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BeeHive-org / BeeHive

BeeHive: a flexible open hardware platform for behavioural experiments
MIT License
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Shift register on 4 output signals boards #19

Closed isobianin closed 3 years ago

isobianin commented 3 years ago

Questions have arisen while working on a high power LED switch array. It is highly likely that such array have a sufficient number of LED outputs which is 4. Therefore, the questions are:

1) Why bother with shift registers and addition of software libraries (referring to this comment), if an array board takes 4 pins from ESP32 regardless whether they operate a shift register or directly connected to drivers? 2) Could we omit a shift register on 4 switch array as it seems that it only adds unnecessary cost and complexity to the board? In FlyPi schematics, the given transistors worked fine while being directly controlled by Arduino pins.

amchagas commented 3 years ago

interesting. Is your idea just having an 8 pin shift register and scrap the 4 pin one?

isobianin commented 3 years ago

Hi @amchagas ,

not exactly. My idea is to get rid of a shift register (component) so the 4 switch array has no over-engineering. I believe that it is still an important asset as it will be relatively cheap and simple device while more complicated one (8 switch array) will have more outputs to offer

amchagas commented 3 years ago

Hi! Ah ok, I see. Indeed that makes a lot of sense. I would go for that (removing the shift register altogether).

isobianin commented 3 years ago

Made these changes in the latest update and moved the previous version (ver 3) to the "archive"