Summary of AVR ATmega8 Project LED Moving Message Display using ATmega8 microcontroller
This project demonstrates the construction of a modular, cascaded LED message scroller using an AVR microcontroller, specifically the ATmega8. The display consists of multiple 15x7 LED matrix modules, each driven by a ULN2003 IC and two shift registers for column control, with serial data input and row multiplexing. Up to four modules can be controlled to create a 60x7 pixel display. The system uses a low-cost development board as the controller, programmed in C with AVR Studio and the GNU C compiler.
Parts used in the LED Moving Message Display Project:
- ATmega8 AVR Microcontroller
- 15x7 LED matrix module
- ULN2003 row driver IC
- Two shift register ICs (for columns)
- Low cost AVR development board
- 5V power supply
An interesting project that can be done using Microcontroller is a LED message scroll er. It teaches you a quite lot of things. So I decided to make one. I made the hardware design modular and cascadeble That means the whole display is made up of several 15×7 modules. Each module has everything to drive 15×7 led matrix which includes a ULN2003 row driver IC and two shift register IC to drive the 15 columns. Data is loaded serially into the 15 columns. and multiplexing is done along the row.
The 15×7 Smart LED Board.
The Controller Board.
Any cheap AVR MCU like a ATmega8 can be used to control this board (also up to 4 such boards which give a total of 60px by 7px display). We are using our low cost development board as the controller to the LED matrix board. This board can be purchased at a price as low as Rs. 249 including the MCU ! So wiring this project is a matter of ten minutes !
Connecting The Display Module with Devboard.
PIN No | PIN Name | Devboard PIN |
1 | GND | GND |
2 | N/C | |
3 | +5V IN | +5V out |
4 | N/C | |
5 | Serial Data In | PB0 |
6 | ST_CP | PB2 |
7 | SH_CP | PB1 |
8 | ROW A | PD0 |
9 | ROW B | PD1 |
10 | ROW C | PD2 |
11 | ROW D | PD4 |
12 | ROW E | PD5 |
13 | ROW F | PD6 |
14 | ROW G | PD7 |
Program
The program is written in C language and compiled using the free GNU C compiler for AVR Platform. The Project manager is AVR Studio 4. More information on how to install and use these software tool please see the following article.
For more detail: AVR ATmega8 Project LED Moving Message Display using ATmega8 microcontroller
