Step 11 : Anode connections to panel


On this picture you see I have added some numbers. Connect your anode row connections from the two cat5's you connected down the side of the panel to these pads. The top row is # 1 and the bottom row is #16. These provide the power to operate the led’s. And are you driver connections.

Step 12 : Cathode Connections


On this picture I have added numbers to show the order of connections from the cathodes or columns to connect the cables along the bottom to. When looking at the sign from the front make sure you connect these so #1 is at the right. Or the software will not work correctly.

Step 13 : Trade off's


This design has the same trade off's that all interlaced designs do. Since we are only turning the led’s on for 1/16 the time it takes much more current during that 1/16 to lit them up bright if system hung. Such as your computer locking up etc. the row its on could stay powered and since we are sending more current than the led’s operate on normally while it will not burn them out immediately it could shorten the life of the led’s. I have not had this happen but my computer is very reliable. This is the trade off. The ultimate fix is to add a watchdog circuit monitoring the clock signal and if the clock stops for very long pull the inhibit pin of the 74HC4514 high which would shut all drivers off, no current, no led’s can get cooked, but this was not in the scope of the project at this time. But something I will look into once I get the software where I want it.

The picture is just before I sprayed the whole back with the plastic coat. Notice the 6 cat5 cables along the bottom and the 2 along the side.

Step 14 : The Software


Vixen cannot I am afraid drive this design. I tried but not only is the update rate needed too fast for vixen, the interface does not lead itself to designing graphics. This is not a shortcoming in vixen its a screw driver and we needed a hammer to run this. I have created a program for this purpose. I am not ready to release it public yet but will as soon as I clean it up some. I will tell you I am not KC. It will not be on the professional level of Vixen but it will do what I want to do which is text and full control graphics. I have spoke with KC and he is excited after seeing the test of LedTriks and wants to make vixen integrate with it. I fully plan to take advantage of this and make this as seamless as possible. I expect to have a rough beta out with in a month, sooner for some of those with hardware done who want to test.
I have included a screen capture of the program which I also call "LedTriks' in its current crude state.
Do to LedTriks being a animation board as opposed to a scrolling text banner I designed it based on frames. You can have the software create any text frames automatically for you by typing the text and having it auto generate the text. But to create graphics we select the led’s we want on by click them on and then we hit save frame. You also can save the frame as a named graphic in the database for later use. This creates more complications in the software but adds flexibility in being able to create anything that will fit the board.

It is my vision to use LedTriks as my sign before and after the show and it be part of the show during.

Step 15 : Final words

I will warn everyone before starting this that wiring the panel is a lot of work. The rest of the hard work is done for you. It will take you 16 hrs or more to wire it. But I think when you look at what you get from it and what the cost is it is well worth it. I am planning on building 1 - 2 more and would be interested in hearing other panel building techniques as there’s always better and easier ways of doing everything. I think it will be a big part of my display. Hope you build one and hope you enjoy it. I have tested it with Vixen running a show on one lpt port and LedTriks running on the second one and it worked flawlessly.
I am running a fairly fast system. I don’t expect any reasonable system to be a problem. Thanks for taking the time to read my How to I hope I have giving you some useful information and that if you do not build a LedTriks you learn something from the information. If you have Questions I can usually be found as RJ on
CC, vixen or its forum.

RJ