This project runs on the 8-core Parallax propeller chip and uses a chain of 12 74HCT595 shift registers to drive a set of 3 8x8 RGB LED matrices from Sparkfun. The board at the right is the standard Parallax Propeller prototyping board, and the 3 cascading LED boards are of my own design (and can be manufactured on demand at batchpcb.com rather cheaply.)
It takes all 8 cores of the Propeller to talk to the clock chip, scroll the bitmap, assign it a new color over 100 times per second, and then display it with high-speed PWM for flicker minimization and color fading. Let's see an Arduino do that without extra offboard PWM LED controllers!
4 pushbuttons allow you to change the scrolling speed and shift between fixed color modes and the automated random color fader.
Hey is this your own project? If it is you should enter the Nuts & Volts "LED Madness" contest on Facebook. There looking for people to upload a short video of their own LED projects and the top 3 videos with the most votes wins. Just search for Nuts & Volts Magazine on Facebook or visit their site and you'll see a banner at the bottom of the page to enter the contest.
Endaman07 6 months ago
@Endaman07 Appreciate it. Don't think I'd win, but maybe I'll look into it if the contest is still open. (FB flagged your entry as spam initially, but obviously it's not.)
andrewsil1 4 months ago