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I am working in a book store and I have the task of making an indication of a book place in the Library Cupboard with LEDs. I need to control about 300 LEDs with Arduino. What is the optimum way to do this task?
I think I can't use shift registers because I need to power each LED separately from the others.
I think I can't use shift registers because I need to power each LED separately from the others.
That sentence makes no sense. Shift registers, and LED power, are two separate things.
Your best bet is to use a chain of constant current sink LED driver shift registers, such as the STP16CP05.
If you want to get more decentralized and rugged you could think about grouping the LEDs together into small chunks, each chunk with its own microcontroller, and use something like RS-485 to create a backbone communication link between them all with a master device sending out the commands to tell slaves to turn LEDs on and off. That would be a better solution in a noisy industrial environment. Libraries are seldom noisy though ;)
The quickest way I know to throw together a quick prototype with dozens/hundreds/thousands of individually-controllable LEDs is to use a Digital LED Strip with an Arduino and an appropriate power supply and a few wires.
(These 2 kinds of LED strips already have the shift register chips built into the strip).
