Hey! My name is Jonathan Lewis and I am totally new to electronics. I could sure use some help with a circuit diagram and an explanation of said diagram I am trying to build a grid of 100 RGB LEDS (10 by 10)and have some way of activating each LED individually and being able to choose the color that I want of each. Can someone help me figure it out? Again, I am a very analytical thinker and quick learner. I need someone who can help walk me through this learning process...thanks for the help!!

 

You have 300 individual output options. That's a lot. The driver electronics are relatively easy once you select a control mechanism. What are your first ideas about how you want to control and select 1 or more out of 300. 300 toggle switches, 100 3-way switches (assuming you don't want to turn on a red and a green to simulate a yellow), an iphone app, ...?

ak

 

I would never start such a complicated project, too old, too lazy, but with 300 diodes ( LEDs ), 60 switches & a bunch of resistors, it can be done. Schematic is of a 100 LED chaser. 4017's would be replaced by switches..
Unfortunatley this will not work with 3 color LEDs with a common cathode or anode so I am out of suggestions.

 

To me it sounds like the easiest way would be two arduino mega's which will cost about $14

AIDayley

 

If you multiplex the LEDs, this can be done with 23 drivers, 3 colors by 10 rows by 10 columns. If the rows and columns are decoded from BCD, you are down to 11 control system outputs; 10 if you decode the three colors from 2 bits, but that's an unnecessary complication for very little gain.

ak

 

https://www.adafruit.com/category/168

 

If you use arduino then you could use a dot-matrix to make it so you don't have to use as many pins on the arduino sadly I do not have any experience in it's use
Best of luck
AIDayley

 

I believe I once bought such an array thru EBay from China once for a project I never got time for. If not 10 x10 it was 8x8.

There are digital driver chips that will power the LEDs, but you need some sort of micro to feed that driver with information.

 

Thank you all for your suggestions!! I am still trying to figure it out...It's kind of like a lite bright but the pins don't come out. just change the colors of each LED with a switch somehow!