TLC5940 resources

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) General Frequently-Asked Questions
#1

Hey guys-
New to Arduino- just ordered my first Unos a couple of days ago. I had a few questions and was hoping someone could get me started in the right direction.
I am constructing an RGB LED chaser that will have 6 channels and 3 RGB LEDs per channel. In addition to that I will be driving another 20 LEDs that will either fade on or off in sync with one another. I will need PWM so I have ordered some TLC5940’s to expand the available PWM channels I’ll have. All the resources I’ve found so far seem to just dive into a lot of lengthy code. I’d like to find something that will start me off at the base level for communicating with the TLC5940 (i.e. how to turn one RGB LED on and off). Understanding the Arduino was simple thanks to examples like the “bare minimum” coding, etc. on the home page. I don’t mind reading up and doing the homework, but if someone could point me in the right direction I would appreciate it. Thanks!

-Jeremy

#2

http://focus.ti.com/lit/an/slva267a/slva267a.pdf

Check out this application note. Has a lot of good stuff in it.

There are more too: http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/tlc5940.html

#3

Check out the TLC5940 library, the examples in that are about as simple as you can get with this chip.

#4

Thank you both for the help. I'll be sure to let you know how the project progresses. I am still waiting on my common anode RGB LEDs to interface with the tlc5940 but for now I will be using standard LEDs so I can check the proof of concept.

#5