Mashiara designed an I2C controlled 4×4 RGB LED matrix. He uses 3 PCA9635 I2C-to-PWM drivers with 16 PWM outputs. Each IC controls a different basic color of the LEDs.
The up-side to this design is that all of the drivers are on-board, and only control signals are needed to manipulate the matrix. The down side is that his design requires 4 layers to route, and 4 layer boards are quite expensive to make.
Via comments.
heh, 15minutes of infamy… This design is not really complete yet, I just had to get it out of my head before I went crazy thinking about it.
Though I am thinking of trying to make a 2×2-layer version so the chinese cheap PCB factories could be used.
The main point of doing things like this is that you can daisy-chain a bunch of these boards (try charlieplexing or using shift-registers to drive 80 RGB leds for example [I’ll post something about *that* project when I’m done with it…)…
Mashiara ! Thank you for doing that ! I have been looking for a driver for an LED project of mine and I think the one you used here will work just fine. Please keep me updated on your awesome project! BTW do you have a blog I can follow?
I am a veteran programmer and somewhat familiar with electronics. I have an Arduino microprocessor which supports I2C. I am wanting to build an industrial application which will consist of 5 foot “bars” each having 4 LEDs. I need the ability to daisy-chain these bars out from the microprocessor and control any combination of turning on/off the LEDs on each bar. I am considering using I2C with extender boards http://sjtbits.com/i2c-to-differential-breakout-board/ but need some serious help in understanding if this is a practical design. The LED “bars” will be about 8 feet apart and on my application there will be a total of 24 bars each having 4 LEDS. I am considering using CAT5 wiring and connectors to daisy-chain and hopefully carry enough voltage to drive the system. Thanks for any advise on how to build such a system.
This article might be of some help: http://neophob.com/2012/11/kalikut-now-stage-design/ . It’s using SPI, but some of the same principles might apply. You also might want to post your question in the forums, more people will see it that way. Good luck!
I did a lot more looking and think I found a good solution. It sounds promising because these modules work like shift registers that can be chained together. And with the RJ45 connectors and LED power already built in, they sound very easy to implement. Thanks for your reply however as I might need it if this solution does not work out –
http://macetech.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=35