LED dot matrices are very popular means of displaying information as it
allows both static and animated text and images. Perhaps, you have
encountered them at gas stations displaying the gas prices, or in the
public places and alongside highways, displaying advertisements on large
dot matrix panels.
In this experiment, we will discuss about the basic structure of a
monochrome (single color) LED dot matrix and its interface with a
microcontroller to display static characters and symbols. We will cover
the animation stuff in next tutorial. I am using the P89C51RD2(NXP)
micro-controller for demonstration, but this technique is applicable to
any other microcontrollers that have sufficient I/O pins to drive the
LED matrix.
In a dot matrix display, multiple LEDs are wired together in rows and
columns. This is done to minimize the number of pins required to drive
them. For example, a 8×8 matrix of LED's (shown below) would need 64 I/O
pins, one for each LED pixel. By wiring all the anodes together in rows
(R1 through R8), and cathodes in columns (C1through C8), the required
number of I/O pins is reduced to 16. Each LED is addressed by its row
and column number. In the figure below, if R4 is pulled high and C3
is pulled low, the LED in fourth row and third column will be turned on.
Characters can be displayed by fast scanning of either rows or columns.
This tutorial will discuss the method of column scanning.
The LED matrix used in this experiment is of size 5×7. We will
learn how to display still characters in a standard 5×7 pixel format.
The figure below shows which LEDs are to be turned on to display the
English alphabet ‘A’. The 7 rows and 5 columns are controlled through
the microcontroller pins. Now, lets see in detail how it works.
Suppose, we want to display the alphabet A. We will first select
the column C1 (which means C1 is pulled low in this case), and deselect
other columns by blocking their ground paths (one way of doing that is
by pulling C2 through C5 pins to logic high). Now, the first column is
active, and you need to turn on the LED's in the rows R2 through R7 of
this column, which can be done by applying forward bias voltages to
these rows. Next, select the column C2 (and deselect all other columns),
and apply forward bias to R1 and R5, and so on. Therefore, by scanning
across the column quickly (> 100 times per second), and turning on
the respective LED's in each row of that column, the persistence of
vision comes in to play, and we perceive the display image as still.
The table below gives the logic levels to be applied to R1 through
R7 for each of the columns in order to display the alphabet ‘A’.
You should have noted that across each row, one pin is sourcing the
current for only one LED at a time, but a column pin may have to sink
the currents from more than one LED. For example, the column C1 should
be able to sink the currents from 6 LED's while displaying the alphabet
‘A’. A microcontroller’s I/O pin cannot sink this much of current, so
external transistor arrays are required. I am using ULN2003A IC which
has seven built-in Darlington transistor arrays (see below). The inputs
of ULN2003A are active high. This means the input pins must be supplied
with logic high in order to bring the corresponding output pins to
ground. The schematic of the Darlington transistor array inside the
ULN2003A chip is shown below.
In my project i have used transistors as drivers since ULN ic was not available to me during the project.
project images in RND-KC labs:-