See my LED Matrix / Sign displays ....

[MartyOz]

Hi All,

Is anyone into matrix/sign displays etc?
Please show what you've built and/or what it does....


Here's some pics/links to some of mine.....



See the 256led "face" working here (mpeg):
http://www.retro-riders.com/retrotech/256leds/256led-face.mpg
See the other 256led "patterns" here (mpeg & pics):
http://www.retro-riders.com/retrotech

Briefly, i've been through MANY designs with my matrix's, and adding more features or simpler designs, as well as reducing my eproms (patterns) to 1 eprom only, far less pattern coding....
The 256 matrix shown is a few years old now, i used 2 eproms side-by-side to give me the 16 "rows" (data) and use a 74154/4514 4-to-16 address decoder, to strobe my 16 columns...this is all clocked at a few khz to avoid flickering yet maintain an evenly illuminated animation of LEDs.
The eproms on this design were counted by a 4040 counter, clocked by a simple 555 clock circuit.


My newer (2005) 256led matrix doesnt use a 16x16 matrix anymore, i now use a 4x4 (16 leds) matrix, and use some bank switching to enable each group of 16 leds, to the total of 256 leds.....this method uses less electronics, and allows my banks of 16 leds to be wired remotely with nothing more than 4 trannies per group of 16 leds, no i.c.s etc....
( i had a need to put 256 leds in a looong string, and animate them accordingly ).

the newer model doesnt use multiplex scanning at the moment, but the new 2006 revision is porobably my FINAL version after 15+ years of playing with matrix ideas ;-)

I'm happy to discuss matrix/scanning ideas with you, and maybe we can all bounce a few ideas around.....
Newbies always welcome ;-)

Hope you enjoy it.....

Marty - Downunder Australia ...

[justDIY]

In the eternal words of Bill and Ted - MOST EXCELLENT

15+ years is a long time to be working with led matrixes ... dang there have been a lot of innovations over that time, especially in microcontrollers and storage

what is the hardware powering your latest version?

I've done some dabbling in led matricies, however, for the purpose of a user interface.

I sorta ran out of steam on that project ... I couldn't come up with a good way to expand the sensors to a large array, yet drive them in an efficient manner - one of these days I'll revisit the project, I have some new ideas to try out.

I'm going to move your post into our user project showcase.

thanks for sharing!

[chopper]

   Very Impressive! . Waaaaayyyy outa my league but enjoyable to see! thanks for sharing Your work.               Carl

[MartyOz]

Hi guys,
thanx for the positive comments, i'm glad someone appreciates my work ;-)

Yep, i've been on & off the matrix projects for a while, and it has spanned 15+ years (i keep dabbling with all my other electronic gadgets as per my site)., as i keep finding better ways  to scan/drive the leds, and i'm always finding new ways to reduce chip-count, and especially reduce the coding of the eprom patterns.

I'm also working (on & off) on some decent software to let me enter the patterns a LOT easier than manually coding eprom data ;-)


My most recent (2005) 256led hardware is basically 2 eproms, counted by a 4040 counter & 555 (as always).

I use 1 eprom in a 4x4 arrangment, giving me matrix control of 16 leds......and i have wired upto 16 of these 16led matrices, each with a seperate enable control line (via 4 transistors- 4 trannies equals the 4 'count' lines).
The 2nd eprom then ENABLES 1 (or many) of the 16 matrixes at any given time in the animation sequence......

This 2005 matirx system only requires 4 transistors per 16led matrix bank, which makes remote wiring VERY simple.
My previous versions all had decoders/counters/eproms per 16led matrix, and got waaay too complex for it's own good....and the overall chip-count was ridiculously big.

As mentioned in earlier part of thread, i have pretty much 1 final revision for my 2006 version, which combines the scanning/animation methods plus the remote driver (4 trannies) wiring......then i can get on with other LED projects like RGB screens, transferring jpg/bmp images to a video wall etc etc....

If you like what i've built so far, and want to learn more, or get me to design/customize something for your own use, just ask ;-)


Marty - Downunder Australia ...

[Rob]

Let me add my votes of appreciation. 

You'll find a new custom title under your forum handle now, hope it suits you.

[MartyOz]

Matrix Master?

I like it !!!!!!!!!   

Thanx for the pos comments and support u guys...

More projects to follow, soon

Marty - Downunder Australia ...

[rami00972]

Good work  I'm working with a small one 5 *20 matrix but i will start in like this one after i fineshed.
i was seraching on schematic for a big one like yours. if you can send me the schematc to see how its work on rami00972@yahoo.com  .
coz im workink with programmer screens . with microcontroler AT80s51.
thanks

[SteveyG]

Hi everyone,

Thought I'd contribute to this thread with my matrix that I made earlier in the year. This photo isn't the finished photo (it's all in a case now), but I don't have any pictures at all on this machine that I'm using at the moment, so I've just used the picture I posted up on bit-tech for now.

There's about 5000 hand soldered LEDs on there. The holes in the PCB were also drilled by me... 

I'll show some better pictures when I get chance. 



Steve. 

[abnormal]

WOW Cool guys!  nice jobs, now I gotta check back more often