Two loops with multiple LEDs simultaneously

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello

Does anyone know how I could possibly control two loops (with multiple LEDs) simultaneously.

I am planning to make a clock: 60 LEDs for the minutes and 12 of another colour for the hours.

I understand how to make 'for' loops for multiple LEDs, and I am reading about how to control many LEDs by shifting out.

Is it even possible to control two big parallel loops simultaneously with one arduino?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

Tim

2

Piece of cake. Use MAX7219 to control 64 LEDs, 8 outputs from Arduino for the rest.
Updating outputs once a minute by writing to the shift registers in the MA7219, or digitalWrites to the outputs from the Arduino.

Or, make an 8x9 multiplexed array and use a couple of shift registers; cd74ac164 to drive current into anode rows, TPIC6B595 to sink current from cathode columns.