Setting up the light show...................................................................
The circuit won’t mean a thing if you don’t set up the lights for it to control.
That’s where the elements of the LED/resistor arrays come in. An array, in
this case, equals the lights that define one whole dolphin.
These five arrays each include
38 LEDs, which light up when a river of current runs through them
19 resistors,which are resistors that limit the current running through
the LEDs in series with each resistor to approximately 10 milliamps
Take a look at the schematic for these in Figure 10-4. Notice that we have not
assigned a number to each LED and resistor. That is because we have 190
LEDs and 95 resistors among the 5 dolphins — and we don’t have time.
These LEDs and resistors are wired together such that two LEDs and one
resistor are in series. When +V is applied, current runs through each compo-
nent sequentially. Each group of two LEDs and one resistor are connected
parallel with the other groups of LEDs and resistor. Because 19 LED/resistor
groups are in each array, the total current running through an array is
approximately 190 milliamps.
Square Wave
Pin 3
Pin 2
Pin 4
Pin 7
Pin 10
Figure 10-3:
You put in
one square
wave to get
out multiple
sequential
little pulses.
Chapter 10: Dancing Dolphins 219