Hi there,
So I'm making a tiny little device ,based on an esp8266, which needs to drive a 54 RGB led display. My space constraints are really tight, to the tune of a couple millimeters thick for the whole device. The ESP chip, for instance, is about 5mm5mm.7mm. I am hoping to find a way to drive my display, whilst fitting in a little case which is about a millimeter tall. Does anyone know of such a device?
Thanks!
You need to give more details on the 54 LED display as possibly Neopixels will do the job and they have the RGB controller chip built into the LED package.
A very quick Google search shows you might even be able to drive Neopixels directly from the ESP8266.
Well whatever size the controller is you will need to supply over 3 amps to power all those LEDs , has that been factored in?
Do you have to have another device apart from the ESP? Surely that can be programmed to drive your LEDs.
What sort of LEDs anyway? That will have an effect on what software you need.
A very quick Google search shows you might even be able to drive Neopixels directly from the ESP8266.
Yes, FastLED supports the ESP8266 now. Link.
Heh, so I tried to post some additional information last night, but the forum didn't want to let me. Sorry about that.
Unfortunately, There's no such thing as an addressable led that is less than about 2mm thick, so Neopixels will not fit in the casing. My intentions are to use something like:
I am aware that these leds will take some power to drive, but they will likely only be on for a few seconds at a time, So I hope to design around that. The Esp has only 9 gpio pins though. I may be mistaken, but that didn't seem like enough for a display this size.
Thanks for your responses so far,
Ryan
Cheers
These Neopixels are only 0.95mm thick so room to spare if mounted on an 0.6mm or 0.8mm PCB.
I don't think you will have much luck finding a dedicated controller chip thin enough unless it's in a QFN package.
That may certainly be true. I suppose it is what I was imagining, given that that is the package the ESP chip comes in. I'll take a look at those neopixels too, though I'm still on the lookout for something thinner. Thanks for the tip!
cut a hole in the PCB for the led to sit inside, and plate inside the hole ?
mcnobby:
cut a hole in the PCB for the led to sit inside, and plate inside the hole ?
Brilliant! +1
Paul, we used to do that when mount SMD IC's upside down into 0.8 board, only the legs protruded on the top surface 