Charlieplexed row of LED lights, for the Arduino

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by computergeek

introCharlieplexed row of LED lights, for the Arduino

This is my instructable on charlieplexing a LED row/string with the arduino. I noticed that there weren't many instructables on charlieplexing using an arduino, so i made this. I tried to keep the project simple, but that didn't work very well. The soldering is complex, I wouldn't recommend this as a first time soldering project.

Here's some background on charlieplexing: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlieplexing

I took about 80 pictures & not all of them made it into the main steps, but you can find them in step 9: Extra Pictures

If you have any comments, questions &/or suggestions please ask them!

Charlieplexed row of LED lights, for the Arduino

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step 1Parts List:

Parts:
- 12 LED's; I'm using some 3 mm Red LED's
- 4, 270 Ohm resistors; You can use other values as well
- Perfboard/Veroboard; I used a piece 27 holes x 5 holes
- Wire; I used some 26 gauge, solid core wire
- Header pins (optional)
- Arduino

Tools:
- Soldering Iron
- Hot glue gun (optional)
- Helping hand (optional)

Parts List:

Circuit Diagram.png

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19 comments	Add Comment

Sep 7, 2010. 7:17 AMnoik says:

open it with notepad and copy it to your arduino program, should work

Aug 26, 2010. 12:28 PM

Robot Lover says:

How could I do this with 22 LED's?

Aug 8, 2010. 11:33 PMidiotjohn says:

also on a different point, is it possible to change the pins used? I see that there is a place to define them, but even if i change them there, it does not change it.

Aug 8, 2010. 8:40 PMidiotjohn says:

I made it and got it all working without any modification of your code. I went through labeling each LED, using the turnon() function. When I ran turnon(12); it turned on the LED that I had previously labelled as 4. I figured my soldering or something must be wrong... BUT, when I ran the sequence, it ran correctly, all I had to do was place LED 12 in front of LED 1 and then it works. I am very very confused. John

Aug 3, 2010. 11:24 AMVick Jr says:

I wired everything together, all the leds can turn on, and the cylon scanner works, but when certain leds turn on, other random ones will glow dimly. Is this because I left out the resistors or does it mean there's a short somewhere? This is my first charlieplexing project and although it's not perfect, I'm still glad it partially works. thanks!

Aug 3, 2010. 8:25 AMVick Jr says:

Are the resistors there to protect the LEDs? If the arduino is using around 3 volts then can we skip them? I made a cylon eye scanner that works fine with no resistors. I'm using blueish white xmas light LEDs, so they might take higher voltage anyway.

Jul 6, 2010. 8:14 AMsarath12445 says:

i am not able to download the code... it is downloading as .tmp format and not as .pde

Jun 23, 2010. 11:16 AMtonysofla says:

It's easy to include some type of PWM dimming as Charlieplexing is already a type of duty mode. If counter is higher that fade value, just skip that LED this time.

I have 8bit level PWM here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8apRaZQbv5w

Feb 16, 2010. 7:04 AMnoik says:

Yes, I managed to make it work.! Thank's al lot, for this great instructable, :)

Feb 16, 2010. 6:35 AMnoik says:

Code doesn't work with my arduino, it gives a error.
Nice instructable!

Oct 26, 2009. 7:11 AMnolte919 says:

I know it would be a pain to change at this point but your schematic is a bit confusing. I think you call it "Circuit Diagram.png". It appears the red wire coming from pin 3 through the resistor is going to BOTH the anode and cathode of the three pins it's attached to. After a little thought it's clear you meant it to go only to the cathode but this might be more confusing to somebody else.

Great instructable.

Oct 26, 2009. 7:20 AMcomputergeek (author) says:

Thanks for pointing that out. I just changed that. Fortunately I still had the Eagle CAD file.

Oct 21, 2009. 5:49 AM

WyoJustin says:

Sweet! Clever design. Great instructions. Great photos.

Nice work.

Oct 21, 2009. 3:07 AMrichms says:

An easier way is to put half the resistance into each of the wires, and then you can swap the polarity of 2 neighbouring LEDs to get less of the looping around connections happening.

Oct 21, 2009. 2:47 AMbeardy says:

Brilliant! Thank you.

Seems to be a relatively 'simple' how-to. I've been wanting to do this for a while but have been a bit bamboozled when it comes to actually wiring it.

Oct 7, 2009. 4:25 PMDarkStarPDX says:

Dude, I'm thinking that we need to replace those LEDs with some 12 volt relays and wire up some real lights onto the back of the car! :-)

Oct 7, 2009. 7:40 PMcomputergeek (author) says:

That would definitely be something! You would need a diode for each relay. The reason charlieplexing works, is LED's are diodes so current only flows one way through them.

Oct 7, 2009. 1:12 PMBongmaster says:

looks fun and complex O_o

Oct 7, 2009. 2:12 PMcomputergeek (author) says:

It is really fun! It Definitely isn't the easiest thing I've built, But I think it was worth the effort.

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