2x LED driver breakout + SMD parts

Please note: there is a small error in the labelling on these boards. When wiring up the board, you will need to swap 2 signal lines as shown in the 3rd image. Accidentally swapping those 2 signals will NOT do any harm to the board! I will put a reminder onto these boards, most likely a sticker on the back side.

The Macroblock MBI5167 can be used like the ubiquitous 74HC595 shift register, but is capable of sinking up to 120mA per channel (assuming ideal cooling conditions).

LED current is set with a potentiometer. It can be used with the Arduino ShiftPWM library, which provides 8-bit PWM capability and individual LED brightness control.

Specs:

• 8 channels with constant current control
• MBI5167: up to 45mA current sink per channel (depends on cooling and supply voltage)
• LED current is set with one external potentiometer
• LED supply voltage up to 17V, but it is recommended not to use more than N x V(led) + 0.7V
• Can drive up to 5 3V white LEDs per channel (wired in series)
• Output enable pin, which can be used for global dimming
• SPI interface (data, clock, latch)

List of parts:

• 1x MBI5167 SO-16
• 1x resistor (I-max: 45mA)
• 1x 100nF capacitor
• 1x 4.7µF capacitor
• 1x printed circuit board

Required to get started:

• Basic through-hole soldering skills
• Soldering iron + solder
• 1k-ish potentiometer out of your junk-box (may be bridged if no adjustment is needed)
• power supply ( V ⪆ #of-leds * V(led) + 0.7 )
• LEDs of your choice + wire
• micro-controller to drive it

Applications:

A board like this is quite useful during the x-mas season. You can quickly turn a dull window into a light-show that the neighbours will "love" ;-) And there's also Halloween... With just one of these, a micro-controller to control it, some plywood and a bit of creative wiring, you could build an artificial night-sky with 40 blinking / fading stars (8 chains with 5 LEDs each). A nice Arduino project for beginners.