Hi,
Thanks for the continuing help
I replaced 9 of the 12 Shift Registers, but I still had a hardware problem.
After some more testing I found a faulty Power circuit.
The BD 436 Transistor was faulty, so for now I removed the two transistors and three resistors that was connected to Anodes for Row 3 on the second PCB.
Now there should be no hardware problems.
But I think a better way would be to connect the Output Enable (OE) pin on the 595 to an Arduino pin and use that to disable the rows while new row & column data is shifted.
I tried to implement this here:
void RefreshDisplay()
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++) {
//-- Start sending column bytes --
//-- Shift out to each matrix (zone is 8 columns represented by one matrix)
for (int zone = maxZoneIndex; zone >= 0; zone--) {
shiftOut(dataPin1, clockPin1, MSBFIRST, bitmap[row][zone]);
}
digitalWrite(latchPin2, LOW); //Hold latchPin LOW for as long as we're transmitting data
int rowbit = 1 << row;
shiftOut(dataPin2, clockPin2, MSBFIRST, rowbit); //Transmit data
//-- Done sending Column bytes, flip both latches at once to eliminate flicker
digitalWrite(latchPin2, HIGH);
analogWrite(enablePin,0);
//-- Wait a little bit to let humans see what we've pushed out onto the matrix --
delayMicroseconds(500);
analogWrite(enablePin,255);
}
}
That seem to work 
Only the text lights up.
But there is still a problem in the code, so I have gone back to the original code, with the changes that gets it to work.
int x;
int y;
int clockPin1 = 13; //Arduino pin connected to Pin 8, CLK of the 74HC164
int dataPin1 = 11; //Arduino pin connected to Pin 1&2, DATA IN of the first 74HC164
//-- Rows (Positive Anodes) --
int latchPin2 = 9; //Arduino pin connected to yellow Latch 12 RCLK of 74HC595
int clockPin2 = 10; //Arduino pin connected to white Clock 11 SRCLK of 74HC595
int dataPin2 = 8; //Arduino pin connected to grey Data 14 SER of 74HC595
int enablePin = 6; //Arduino pin connected to output enable pin 13 of 74HC595
//=== B I T M A P ===
//Bits in this array represents one LED of the matrix
// 8 is # of rows, 7 is # of LED matrix we have
byte bitmap[8][12]; // Change the 7 to however many matrices you want to use.
int numZones = sizeof(bitmap) / 8;
int maxZoneIndex = numZones-1;
int numCols = numZones * 8;
byte alphabets[][5] = {
{0,0,0,0,0},
{31, 36, 68, 36, 31},
{127, 73, 73, 73, 54},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 34},
{127, 65, 65, 34, 28},
{127, 73, 73, 65, 65},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 64},
{62, 65, 65, 69, 38},
{127, 8, 8, 8, 127},
{0, 65, 127, 65, 0},
{2, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{127, 8, 20, 34, 65},
{127, 1, 1, 1, 1},
{127, 32, 16, 32, 127},
{127, 32, 16, 8, 127},
{62, 65, 65, 65, 62},
{127, 72, 72, 72, 48},
{62, 65, 69, 66, 61},
{127, 72, 76, 74, 49},
{50, 73, 73, 73, 38},
{64, 64, 127, 64, 64},
{126, 1, 1, 1, 126},
{124, 2, 1, 2, 124},
{126, 1, 6, 1, 126},
{99, 20, 8, 20, 99},
{96, 16, 15, 16, 96},
{67, 69, 73, 81, 97},
};
//=== S E T U P ===
void setup() {
pinMode(clockPin1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dataPin1, OUTPUT);
pinMode(latchPin2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(clockPin2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(dataPin2, OUTPUT);
pinMode(enablePin, OUTPUT);
//digitalWrite(enablePin, HIGH);
//-- Clear bitmap --
for (int row = 0; row > 8; row++) {
for (int zone = 0; zone <= maxZoneIndex; zone++) {
bitmap[row][zone] = 0;
}
}
}
//=== F U N C T I O N S ===
// This routine takes whatever we've setup in the bitmap array and display it on the matrix
void RefreshDisplay()
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++) {
//-- Start sending column bytes --
//-- Shift out to each matrix (zone is 8 columns represented by one matrix)
for (int zone = maxZoneIndex; zone >= 0; zone--) {
shiftOut(dataPin1, clockPin1, MSBFIRST, bitmap[row][zone]);
}
digitalWrite(latchPin2, LOW); //Hold latchPin LOW for as long as we're transmitting data
int rowbit = 1 << row;
shiftOut(dataPin2, clockPin2, MSBFIRST, rowbit); //Transmit data
//-- Done sending Column bytes, flip both latches at once to eliminate flicker
digitalWrite(latchPin2, HIGH);
analogWrite(enablePin,0);
//-- Wait a little bit to let humans see what we've pushed out onto the matrix --
delayMicroseconds(500);
analogWrite(enablePin,255);
}
}
// Converts row and colum to actual bitmap bit and turn it off/on
void Plot(int col, int row, bool isOn)
{
int zone = col / 8;
int colBitIndex = x % 8;
byte colBit = 1 << colBitIndex;
if (isOn)
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[y][zone] | colBit;
else
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[y][zone] & (~colBit);
}
// Plot each character of the message one column at a time, updated the display, shift bitmap left.
void AlphabetSoup()
{
char msg[] = "ONE TWO THREE";
for (int charIndex=0; charIndex < (sizeof(msg)-1); charIndex++)
{
int alphabetIndex = msg[charIndex] - '@';
if (alphabetIndex < 0) alphabetIndex=0;
//-- Draw one character of the message --
for (int col = 0; col < 6; col++)
{
for (int row = 0; row < 8; row++)
{
bool isOn = 0;
if (col<5) isOn = bitRead( alphabets[alphabetIndex][col], 7-row ) == 1;
Plot( numCols-1, row, isOn);
}
//-- The more times you repeat this loop, the slower we would scroll --
for (int refreshCount=0; refreshCount < 7; refreshCount++) //change this value to vary speed
RefreshDisplay();
//-- Shift the bitmap one column to left --
for (int row=0; row<8; row++)
{
for (int zone=0; zone < numZones; zone++)
{
bitmap[row][zone] = bitmap[row][zone] >> 1;
// Roll over lowest bit from the next zone as highest bit of this zone.
if (zone < maxZoneIndex) bitWrite(bitmap[row][zone], 7,
bitRead(bitmap[row][zone+1],0));
}
}
}
}
}
//=== L O O P ===
void loop() {
AlphabetSoup();
}
Now that only the text lights up it's easier to see what the problems are.
-The text is one pixel to low
-It writes and scrolls from Left to Right mirrored
I have tried earlier to change the parts of the code that relates to using 8 Rows to move the text one row up.
I have also tried to use LSBFIRST to get it to write and scroll the right way.
Any pointers to where in the code I can fix this?
Cheers, Hal
