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

[Gregg Tavares]

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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