LED Progress

I've been making some solid progress on my superUI module. I managed to get my row scanning bits working, a 595 shift register turns on/off a tlc59213 which can source 500ma of current per row, enough for TONS of led's! I've got the library from the Demystifying the TLC5940 mostly running and also have the arduino library running for occasional sanity checks! So, I've started construction on my rgb button pad. Here's 1/2 of it almost completed!

I've also decided to diffuse the LEDs' on my Adafruit matrix with a bit of white acrylic. It makes for much better viewing and video!

Post by Billie 'Blaze' Berzinskas.

LED Matrix Library

After playing with my Adafruit matrix for a few hours, I began to look at the underlying libraries.  There are two - RGBMatrixPanel (https://github.com/adafruit/RGB-matrix-Panel) which handles communication with the matrix and their GFX library (https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-GFX-Library) which handles the actual pixel data and manipulation.    I looked over both and found the code well commented and pretty to the point.    They also have a good article about the GFX library - http://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-gfx-graphics-library/overview

I plan to mashup the RGBMatrixPanel library with the TLC5940 library that'll be powering my SuperUI module.   I should be able to swap out the init, data transfer and interrupt routine, leaving me with a really nice API for the graphical portion of the module.     I took a first pass and got it to compile, but haven't tested yet.  I'll check it into github when I see twinkles from my mini matrix.    

Arduino SuperUI interface board design alpha

The first module in my Ardmos (http://github.com/billieblaze/ardmos) will be a ui controller for both buttons / leds and my sparkfun RGB button pad.  It will use an atmega328p like the arduino uno and provide a serial interface for:
- up to 384 Mono LEDs **OR**  8x16 RGB LEDs
- 128 buttons multiplexed **OR**  8x16 button matrix
- Further expandable off-board

In a previous article, I showed how I used TLC5940 to control 16 LED's with 12bit PWM across them.   Delving deeper into the associated arduino library, I did some basic experiments with the row switching and updated my schematic accordingly.  

Rows will be scanned with a 595 Shift Register driving a TLC59213 "8-Bit Parallel In/Out Darlington Source Driver With Latch" (http://www.ti.com/product/tlc59213).  Looks simple enough, send in bits, latch, get up to 500ma out!  

I plan to use the row driver to scan the buttons as well, adding 2 x 74HC165 ties up the input side of things nicely.  

Overall, the 328p looks pretty full pin-wise but should offer plenty of power here.    Here's the initial schematic, any feedback on it is appreciated! Also, I REALLY need to learn to use the net / bus thing in eaglecad better!