7 Segment LED Display Modules
For a project, I needed to display some numbers. There are of course a lot of different way to approach this, but a cheap (and presumably easy) way is to get some old fashioned 7 segment LED display modules.
The 7 segment LED displays literally consist of 7 LEDs arranged in a way where numbers can be displayed. From a random datasheet they are all arranged like this:
In other words, to drive 1 digit one would need 8 GPIOs.
This is of course quite hard if one were to drive 4 or 8 digits (4 x 8 = 32 or 8 x 8 = 64 GPIOs needed).
As is quite usual with me, I might (as can be seen on the photo to the right) have overdone it a bit and I managed to get 3 different types.
These modules are readily available and they are absolutely insanely cheap. Unfortunately, cheap usually means:
- Poorly Documented
- Some bizarre communications protocol
4 Digit Display Module
The first module is one with 4 digits.
This one is based on a chip called TM1637.
Crazy 8 Digit, LED and Button Module
8 Digit LED Display module
The last one is based on a MAX7716 (clone).
Miscellaneious Links
To be added