Building a chasing LED...Thing

[NonOffensiveNameHere]

I want to configure some sort of way to make LEDs chase or flash or do somthing. I ordered 200 of them and want to rig somthing up for my computer. (probobly not using all 200 at once)

I found this And the only thing on there I don't know what really is is the Integrated Circuit Chips. I did sommore research and found this.

I never took a very high electronics class so I don't know much about those. Any insight helpful.

 

[Heisenberg]

The IC is what controls the actual flashing. It's possible to design something like that from scratch using fairly standard IC chips, but a kit definitely easier, especially if you're not all that familiar with digital logic and circuit design.

 

[element]

Usually it's done with decade counters but I did it once with an intel 8751 microcontroller. I had 24 leds (8 bit x 3) flashing one after another and then back again (like on the KITT car on Knight Rider or is that Night Rider? I forget)

 

[NonOffensiveNameHere]

What type of chips should look for then? I would get that kit but its only ten and its big and middle school looking. I also have to figure out which power on the computer it will goto. Mayber just wiring a bunch of them up in a line would be good enough if this is too hard.

 

[Pepsi90919]

this is why god made shift registers

 

[jmcoreymv]

I just did this exact thing using 1 bit shift registers programmed into a Xilinx CPLD. So theres one way to do it.

 

[hevnsnt]

here are plenty of free schems that can solve your problem.

 

[NonOffensiveNameHere]

Those are some awesome schematics but I noticed most of them run off of 9V. How would I get it on a comp? I tried figurring out what shift registers are but wouldent know what to get or how to use them. This is as far as I got and then went, Wow slow down there.

 

[dighn]

they probably work on 5v (possibly requiring minor modifications). if not you can get a voltage regular for 9v and hook it up to 12+

but of course the details depend on which design u choose

 

[BornStar]

I've got a lot of 5V ICs and LEDs that I used for my circuit design class. They're extremely easy to come by.