hello. i am making a box shaped lamp which consists of 4 (4 sides, excluding the top and bottom) 6x6 led matrix which are encased in semi-transparent black vinyl or plastic material. i have been researching different solutions for making the led matrices. this would require 36 LEDs per side and 144 for all 4 sides. from my research i found i can use 9 TLC5940s to drive them (and fade them in and out) using one arduino. great! but what is the best way to make the physical led matrix? are there some pre made boards i can use to mount them? i found things such as the brilldea's rgb ribbon which can be stuck on anything but what else is there? thanks!
If it were me, I would grab some lightweight wood, measure out a grid, tack down your LEDs, and solder them in place. That is of course if you were building something over six inches in any direction. Otherwise, use some perfboard from RipoffShack and cut it to size and solder on that. Perfboard is great for this kind of stuff.
thanks i found perf/proto boards short after posting. i also found some pcb boards such as modern devices 8X8 led display boards but after buy 4 for 70 USD and buying 256 white leds for 105 USD which is 175 USD; that would be too expensive. i can buy 9 tlc5940s, 144 leds and 4 proto/perf boards for 130 USD (shipping not include). i found http://www.instructables.com/id/SCRTJ2OFH9HU7GR/ on instructables which shows how to make an led matrix on step 2. i thought i would need 9 tlc5940 but i think i can use one tlc5940 to driver 6 daisy chained columns. how can i reduced the number of tlc5940s necesarry. all the white leds are supposed to fade in/out together. im not displaying images so i do not need to drive each seperate led... thanks!
Maybe this will help you, up to 64 LEDs from one single TLC9540:_