I have a standard 7.5 vdc 1 AMP power supply (wall transformer - regulated down to 5vdc) for my projects. However, if I have a 16x16 LED matrix with 256 LEDs total that are let's say 10 mA each. That means that the total current required for just turning on ALL the LEDs are 2.56 Amps - not to mention the micro-controller, any external IC's, etc. Does this sound right? I have a scrolling LED message hardware/software that works fine on my 1 Amp Power Supply. Certainly I never have all 100 LEDs on at the same time but I have in a test program before and it looked ok to me but not super bright. Most of the time I need to turn the Lights out to make it look it's best. Should I be using a 3 Amp power supply? Could this be the reason why it is not brighter. It is not bad now but certainly not like any of the new super bright LEDs that have higher MCD ratings.
Since I made my original LED matrix from hand soldering 256 Jameco (3- 100 pks) 5mm LEDs, I have recently purchased some bi-color LED matrix "modules" (no solding the matrix together). Since they are bi-colored that means that each 8x8 module really has 128 LEDs (64 red and 64 green with a common cathode). This means that my 16x16 matrix (4 8x8 modules) will really use 32x16 or 512 LEDs being 5.12 Amps. I supose that means that the RED and GREEN LEDs would both have to be on - which I believe that's possible although I don't know what RED and GREEN LEDs both being on at the same time would look like anyway. So to be clear, I believe in this case I would only want 1 LED from each segment on (either red or green) at any time meaning only 2.56 Amps (or ~3 Amp power supply) if that makes sense.
Do I need a 5.5 or 3 Amp power supply? Where can I get this (if I really need one). Am I missing something here? I have never seen any wall tranformer more than 1 or 2 amps.
Does any of this make sense?
I would love to hear your ideas, comments about this.
Thanks for listening!
Since I made my original LED matrix from hand soldering 256 Jameco (3- 100 pks) 5mm LEDs, I have recently purchased some bi-color LED matrix "modules" (no solding the matrix together). Since they are bi-colored that means that each 8x8 module really has 128 LEDs (64 red and 64 green with a common cathode). This means that my 16x16 matrix (4 8x8 modules) will really use 32x16 or 512 LEDs being 5.12 Amps. I supose that means that the RED and GREEN LEDs would both have to be on - which I believe that's possible although I don't know what RED and GREEN LEDs both being on at the same time would look like anyway. So to be clear, I believe in this case I would only want 1 LED from each segment on (either red or green) at any time meaning only 2.56 Amps (or ~3 Amp power supply) if that makes sense.
Do I need a 5.5 or 3 Amp power supply? Where can I get this (if I really need one). Am I missing something here? I have never seen any wall tranformer more than 1 or 2 amps.
Does any of this make sense?
I would love to hear your ideas, comments about this.
Thanks for listening!
