Make a 24X6 LED matrix

Step 4 Soldering The LEDs

Soldering 144 LEDs in a matrix formation can be a little tricky if you don't have a general idea how.
The last time I soldered a matrix I used lots of little wire jumpers which was a pain to solder, so this time I was a little more creative and came up with this way.

You need to bend the positive lead of the LED down towards the other ones and make a column, and snip off the leads you didn't use and try to make the connections as low as you can get, and you do this to all of the positive leads.
Now the negative leads are connected in a column and thats make soldering tricky because the positive rows are in the way, so you will need to make a 90 degrees bend with the negative lead and make a bridge over the positive row to the next negative lead, and so on to the next LEDs.

Now I will not explain how to solder the shift registers and all the parts because every one has hes own style and methods.

Comments

[msádlo]

Hi I was wondering if the positive and negative bending down are in the line or is it vice versa, because in his procedure You say led them in a negative and a positive column in a row and then the comment would you say that, in turn, so that they only ask what is true.

[jnicholas1]

I'm about to begin soldering, and I understand bending the positive leads down, and the negatives turned 90 degrees. But am i soldering one lead to the other? I can't tell by the photo, but are all the positive leads soldered together vertically in each column? and the negatives together in each row?
Thanks
Joe

[Syst3mX]

Yeah all of the positive pins in a given column are soldered together and the negative leads are soldered together in each row. there shouldn't be any connections between the positive leads and negative ones.

[baldeagle072]

Is it possible to space out the LEDs a little more and use wires between the leads?

[Syst3mX]

Sure

[bond815]

I also would like to make this 48 wide plus an odd number high- say 7 because I need a center LED for making arrows. What changes need to be made?
Thanks.

[Syst3mX]

The biggest changes is in software.
hardware wise you need to add 3 more shift registers and one more transistor and some more resistors.

[stavros015]

Hi very nice project
I got one question about the project
I want to make the display bigger 48x6. What modifications i have to do to the schematic
my e-mail :[e-mail]
Thanks

[actionphoto]

I used a variation on this. I also soldered the positive leads by bending them down, but I alternated the columns of LEDs so that the leads on the LEDs were swapped...that is, for each pair of columns, the negative leads didn't have to cross the positive leads to connect with an adjacent column. Then I jumped across to the next pair with a protected wire. I still ended up with shorting problems, so I tried another solution: I purchased a perf board with no copper and some 3M copper tape (1181 TAPE (1/4"x18 YDS)). I cut the tape into strips for the rows and columns (and sliced it down the middle to make them 1/8"). Then I soldered the positive leads to the strips on one side and the negative leads to the strips on the other.