think there has got to be away to control this array without tons of wires directly connected to the leds, especially since there are already tons of chips on this board.
UPDATE: Some of the pins turn the LED's YELLOW function on as well. Not quite sure what the other ones do quite yet. I still think there should be an easier way.
It's probably best if you try to reverse-engineer the board and try to make a schematic.
I do notice some familiar parts, 74hc595 chips (in combination with the UDN2981), could be used to to connect/control/source all anodes of a row of leds with V+.
Apparently you've got 8 power transistors as well, which might be used to sink individual rows to ground.
If you can control individual leds on 1 row of leds and know how to choose which row, using the transistors, you can control each led.
My best guess is that only 1 row will be lit, but if you change rows fast enough, all leds will appear to be on.
Simpson_Jr:
It's probably best if you try to reverse-engineer the board and try to make a schematic.
I do notice some familiar parts, 74hc595 chips (in combination with the UDN2981), could be used to to connect/control/source all anodes of a row of leds with V+.
Apparently you've got 8 power transistors as well, which might be used to sink individual rows to ground.
If you can control individual leds on 1 row of leds and know how to choose which row, using the transistors, you can control each led.
My best guess is that only 1 row will be lit, but if you change rows fast enough, all leds will appear to be on.
Thank you! This is definitely helpful info. Its good to know that this setup isn't completely unknown, and so now I have a place to begin!
Can you please resize and crop the pictures? 3000x4000 pixel pictures is simply too excessive, and may be a dealbreaker for people on a paid-traffic-connection.
Zapro:
Can you please resize and crop the pictures? 3000x4000 pixel pictures is simply too excessive, and may be a dealbreaker for people on a paid-traffic-connection.
// Per.
Of course I can. I decided to leave those pictures in a high resolution simply because I have been annoyed on multiple occasions of low resolution pictures because I can't get all of the details, and more specifically because I wanted people to be able to read the printing on the ICs.
themavery:
Of course I can. I decided to leave those pictures in a high resolution simply because I have been annoyed on multiple occasions of low resolution pictures because I can't get all of the details, and more specifically because I wanted people to be able to read the printing on the ICs.
There is nothing wrong with high resulution, but we don't need to see all the wood grain on your table. Cropping the picture to the interesting parts will help a lot on the file size.