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  • Author Author: atomicthomas
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Which single board to control 60 LEDs?

atomicthomas

I'm looking for  a $1 single board computer or controller that can control 60 LEDs, a buzzer, 2 three digit seven segment displays and one buzzer.  This controller must be acurate to a second. is there such a controller?  Is there a controller or a group of components in this cost range?

  • I was about to put Charlieplexing and maybe an Arduino Nano or at this point any of a dozen controllers.

    I see that many of the cheap EBAY clocks use a very small controller and I presume this method so it's a solution already there in the wild. Not to mention Nico's previous answer...doh!

  • Hi Andy,

     

    I think what others have already alluded to is the fact that your project cost depends on more than just the controller cost, and there is often a trade-off involved in terms of cheaper controllers often requiring extra external hardware costs (shift registers and addressable LEDs, for example). Also don't forget PCB and labour costs.

     

    At this point, I don't think there are any $1 single-board-computers. But there are some micro controllers that come close. Like Peter said, the ESP8266 is a nice option with plenty of power, and a nice price point - possibly near $1 if you buy thousands at once.

     

    60 LEDs is a lot, but you can control up to 72 standard LEDs by using Charlieplexing and 9 GPIO. You may need to time-share if you need to light them all - ie, flash each of them for parts of a second and our persistence of vision makes it look like they're on (like clock displays do).

    So then even an ATtiny84 will do what you need, but I see on Newark even those cost more than a dollar. (maybe less in bulk).

     

    Cheers,

    -Nico

  • if all leds are allowed to light up together, and the buzzer can sound at the same time, you may need a separate power supply.

    But in essence, any of the cheap controllers + the shifters proposed above (check if the shifters can deliver the load over longer time) can do the job.

  • in reply to NigelB

    Nigel I have experimented with success up to 8 shift daisy chained shift-out registers. As a mater of fact, considering the ultra-low budget available (but then I also love the shift registers, I have a couple of thousand at home, but this is another story image) with 8 shift registers it is possible control 64 traditional LEDs, as well as 20 RGB LEDS. As this can be done with just a couple of pins, I think that a tiny or something similar can fit the same with RGB LEDs.

    The fact is that at the moment the NeoPix LEDs are really cheap for these quantities and are a very good alternative, IMHO.

     

    Enrico

  • The best answer would of course depend on what you want to do with the LEDs - Enrico's suggestion above is excellent for low-cost control of an array of simple LEDs, whereas the first two answers are excellent for some much more sophisticated displays - but much more expensive than is suggested by your wish for a "$1 single board computer or controller"... unless you've already burnt your budget on buying the addressable LEDs!

     

    PICs can be very cheap, if you don't mind building your own breadboard rather than buying in a ready-made one - though $1 for a specific requirement that you have in mind may be rather ambitious if that has to cover everything, even as a volume price ...

     

    Hope that helps, if it isn't stating the obvious

     

    Nigel