Another day, another LED Matrix video. These 64 LED packs have got me fixed on them and I have been trying all sorts of stuff…
VIDEO AT THE END
I have finally made a completely proper circuit on breadboard with 2x 74HC595s and 1x ULN2803 for current sinking and resistors for current limiting. The first circuit I had made had no resistors for current limiting and was composed only of 2 74HC595 ICs, one of the ICs was getting quite hot and the brightness also varied depending on number of LEDs lit.
I wanted a complete font set for the display so I set out to mak it myself but finally decided to copy the 5×7 dot-matrix-font which is used in alpha-numeric LCDs.
The task of converting all these characters into HEX code was taking a bit too much time, so I wrote a small tool in C# which generated these automatically from pattern made on a Checkbox grid and I ahd the complete set ready in no-time. the two different hex codes shown are for different alignment of display[I saved the other ones as I might need them later].
Here is a video showing alphabets and numbers Marqueeing along the display, though the camera shows flickering and reflections the display looks great in person.