There are likely current limitations on each on so even if you map a matrix for the keys, driving LEDs directly or with pwm will probably draw too much. Also it seems to be 3.3V so you may need to consider that too. I didn't get a good look at the details, just a quick glance on my phone while feeding my daughter.
It may be a good idea to look into one of their led driver boards on that site for controlling an led matrix. Just my ¢2
I see about 23 IO pins so you can candle a quite large KB matrix. Note that this is 3.3V instead of 5V. The main reason to use this instead of a teensy or arduino pro micro is that it has a battery charger onboard? Do you plan to use bluetooth and a battery?
For the LED: you will need a separate matrix for them or an IO expander chip driving the LED matrix or some other way of getting more IO available. Another option is to do it like the corsair RGB and have dedicated LED controller chips (of which there are many). The downside of that though is having to modify the firmware to support.
edit: ninja'd by neverused. Glad to see we both have the same recommendations.
Rather than using that breakout board, you could just use a teensy, it should be cheaper and will documented here. With regards to communication between the MCU and the MAX7219, you may be able to just hook up the equivalent pins (VCC, CLOCK, DIN, GND, and CS) to the teensy and run the code along side the tmk / soarer/ etc iteration that you choose. I have never done this myself, but I know there must be some here with more useful input than myself. I'm more BME than EEE.
There are likely current limitations on each on so even if you map a matrix for the keys, driving LEDs directly or with pwm will probably draw too much. Also it seems to be 3.3V so you may need to consider that too. I didn't get a good look at the details, just a quick glance on my phone while feeding my daughter.
It may be a good idea to look into one of their led driver boards on that site for controlling an led matrix. Just my ¢2
Thank you! I have some concerns.Show Image(http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/Dev/Arduino/Other/LED8X8Kit.jpg)
This is a schematic for this LED Matrix kit (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11861), using that MAX7219 chip. In their example code (http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/Kits/LED_Matrix_Kit_Example.ino) I can see they have assigned the individual LEDs to form the specific letter.
My question is, how do I communicate with this chip through the teensy? I know the D2/D3 ports are RX TX and I could use them for that. Because I know that if I want to make patterns like ducky's ripple effect, the software would need to send code through that MAX7219 chip so that the LEDs light up in that specific pattern. For the time being, I'm sure my limited coding knowledge can allow all LEDs to light up and eventually have a great soul help with the pattern coding. I'm not too strong with the software side, I apologize if I'm not making sense.
There are likely current limitations on each on so even if you map a matrix for the keys, driving LEDs directly or with pwm will probably draw too much. Also it seems to be 3.3V so you may need to consider that too. I didn't get a good look at the details, just a quick glance on my phone while feeding my daughter.
It may be a good idea to look into one of their led driver boards on that site for controlling an led matrix. Just my ¢2
Thank you! I have some concerns.Show Image(http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/Dev/Arduino/Other/LED8X8Kit.jpg)
This is a schematic for this LED Matrix kit (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11861), using that MAX7219 chip. In their example code (http://dlnmh9ip6v2uc.cloudfront.net/datasheets/Kits/LED_Matrix_Kit_Example.ino) I can see they have assigned the individual LEDs to form the specific letter.
My question is, how do I communicate with this chip through the teensy? I know the D2/D3 ports are RX TX and I could use them for that. Because I know that if I want to make patterns like ducky's ripple effect, the software would need to send code through that MAX7219 chip so that the LEDs light up in that specific pattern. For the time being, I'm sure my limited coding knowledge can allow all LEDs to light up and eventually have a great soul help with the pattern coding. I'm not too strong with the software side, I apologize if I'm not making sense.
I looked at the manufacturers website on that LED controller, and it is meant for driving seven segment displays. You can individually control the segments so it will work for controlling 64 LEDs individually. But I didn't see any mention of it having brightness control, and considering its intended application it doesn't make sense for it to have it. You could still make something similar to the effects on a ducky, but IMO they wouldn't look as good without the fading. If you want to make a board with more than 64 keys you could control each column (or control pairs, but that doesn't seem very useful) but your effects would be limited to always on or off, breathing and wave.