Patent ID: 8492983

Claim:
A system for controlling a plurality of LEDs, comprising one or more serial data busses to convey binary digital information, comprising: a) a Bus Controller, which controls one or more LED Units, which are connected to each other and to the Bus Controller via a serial data bus, and which Bus Controller executes user-defined programs which describe the behavior of the various LED Units in terms of brightness, time, and any other relevant parameters; b) one or more LED Units, each of which has two data ports: port A, which faces the Bus Controller on the serial data bus, and port B, which faces away from the Bus Controller on the serial data bus and each of which LED Units performs the functions of: i) receiving on port A data packets comprised of an address field and a data field; ii) retransmitting on port B packets which have been received on port A, after modifying the address field by one; iii) controlling the brightness of the LED Unit's associated with one or more LEDs based on the one or more commands encoded in the data field of packets which are received on port A of the LED Unit and which have an address field which is set to a value which is expected by the LED Unit.