How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc?


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  1. #1
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    Default How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc?

    Hello.

    I connected 6 pieces of APA102C to 16F886 and they all work fine, control appears to be quite straightforward and simple:

    SHIFTOUT di, ci, 1, [%00000000,%00000000,%00000000,%00000000] - to initialize transfer and then
    SHIFTOUT di, ci, 1, [%11111111,B,G,R] - enables 1st led in a row at color defined with BGR values and common brightness register value.

    The issue I see, is that I want to illuminate say led #4, I have to keep in 6 variables values for all leds, and actually "redraw" the whole led string. Or another solution is, to have array with length of the led string attached, update data in it, and have one common "refresh" routine, which reads data in array and updates it all at once. But both this methods will be significantly slow, in case of say 150 or more leds, since shiftout is software routine, and when I tried to do scrolling marque with 4x MAX7219 8x8 led matrices, the slow redraw speed was quite noticeable.

    So are there any other, more efficient and faster ways, so say if I want to update led #240, in 256 led string, won't have to "redraw" the complete led string.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    From what I've read, if you're running 256 LEDs, you get them where you want them now, but to change #240 requires shooting out 256 color commands. Is this your only option, or might there be another alternative to achieve your goals? You haven't really stated what you're building, just what your intended approach is. As far as the 256 Variables, if you're running into Memory shortages, you could try a newer PIC with more Memory.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    Actually, I'm not doing anything so far, just in future, I want to make a small RGB display, 192 X 12 pixels, using these LEDs. My experience with 64x8 LED displays, based on 4 x MAX7219 was not so good, because this "serial" method of needing to update everything at each time, required complete re-send of data to display, which was quite lagging, and won't allow to do some cool animation or smooth scrolling.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    18F46K40 can run at least 4 of these 16x32 [512led] modules, possibly 6
    @25 fps(as a back ground task)


    two colour



    full 24bit rgb on esp8266
    Last edited by richard; - 22nd January 2022 at 11:11.
    Warning I'm not a teacher

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    It is not about what can run what, it is about efficiency.
    As another solution, I think, led decoders like HT16K33+discrete RGB LED or similar can be used.
    With APA102C, 1 shiftout statement updates color of 1 pixel (3 leds )
    In case of HT16K33, 3 shiftout statement will update color of 8 pixels (24 leds), so resulting speed will be 8/3=2.6 times higher.
    So I'm seeking for solution in that way.
    Of course, there are specialized RGB display modules and controllers, but their issue is, that they either have gigantic brightness, or their pixel distance is very sparse. And I want to make compact display for indoor use - discrete RGB leds are available in 0805 package, and APA102C/WS2812 are available in 1206 package.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    With APA102C, 1 shiftout statement updates color of 1 pixel (3 leds )
    In case of HT16K33, 3 shiftout statement will update color of 8 pixels (24 leds), so resulting speed will be 8/3=2.6 times higher.
    apa102 16million colours, 32 level global power control
    HT16K33 8 colours no power control

    dmd panels come in p2.5 p3 etc to p10 the number is the pixel grid spacing in mm
    dmd panels are just shift registers multiplexed in 4 row pair strings there is no controller as such

    if you want the complexity of colour and power level control on a per pixel basis you need to store and transfer
    the info to represent it, there is no simple
    Warning I'm not a teacher

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    ht16k33 was just an example, note the "or similar" in my post - I don't exactly remember which holtek chip has individual brightness control, but there are some, they're installed in these commercial color rgb panels.

    Yes, 2.5mm spacing, that is huge in 2.5 x 2.5 mm area, where you will have 4 RGB pixels, with SMT leds, you can have 3x3 or even 4x4 RGB pixels.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    Since the LEDs effectively ARE shift registers daisychained together there is no way to update a single LED, you doneed to refresh the complete string. But if you design a 192x12 display you could, for example have 12 separate strings of 192 leds so that you could update the display row by row - if that helps.

    You'll need a PIC with lots of RAM though, 192x12x3=6912 bytes to hold the display data.

    And, since you talk about efficiency, forget SHIFTOUT and start using the MSSP module or the SPI module on the newer PICs instead.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    192x12x3=6912 bits == 864 bytes

    Warning I'm not a teacher

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    Each color value is 8 bit, so it is 6912 bytes, not bits But that's ok, I'll use external EEPROM as display buffer.
    MSSP would be great, but no PBP support as far as I know - need to use ASM....

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    it would be difficult to pack rgb leds more tightly than these
    p3 64x64 p4 32x64 modules
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    Name:  p3.jpg
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    and they work, limited to 8 colours with pbp
    Warning I'm not a teacher

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    Yes, bottom ones are 3030 leds. And they're placed sparsely.
    Now check footprint of 1206 or 0805 enclosure and compare sizes

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    Quote Originally Posted by CuriousOne View Post
    Each color value is 8 bit, so it is 6912 bytes, not bits But that's ok, I'll use external EEPROM as display buffer.
    MSSP would be great, but no PBP support as far as I know - need to use ASM....
    Say what? You start the thread about efficiency and then you're going to use external memory as display buffer?

    There is zero need for any assembly code to operate the MMSP module (or the SPI module on the Q devices for that matter).

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    If you just need more RAM for a display buffer there are much faster devices than an external EEPROM, like the 23LC512 serial SPI SRAM.
    Also, since SHIFTOUT runs at approx 50KHz, you could even write your own dedicated version that would be MUCH faster than that, although using the MSSP/SPI peripheral is pretty straight forward and would easily get you into the multi-MHz range.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    Where I can learn about that MSSP in PBP ?

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    On the Data Sheet of each PIC you will use. You learn the ins and outs of the sub section of the PIC and the registers that you have to manipulate directly.

    PBP had nothing to do with the MSSP/SPI section other than setting bits in the registers.

    Ioannis

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    Well someone above, called Henrik , said that PBP is supporting it directly, this is why I asked

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    If you go to Microchip.com and type MSSP or SPI or I2C into the Search window, then click on Application Notes in the left column, there are numerous Application Notes on how these peripherals function, and how to put them to use. Code is usually in ASM and/or C, but the concepts are outlined extremely well.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    I did not say PBP have high level commands to drive your specific device using the MSSP module - no - I said you don't need any assembly language to use the MSSP module.

    You configure the module by writing values to a couple of registers. (Should it run in SPI or I2C mode, what clock frequency, MSB/LSB first and so on). It's the same procedure as configuring an I/O for the correct mode by setting TRIS and ANSEL or to select what clock source to use for the ADC by writing to ADCONx (or whatever). But if you're not prepared to read a couple of pages in the datasheet then forget it and stick with SHIFTOUT.

    Sometimes users seems to think that TRIS, CMCON, ANSEL, ADCON and what not are commands - they are not. They are registers in the PIC to which can write by simply assigning a value to them, TRISA=127 or read myVar = CMCON. That's as basic as it gets and doing that to a few registers are all it takes to configure the MSSP module. Sending a byte is then as simple as writing said byte to another registers and out it goes. Again, just take 1h and READ the datasheet.

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    Default Re: How you directly access serially chained devices, like LEDS, shift registers, etc

    is your google broken

    "site: picbasic.co.uk/forum/ spi"

    "site: picbasic.co.uk/forum/ mssp"
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