LED Matrix

I've been keen on these LED matrix displays for many years, but was pleasantly surprised at how cheap they are nowadays. I got a few with green LEDs and made two of them up into a display unit, with five driver transistors. The LED matrix displays are made by Kingbright, part number TA12-11GWA. The five PNP driver transistors are 2N3703 types, with 680Ω base resistors. The ribbon cable connects them to the same Atmel ATmega8 microcontroller that I used for the POV Wand. The driver transistors connect the LED anodes to the 5V power supply, while the 74LS373 chips on the breadboard connect the cathodes to ground, via 220Ω resistors. Software on the ATmega8 chip drives the whole thing, providing the multiplexing signals.

My plan is to write simple games (maybe Pong) for the 10×7 pixel display. Rather like the Mignon Game Kit, only with more pixels.