More than 8 bit shift register?

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
1

I ordered 10 8x8 led reg/green led grids. As i count that's 24 pins on each. I know how to use the 595 shift registers. Also know how to chain them. However i really don't want to have to use 30 of them.

I saw a 32 bit shift register somewhere but cant find any now.

Any suggestions?

2

The UCN5832 is a 32-bit shift register with built-in drivers that can handle LEDs.

You should also look into the display drivers, like the TLC5940 family, that have a shift-register interface, but have on-chip PWM that can offload the color-control work from the Arduino. They're very popular, and there are multiple code examples available.

3

Just a note .. you will have to multiplex eight ways since that is how the matrix works. You can use the same eight lines to multiplex all the matrix units.

So in that case it would "only" be 16 x 10 = 160 pins
(20 595 shift registers or 10 TLC5940 shift registers, plus 8 way multiplexing).

I assume you understand the power needs for 10 matrix units are more than the arduino can supply.

Happy matrixing