[Noisebridge-discuss] Connecting 128 EL-Wires to an Arduino

[Gregg Tavares]

On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 6:51 AM, Jonathan Foote <jtfoote at ieee.org> wrote:

> Gregg,
>
> Garrett over at macetech.com makes expander shields that give you 64
> pins of I/O.
>
> macetech.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=23
>
> You may be able to gang 2 of them or just use his design for inspiration.
>

Thank you! This is AWESOME!  I'm thinking about cutting my design down to 64
(thought 128 would look so much better :-p)


>
>
> On 7/20/10, Gregg Tavares <nbridge at greggman.com> wrote:
> > Hello Noisebrige,
> >
> > My name is Gregg Tavares. I'm new to the list. I hope can contribute more
> > than I take.
> >
> > I'm mostly a software engineer, not hardware so I'm looking for advice.
> >
> > I'm planning to build a el-wire display with 128 individually addressable
> > el-wires.  (yea, I know it's a ton of work)
> >
> > My current plan is an Arduino connected to 8 MCP23018 16-bit I/O expander
> > chips
> > <http://www.microchip.com/wwwproducts/Devices.aspx?dDocName=en537375
> >connected
> > in series with
> > 2 of these El Escudo boards
> > <http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9259>on
> each
> > of those along with these ifw-3294 power
> > inverters<http://www.coolight.com/product-p/ifw-3294.htm>
> >
> > It seems fairly straight forward. I'll take it a step at a time. If can
> get
> > 1 MCP23018 working with 2 El Escudo boards and 16 el-wires then it should
> be
> > pretty easy to chain in more of that combination to expand the number of
> > wires.
> >
> > The question I was hoping to ask is is there a better way? Should be
> looking
> > at different solutions? One big power inverter to power all the el-wires?
> > Some chip I'm unaware of that handle's more outputs?
> >
> > I'm grateful for any insight or advice you might have.
> >
> > thank you
> >
> > -gregg tavares
> >
>
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