Description

The TLC59116 LED module is a constant-current 16 LED driver which works via the I2C bus!

When driving LEDs with this module, you won’t need to wire resistors to all your LEDs… and you can control the brightness of them in software!

You also won’t be limited to 3mA per LED as you would be if you were attempting to drive LEDs directly from the microcontroller’s pins. With this module you can supply each LED with a full 20mA, which is especially handy with those dim rectangular LEDs that are often used for ammo counters!

And, if you need more than 16 LEDs, you can chain multiple modules together or wire them in parallel. Each module has a set of pads on the bottom which you can bridge with solder to set that module’s I2C address!

The TLC59116 works with 3.3V or 5V logic, and can accept up to 5.5V on VCC and 17V on VIN.

Advanced users only!

The VCC/VIN jumper on the bottom of the module enables you to short VIN to VCC. This can enable you to power and control the module with only four wires, in certain circumstances!

If you don’t know when you may wish to do this, or when it’s safe to do so, you should probably leave that jumper alone, and connect your power supplies to both VCC and VIN!

Documentation

Demo

This demo for the Firecricket XL contains a couple classes to assist you in communicating with the chip and animating LEDs:

http://rabidprototypes.com/FirecricketXL/FirecricketXL-Demo.zip

Schematics

http://rabidprototypes.com/TLC59166/TLC59116-Eagle.zip

http://rabidprototypes.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/TLC59116-Schematic.png

Datasheet

http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/tlc59116.pdf