Single PIC to Blink 5 LEDs Independently?

[RossWaddell]

you can do that easily if you want them all to dim at the same rate using the PICs PWM going into the gate of a seperate FET with its drain tied to all the fets, sources. and its source to ground, this adds a ~.5v voltage drop but you can compensate by adjusting your pots.

I did this on a guys truck, he wanted 2 sets of floorboard lights, operated from a single pushbutton, but he also wanted to control their brightness, it was easy enought to set a 2 bit binary output to 2 FETS, and have them tied to a 3rd FET that was drivin by the PWM pin. and I just used a POT to set the PWM, and a button to select the lights (left, right, both, off).

But did the LEDs blink? It sounds like your LEDs were steady-on with brightness control. For my application, I need to control the brightness of blinking LEDs. You can see the full code file above (created by Darrel) but I think the relevant portion is:

CCPR1val      CON EXT      : @CCPR1val = (OSC*1000000/4)/ BLINKYFREQ
;CCPR1         VAR WORD EXT : @CCPR1 = CCPR1L
Timer1        VAR WORD EXT : @Timer1 = TMR1L
CCPIF         VAR PIR1.2

;----[Initialize on/off periods & random sequencing (if enabled)]---------------
;    (only randomize first 5 blinkies; 6th is strobe which must remaing constant)
;    (running lights (7th) are set up separately)
FOR x = 0 to (LEDcount - 2)           ; Load the periods from EEPROM
    READ OnTimes+x, OnTime(x)
    READ OffTimes+x, OffTime(x)
    #IFDEF USE_RANDOM_SEQUENCE
        IF x < 5 THEN
            READ RandPeriods+(x<<1), WORD RandPeriod(x)
        ENDIF
    #ENDIF
NEXT X

;-- setup CCP1 and Start Timer1 --
CCPR1   = CCPR1val          ; set compare value
CCP1CON = %00001011         ; compare mode, special event 
Timer1  = 0                 ; clear Timer1
T1CON.0 = 1                 ; start Timer1

;----[Main Program Loop]----------------------------------------
Main: 
    ' Check if flash mode has changed
    IF FlashMode <> Old_FlashMode Then
        Old_FlashMode = FlashMode
        GOSUB SetNavLtsFlashRates
    EndIF 

    x = (x + 1) // LEDcount
    PORTB.1(x) = !!(LoopLED(x) < OnTime(x))
    LoopLED(x) = (LoopLED(x) + 1) // (OnTime(x) + OffTime(x))
    #IFDEF USE_RANDOM_SEQUENCE
        IF x < 5 THEN
            RandPeriod(x) = RandPeriod(x) - 1
            IF RandPeriod(x) = 0 THEN
                READ RandPeriods+(x<<1), WORD RandPeriod(x)
                RANDOM RND
                OnTime(x) = (MAX_ON - MIN_ON)* RND.HighByte / 255 + MIN_ON 
                OffTime(x)= (MAX_OFF - MIN_OFF)* RND.LowByte / 255 + MIN_OFF
            ENDIF
        ENDIF
    #ENDIF
    IF x != (LEDcount - 1) THEN Main

Waiting: IF !CCPIF THEN Waiting
    CCPIF = 0
GOTO Main