I have recently done a fair amount of reading on the TLC5940NT chip but still have a few questions I am hoping someone here can clarify. Lets say I have purchased 12 individual RGB leds and I wish to control them with the TLC5940NT. I understand i can use this to turn off/on the individual leds as well as use PWM but will the TLC5940NT allow me to change the color of the the individual LEDS? Essentially I wish to build a LED matrix similar to the sparkfun 8x8 matrix with SPI backpack in terms of function but without the unit being so compact ( the matrix will not be arranged in a linear fashion). If this is a total noob question I apologize as I am very new to this still.
Many thanks.
yes and no ;0)
You will be able to control the color of each LED, but you will have to provide 3 TLCs to do so, as RGB LEDs are normally using 3 pins for the colors and one as common anode/cathode. So, to control 12 RGB Leds you will have to have 36 Pins which makes 3 TLC5940s, which is thanks to the daisy-chain feature and the brilliant library here no problem.
I see, thank you, for the clarification.
If you want to control up to 16 RGB LEDs using only 1 TLC5940 chip you can do it through multiplexing. Here is what I did:- Mini Monome
You may also want to look at the tlc5947.
Thanks again for the helpful information. Just what I was looking for.