NeonShift — 74HC595 Binary LED Animator

About this project

Control 8 LEDs with just 3 Arduino pins using a 74HC595 shift register -- the same technique used in SPI peripherals, LED driver ICs, and digital-to-analog converters. Five animation modes each demonstrate a different bitwise operation in real time: Binary Counter (uint8_t overflow wrapping), Knight Rider (left-shift scan), Cascade Fill (OR accumulation), Alternating Checker (XOR toggle), and Random Burst (random byte generation). Two buttons cycle through modes and speeds. The WOW moment: run the binary counter at maximum speed at a college exhibition -- the LEDs blur into patterns and anyone who understands computers will stop and watch. Build time: 2-3 hours. No libraries needed -- just shiftOut(), millis(), and 3 wires to the IC.

What you get

• Complete, commented source code
• Full components list with quantities
• Pin-by-pin wiring guide and connection table
• Step-by-step upload and testing guide
• Project report (.docx, IEEE style)
• Presentation slides (.pptx)