I would much prefer to use spare I/O from the MCU. However, the max current from all I/O combined, Sunk=200mA, Sourced=185mA, and I will exceed both if/when driving a full row of 16 LED's, 15-20mA a piece. I could limit the LED current further, but I certainly don't want to drop it too much. The more "eye-catching", the better. Is there any chance I'm overlooking something here?
This part is just one of many I've come across during my search that solve this problem, though, maybe I'm over engineering this.
Thank-you for the input!
-EF