INTERFACING DOT MATRIX LED DISPLAY

WITH AN AT89C51 MICROCONTROLLER

When we want to construct LED Dot Matrix, lets know about how to drive
LED and which resistance is added to protect LED.

Below figure describes about how to make LED using the 5v supply. If we
connect directly 5v supply to LED, it may get damaged. For that, we
connect a resistor in series with the resistor. Current flowing through the
LED scrolling sign can be described as load current. For better brightness
20mA is needed to glow LED, so load current is 20mA and LED takes 2v to
turn ON.

LED dot matrix display

An LED dot matrix display consists of a matrix of LEDs arranged in a rectangular

configuration. The desired character or graphics can be displayed by switching
ON /OFF a desired configuration of LEDs. Common display configurations available
are 75, 88, 715, etc. LED dot matrix can be used in simple display applications
where the resolution is not a big concern. The figure below shows the arrangement
of LEDs in a typical 75 dot matrix display.

Any individual LED or a group of LEDs in the matrix can be activated by

switching the required number of rows and columns. For example, in the
above figure if Row1 is made high and Column1 is made low, the top left
LED (address R1C1) will glow. As a demonstration, lets see how we can
display letter A using the display.
Circuit diagram.

ULN2003A driver IC.

The purpose of ULN2003A here is to drive the column lines of the display.
ULN2003A is a high voltage (50V), high current (500mA per channel)
darlington transistor array. Each IC has 7 channels with individual output
clamp diodes. ULN2003A an active high device, which means a logic high
must be applied to the input to make the corresponding output high. The
input pins are designated as 1B, 2B, 3B, 4B, 5B, 6B, 7B while
corresponding output pins are designated as 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, 5C, 6C, 7C.
While in programming if we use assembly language the type of instruction
will be

MOV P3,#01111110B

But if we use C language programming then It would be as follows;

Before getting to interfacing anything you need to have some
background knowledge of how it all works. The dot matrix display has 64
LEDs and evenly grouped into 8 columns and 8 rows.

Looking at the diagram 1, for the LED in column 1, row 1

to be on, there has to be a HIGH (1) sent to Pin 13 and a LOW(0) sent to
Pin 9. Similarly, for the LED in column 5, row 7 to be on, a HIGH has to be
sent to Pin 6 and a low to Pin 2.

There are many programs online that could help you create the HEX value
for the character, number or shape you want to display on the LED Display.
Or you can calculate the HEX value by drawing small circles on a piece of
paper in the form of an 8x8 dot matrix and then shade the ones you want to
turn as shown in diagram 2.

The HEX code to display a 1 is

{0x00,0x00,0x80,0xfe,0x84,0x00,0x00,0x00}.
So for this code, take it we start from the bottom right corner, right where it
says column 1, row 1. For the first two columns the code is 0x00. In the
third column, the value is 0x80, which is 1000 0000 in binary. So the first
LED in the third column will be on. Then for the fourth column, we have
0xFE so all LEDs will be on except the last one since its binary code is
1111 1110. And in the fifth column we have 0x84,which is 1000 0100. So
the first LED in row 1 and the sixth LED will be on. The last three columns
will not be on because their respective values are all 0x00.So if you want to
display a new character and you want to find out the HEX code for that, you
can use this method to derive the HEX code