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If you have ever checked out 555 projects on the net, you may have come across an LED chaser. For those old enough, it’s the same thing that Kitt used in Knight Rider!

However, where most LED chasers use around 10 LED’s, this build uses a matrix of 9 X 9 LEDS, making a total of 81!

The other difference in this build to your normal LED chaser is it includes to pulse width generators, curtesy of 2 555 timers. This allows you to make some really interesting patterns and shapes via 2 potentiometers that control the X and Y axis. I also included the ability to change the speed from slow to fast for each axis which gives you even more ability to change the patterns produced.

I have also designed a PCB for this build so you can easily build your own. There is quite a bit of soldering (81 LED’s plus heaps of transistors) so be prepared for an hour of soldering!

The end project however is definitely worth all that soldering. It’s a really fun and interesting build and I’ve been playing with every day.

The build was inspired by a project created by Eddy Bergman. He has built some great circuits and if you are interested in building a modular synth then this is the place to go!

Lastly, I build a small enclosure and designed a front panel to complete the build

Note - it’s not easy to film a lot of LED’s moving around due to the recording frame rate of a phone. What you see in the video looks different to what you see in real life.”

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