Tobriand
Well-Known Member
Heya!
I had an idea today that would be very cool for the shop where I work, and potentially not too pricey. Potentially. However, knowing nearly bugger all about electronics, I'm having trouble working out the specifics of what components I need. Effectively I'm trying to build an LED array, but with the LEDs very distant from eachother, and ideally in such a way so as to make each one modular - i.e. you can attach further LED-blocks later, and they'll work out their own identifier in the array. A CPU elsewhere then tells them when to light up and when not to. That chip probably won't be an issue - there's only one of it - but the one for the rest of the LED-blocks might be, since I can't see an array being fewer than, say, 400 units minimum. Which means, even if I'm going for a z80, I'm likely to need £600 of them lol.
I'm after a chip that can:
- Interpret a signal, ideally two, bearing 1-2 bytes of information (a number from 0-65536; probably will never go above 100 though)
- Add one to it
- Output the new signal in the same format as it came in.
- On receiving a separate signal, check to see if it is meant for it, and if so, light an LED
- On receiving a final signal, turn off the LED
- Remember the number it generates from the original signals indefinitely.
Ideally, it wouldn't be outputting the number it's come up with constantly, but only on a further trigger event, to save on power.
So... any ideas?
I had an idea today that would be very cool for the shop where I work, and potentially not too pricey. Potentially. However, knowing nearly bugger all about electronics, I'm having trouble working out the specifics of what components I need. Effectively I'm trying to build an LED array, but with the LEDs very distant from eachother, and ideally in such a way so as to make each one modular - i.e. you can attach further LED-blocks later, and they'll work out their own identifier in the array. A CPU elsewhere then tells them when to light up and when not to. That chip probably won't be an issue - there's only one of it - but the one for the rest of the LED-blocks might be, since I can't see an array being fewer than, say, 400 units minimum. Which means, even if I'm going for a z80, I'm likely to need £600 of them lol.
I'm after a chip that can:
- Interpret a signal, ideally two, bearing 1-2 bytes of information (a number from 0-65536; probably will never go above 100 though)
- Add one to it
- Output the new signal in the same format as it came in.
- On receiving a separate signal, check to see if it is meant for it, and if so, light an LED
- On receiving a final signal, turn off the LED
- Remember the number it generates from the original signals indefinitely.
Ideally, it wouldn't be outputting the number it's come up with constantly, but only on a further trigger event, to save on power.
So... any ideas?