How to drive a lot of LEDs from a few microcontroller pins.

How to drive a lot of LEDs from a few microcontroller pins.
Using the fact that many microcontroller pins have three states (+V, GND, or
"high impedence", you can drive N*(N-1) LEDs from N pins. So the little 8
pin microcontroller like a PIC12Fxxx or an ATtiny11 can drive 20 LEDs on
its five available output pins, and still have one pin left for some kind of input.

See also http://www.instructables.com/id/Charlieplexing-LEDs--The-theory/
 
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Step 120 LEDs on 5 pins

20 LEDs on 5 pins
The current crop of low pin-count microcontrollers (6 pins to 20 pins on
the whole package) are attractively priced and 'cute', but the question
arrises as to how you can make the best use of those pins for common
applications such as driving LEDs.

A direct-connect approach to driving LEDs consumes one pin for each
LED. A traditional multiplexing scheme where rows of LED anodes are
driven by one set of N pins and each row's common cathode is driven by
another set of M pins manages to light N*M LEDs with N+M pins.
However, on a processor with only 5 or fewer outputs (as is the case
with most 8-pin microcontrollers), this barely gets you any more
outputs than direct drive.
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54 comments
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Jan 2, 2012. 9:21 PMbpark1000 says:
You mention the trick of re-arranging the bits to make the circuit board simpler. Good plan! The way to do it easily is to first write the software as if the bits didn't need switching. Instead of writing the output byte directly to the port, you first write it to the index register. Then you use a "scramble table" to re-arrange the bits. You index into the table, then write that byte to the port. The advantage of this scheme is if you need to change the bit order, no change is needed to the code; only the table.

(I'm not familiar with this processor. My comments are based on the ability to do indexed addressing mode.  Index into a table. For example, for the "noadjust" routine, you would have:
TABLE: .byte 0b00100, 0b00010, 0b00001, 0b10000, 0b01000

copy TEMP to index register
load accumulator TABLE,index
copy accumulator to ANODE
...
You can have separate tables for the port and the direction register. The tables can be large (256 bytes for an 8-bit scramble function) without needing a compare for each value possible. The code becomes compact and easy to debug. You can stack tables. For example, one set to give the port/direction drives, and one to do the bit scrambling (used twice: once to scramble the port bits, again to scramble the direction bits)).

Table lookup is the key to fast processing!
Nov 24, 2011. 5:48 AMjalke116 says:
good day!!! i just want to know of what are the software used for making schematics like in this instructable...

hoping for your answers...
Nov 14, 2010. 11:24 PMweeladalah says:
can i use Attiny13A instead of Attiny11...?? thanks :)
Jan 4, 2010. 7:47 PMawidarto says:
This might be of interest :
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6666229.html?spacedesc=designideas&industryid=44217
the additional transistor should be able to source additional LED in series, at some additional cost though...
Nov 22, 2008. 3:03 AMdedward says:
Hiya, I'm really interested in how you've done this, and I would like to use the technique on a project I'm working on at the moment, which is a working model theatre. Does anyone know whether it is possible to have more than one LED on at once if they are connected through to the same pins?? Thank you!!! Dedward
Sep 3, 2009. 4:04 PMFreeztech says:
You Can, Almost all Large LED displays use this Multiplexing Theory. Its in the code to have many lights on in the same row and column on at the same time. Sadly, I'm still working on learning that Part. but there are many resources out there that can help with the code
Feb 5, 2009. 4:56 PMakatsuki666 says:
can you download it on the computer if so what websight?
Jul 2, 2009. 1:09 PMMultiViews says:
Hi, i'm also kind of new to the arduino and multiplexing i know hom it works but the only thing i need help with is how i can send "GND" signals through the pins.? What do i need to write in the code to make it do that?
Jul 2, 2009. 2:25 PMMultiViews says:
Thank you :D
Feb 5, 2009. 3:01 PMakatsuki666 says:
umm i tryied to download the file to my arduino microcontroller and it has a error for about everything u typed. why does it do that??????
Jan 27, 2009. 5:42 AMakatsuki666 says:
i kno im getting annoying.. but how do you ground the microcantroller?????????????
Jan 27, 2009. 3:33 PMakatsuki666 says:
man you own lol. ty
Jan 25, 2009. 7:11 PMakatsuki666 says:
how u kno what resistors to use agin? umm
(total - led voltage)/ma = ohms??? if that is pls say or tell me the right 1
Jan 24, 2009. 8:23 PMakatsuki666 says:
hi its my first time too and im just wondering... what is the ma of a led???
Aug 7, 2008. 4:14 PMgeeklord says:
Hey im a 13 year old kid, and it looks like using a microcontroller would be a fun thing. Where the heck did most of u guys learn this stuff? Even if i knew how to just set up a microcontroller and just copy&pasted code would be nice
Jan 12, 2009. 2:45 PMgeeklord says:
thanks for all the comments. I'll probably get an arduino...
Jan 10, 2009. 6:56 AMZdawg says:
Boe Bot kitwhats a microcontrolerhi, im 13 also and i use microcontrolers for a ton of fun things, a great way to get a start is with a parallax, whats a microcontroler kit(my first kit), or a parralax Boe bot, which im still working on improving. for the most fun i woudl recoment getting the boe bot
Feb 26, 2009. 8:39 PMchuck norris says:
I agree, Parallax Does an exellent job of teaching these kinds of techtronics. I started with the BASIC Stamp 2 Board Of Education kit and I can honestly say that every penny was worth it. I would definatly recommend buying the Boe-Bot kit if you are a fairly quick learner. All of Parallax's starter kits are definatly high-quality and the included textbook is really well-written (i.e, something that you can actually read without letting the ZzZzZs turn your book into a pillow.) One Kit can pretty much teach you all of the basic -level stuff, and from there you can buy other kits, or you can put some thought into design and make just about anythhing you can come up with. But i would recommend taking a computer science class to become more familiar with programming computers. Also, if you are unfamiliar with Java, computer sciences can help, if you are a seasoned veteran to programming, we have our own subspecies! Here it is:

Homo sapiens programmiens- A solitary, red-eyed mammal which often talks to inanimate objects.
True skills.JPG
Jan 10, 2009. 6:57 AMZdawg says:
they both use a BASIC Stamp microcontroler,
Jan 10, 2009. 6:59 AMZdawg says:
and they both come with guides on how to program them with examples, and if u follow it u will be programing them in no time! there are also online codes and help and a discussion frum on the parralax website
Sep 14, 2008. 7:51 AMXellers says:
Buy an Arduino, and get the free software with example codes. Also, on their main website there are many tutorials and guides that help you learn.
Dec 3, 2008. 6:51 PMookid says:
Kind of a newbie question but how do you open the eagle files in eagle?
Dec 4, 2008. 6:16 AMookid says:
thanks very much it worked like a charm
Aug 12, 2008. 12:10 AMDT sleper says:
Geeklord visit sparkfun.com and look at the picaxe microchips they are cheap, the software is free and they are easy to learn. Its a good place to start or look at parallax.com at their basic stamp it is also easy but more expensive. I haven't upgraded myself to more powerful chips yet because I am happy with the picaxe.
Jan 13, 2007. 3:05 PMaiden120000 says:
i wish i understood what this is talking about
Jul 6, 2006. 10:46 AMdforsyth says:
Did soemthing like this with a PIC. Made the 20th LED a IR, and put a push button and IR detector on it.
http://www.2dkits.com/zencart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=6
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