Electronic – LED persistence of vision (POV) project

atmegaledmicrocontrollerpov

I recently saw an article with a LED cube 8x8x8. I saw that it relies on an optical phenomenon called persistence of vision (POV).

So I wanted to create a simple circuit with 4 lines each one with one LED, that will light up with a frequency that will give the illusion that they light up all the time. (I know how to light up 4 LEDs but I want it simple now to catch the point)

Can someone help me and tell me what parts should I need to create this?
I have an Atmega 16L microcontroller. Can I complete this without any other chip?
Can I achieve this also with 555 and flip flops?

EDIT:

Sorry if I cant be understandable.

I want a simple circuit like the one in the below picture that will light up each strip for a certain time.This time must be sort enough to see a constant lighting.

The black box is whatever parts it will need because I dont know them.

enter image description here

Best Answer

Yes, you can do a POV application with your ATmega16L and a bunch of LEDs and resistors and some clever programming.

The simplest POV application I've seen and that I have incidentally built is an Arduino shield called Blinkenlight.

This particular board has a set of 20 inline LEDs that you can program to display the POV effect. You can then achieve the POV effect by waving it around in the dark. So, it's mechanical and human powered (yes, your arm will get tired after playing with it for a while).

Image of Blinkenlight Arduino shield

It's based on Arduino Uno and related boards, but you can easily build your own standalone version and even modify it to use your ATmega16L.

Here's a few pictures of the POV effect in action:

POV effect example 1 POV effect example 2 POV effect example 3

The idea behind the circuit is quite simple, you just have to wire a LED and its corresponding series current limiting resistor to every digital output pins you have available (as in the schematic below). The rest is programming.

Blinken light schematics

The board can do a few other tricks as well, such as The Night Rider effect and more.