36 LED Chaser/Bounce Pattern

Is it possible to expand the Cylon/Knight rider chaser seen here: http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/blog.php?bt=684

I'd like to have 36 LEDs that chase 1 thru 36 then back 35 to 1. Also can it be powered by a 12v source instead of 9?

Thanks for any help!

 

One approach is to use 3 stacked LM3914s, with a triangle wave driving them.

 

A fast ramp for the movement and a slower ramp for the bounce distance?

I'm trying to think of an easy way for it to start at 100%, bounce back to 50%, bounce back to 25%, bounce back to 10%, then restart the sequence. I'm not sure if that is what the OP is looking for, however.

 

Interesting enough, I can do 36 LEDs with a PIC 16f54.
The oldest, most basic PIC.

Wiring them in a matrix, 12 I/O, 6x6 = 36.

Even the chaser program can run inside the 16f54.

This technology is from the early 1980s, it's so old already that not many people are remembering it.

A 16F54 is very easy to program. 52 pages documentation all together. Cost is about 50 cents.

My work on the weekend. Putting these serial LED display PCBs to a condition I can sell them.

Think- you can even use LED display driving chips. Who is saying these individual LED display segments have to exist on a 7seg display?

Without to use a controller, OP will end up with a fairly complicated circuit anyway.

Driving displays without resistors is so much oldfashion. I did not invent it, neither anyone on the internet.

It was done in the early 1980s, having these displays in pocket calculators.

The technology never really caught on, LCDs came up, and it all disappeared. The 16f54 still exists as super simple entry level microcontroller.

On the one hand, people complain about this controller, and say it is so much out of date and can't do anything.

On the other hand, effervescently complicate circuits with many transistors, and wires.

Maybe one day you will accept the 16f5X as standard IC here to stay same as the 74XX and 40XX series.

 

OP could eliminate ALL side components. Use a coil to clock, 100uH will do, and one 4.7k resistor.

I have these PCBs (blank) on offer for 2.99, a K150 programmer also costs 10 dollars only.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-PIC-US...le-r-Programmer-K150-ICSP-cable-/251122310653

What's the risk? 50 pages to read for the controller, 10 dollars for the programmer module.

If people don't use this technology, it really can not be made easier or cheaper.

All these questions on the internet about crystal loading capacitors are superfluous as well- use a coil.

 

I made such chasers when I was a young boy. Including to wrap tinfoil around a 7805 (getting very hot). There was nothing beneficiary coming from dealing with these 7805.

 

Can you help a noob?

By "use a coil" do you mean like an RC circuit, but the capacitor is replaced with an inductor?

Pros and cons vs an RC circuit?

 

No. The coil is connected between OSC1 and OSC2 with no extra components. It works fine, have used it many times.

Some larger coils need a small capacitor but not all, most work. Depends on the making of the coil (material and turns).

A 1000uH coil gives about 650 KHz.
A 22uH coil gives 14 MHz but I could be wrong with that.

The pro: Only one component. Wide frequency range, including between 600 KHz and 3.5 MHz, crystals are uncommon for that even if they do exist.

The con: It is not mentioned in the official datasheet.

I have seen it used in at least one microcontroller circuit in the early 1980s.

 

OK, I see now.
It's the clock in and clock out pins on the 16F54 - and particular to that chip.

I thought there was a new type of basic electronic oscillator circuit I needed to learn about!

Thanks!

 

It works probably with most PICs and most microcontrollers. I have used it with some other 16Fs as well.

Not that I don't have crystals available here

Crystals are only need for an accurate timebase.

 

Yes and no on the skill level. I'm quite familiar with delicate soldering and expansive wiring projects, it's the chips and resistors and how they work together that I'm rather clueless about. My thought on how to go about it was to cascade the 4017 chips like shown in Fig. 11.4 of your blog post and build in the bounce back like the other diagram. If that works then my next question is does changing to 12v affect the type of resistors needed? Also what wattage of resistor?

 

How wide is the Control pin response?

Generate a sawtooth wave, then modulate it with control? The amplitude change is the difficult bit so the "range" of bounce changes after going through the 3914.

Whacky idea... 2 555s, one generating the sawtooth for movement, another clocking a digital potentiometer set up as voltage divider for amplitude feed to the 3914?

I'd use a PICAXE, but the analog ways are interesting.

 

Don't get a 3915. Get a 3914. 3915s are nonlinear.

 

A microcontroller with 12 output pins would be a lot simpler, IF you are good at programming.
Yeah, I know, I'm the one who suggested the LM3914. That's because I'm not proficient at programming (yet).