What can I use to drive large addressable arrays of leds, similar to shiftbrites - however I only need a single channel of control. Ideally something cheap that I can deadbug.
thanks.
The PCA9685 will allow you to control 16 LEDs from on package but it is an I2C device and has global addresses so that all the LEDs can be turned on or off with a single command. So if you want to have the LEDs in groups of 16 this could be an alternative, it also offers full brightness control.
The TCA6507 is also I2C and will allow the control of 7 LEDs but I have not used that device.
Do you want to control low power LEDs or high power ones?
Hi sorry I never got a notification.
I want to control lowish power leds, brightness would be nice to have, but what's more important to me is a one chip one led combo as a single unit, daisy chained to the next.
I don't know of just a chainable single LED control chip. With the cost of an IC package a manufacturer is unlikely to just have a single LED when it is just as easy to have three, sorry.
davivid:
I want to control lowish power leds, brightness would be nice to have, but what's more important to me is a one chip one led combo as a single unit, daisy chained to the next.
How about one 2n7000 mosfet and one series resistor per LED? That's only 2 components per LED. You could control the brightness of all the LEDs in the chain together using PWM.
Grumpy_Mike:
I don't know of just a chainable single LED control chip. With the cost of an IC package a manufacturer is unlikely to just have a single LED when it is just as easy to have three, sorry.
Cool thats fair enough. Do you know of any that I can look into? (I guess 3 channel will be the lowest) that ideally are cheap and through hole.