
LED multiplexing layouts for hand-crafting - dcschelt
http://crawlingrobotfortress.blogspot.com/2019/02/led-multiplexing-layouts-for-hand.html
======
nixpulvis
I've been (slowly) working on an 8x8x8 led cube. I'm also soldering all the
LEDs together in a somewhat custom way (not a cool diagonal pattern tho).
Here's a photo:
[https://imgur.com/gallery/YjSmFrb](https://imgur.com/gallery/YjSmFrb)

------
frob
This is an interesting idea. However, I feel like this could be better
addressed by using an addressable chip like the ws2811. These can be chained
for quite the distance and you will not get the inherent flickering that comes
with the multiplexing approach. They even come in a standard LED form factor
with one additional leg for data. This can all be controlled with a single
digital pin on an arduino using a library like fastLED.

~~~
XzAeRosho
I'm a hobbyist when it comes to RPi/Arduino projects, and I always feel
powerless when I do projects like these. There's always a better way to do
what you're currently doing, without too much extra costs, and there's no way
I could have found out on my own.

It happens almost the opposite when building software (maybe because that's
what I do for a living?), but it makes me think that maybe there's a different
workflow that I'm not aware of when working on HW projects.

~~~
shezi
Don't worry too much about it, there's merit in doing any of the levels
anyway. Doing it the way from the article is much closer to the metal than
using ws2812 or neopixels. These programmable rgb LEDs are quite complicated,
they contain a shift register, three DACs and three LEDs, but they're super
convenient if you want to place lights anywhere.

I suggest you look at esp8266 and micropython, if you want to get a quick
start. You can get them rather cheaply on aliexpress, along with ws2812
strips. Or you get them from adafruit, which is much quicker but more
expensive. Adafruit calls the LEDs neopixel, so Google for that too.

And of course you can message me or anyone here at any time. Doesn't mean
we're experts, but we'll help as much as we can.

------
tinus_hn
Clever. You could also use a ring shifter so you only need reset and clock for
one of the rows.

