This project has been frozen for some time but I’ve picked it up again, not much progress has been done mainly because I don’t have the electronic components. Buying them in Ireland is a bit expensive so I mainly use Ebay to get them form UK or Asia. The problem with Ebay is that it takes time for the components to arrive.
Anyway I’ve been playing around with shift register 74HC595 as I’ve ran out of digital PWM pins on my arduino. By using only 3 digital pins and 74HC595 I can control 8 LEDs but it is also possible to add more 74HC595 and that means more LEDs without using more digital outputs.
The problem is that for my application 74HC595 is not suitable as it does not support PWM. It is possible to make LEDs fade using code but I did not like the results that I was getting.
The solution is to use TLC5940 which supports PWM. So back to the drawing board
Tags: arduino, automatic stair lights
