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Control LEDs with 74HC595 Shift Register

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This example shows how to use the MATLAB® Support Package for Arduino® Hardware to control multiple LEDs with two 74HC595 8-bit serial-in-parallel-out shift registers.

Hardware Requirements

  • Arduino board

  • Sixteen LEDs

  • Two 74HC595 8-bit serial-in-parallel-out shift registers

  • Sixteen 300-1K ohm resistors

  • Breadboard and wires

Hardware Setup

Connect LEDs and 74HC595 shift registers to Arduino hardware:

  • Connect Vcc pin on 74HC595 to 5V pin on Arduino hardware.

  • Connect GND and OE pins on 74HC595 to GND pin on Arduino hardware.

  • Connect DS or SER pin on 74HC595 to digital pin 8 on Arduino hardware.

  • Connect SHCP or SRCLK pin on 74HC595 to digital pin 9 on Arduino hardware.

  • Connect STCP or RCLK pin on 74HC595 to digital pin 10 on Arduino hardware.

  • Connect MR or SRCLR pin on 74HC595 to digital pin 11 on Arduino hardware.

  • Connect an LED through a resistor to each output of Q0-Q7 or QA-QH pins on the two 74HC595 shift registers.

Create Shift Register Object

Create an arduino object, and include the ShiftRegister library. 

   a = arduino('COM4','Uno','Libraries','ShiftRegister')
a = 
  arduino with properties:

                  Port: 'COM4'
                 Board: 'Uno'
         AvailablePins: {'D2-D13', 'A0-A5'}
  AvailableDigitalPins: {'D2-D13', 'A0-A5'}
      AvailablePWMPins: {'D3', 'D5-D6', 'D9-D11'}
   AvailableAnalogPins: {'A0-A5'}
    AvailableI2CBusIDs: [0]
             Libraries: {'ShiftRegister'}

Create shift register object, specifying the connected data pin, clock pin, latch pin, and reset pin. 

   dataPin = 'D8';
   clockPin = 'D9';
   latchPin = 'D10';
   resetPin = 'D11';
   register = shiftRegister(a,'74HC595',dataPin,clockPin,latchPin,resetPin)
register = 
  ShiftRegister with properties:

           Model: '74HC595'      
         DataPin: 'D8'           
        ClockPin: 'D9'           
        LatchPin: 'D10'          
        ResetPin: 'D11'

Light Up LEDs

To turn on the LEDs one after another, run the following command,

   sequenceTable = tril(ones(16));
   for count = 1:16
       write(register,sequenceTable(count,:),'uint16');
       pause(0.5);
   end

To turn off all LEDs at once, call reset on the shift register object,

    reset(register);

Clean Up

When the connection is no longer needed, clear the shift register and arduino object.

  clear register a