IITM Research Park

Build a Rolling LED Display

LED based display boards have been the face of the 90s technological revolution, that has now grown in complexity and offers extremely precise colors and definition. But the fundamentals of the technology is largely misunderstood. What are “display boards” and how do seemingly simple bulbs work together to form words and images? This project throws light on how to build these display boards.

  • Understand the concept of embedded systems, ST microcontroller, different components of the microcontroller and their interactions.
  • Understand the key concepts of embedded systems such as hardware, software, I/O, timers, interrupts, and interaction with peripheral devices.
  • Understanding the Dexter board
  • Get familiarized with programming environment (IDE) to develop embedded software
  • How to program Dexter to perform various tasks.
  • How to build a basic application and debug using the IDE
  • Build an 8×8 rolling LED display
  • Develop an application code for rolling LED display using a dot matrix display (MAX7219) controlled by Dexter
  • Create a new project in STM32Cube IDE
  • Map the GPIO pins, Communication interfaces
  • Interface the LED driver with Dexter
  • Build application software and flash it onto the Dexterboard
  • Run the application software

Basic programming languages (C / Embedded C)

High Level Instruction