Displays - Electronics Blog

Archive for the ‘Displays’ Category

Every once in awhile your MCU, such as Arduino, needs to output some text and this is where you normally start bumping up against its limitations. Unless the MCU is exclusively serving a conventional LCD or other type of display capable of showing text, the display is pretty seriously taxing MCU’s available instructions cycles, memory as well as the number of output ports left after producing the useful work the device was designed for in the first place – move servos, scan inputs etc.

Enter the serial LCD Alternative – Seetron 4-line, 16-character Serial OLED Display which I recently had an opportunity to work with, thanks to Scott of Scott Edwards Electronics Inc., the manufacturer of this great device.
I will be using the display in a couple of projects I’m working on but I could not resist to check it out as soon as possible and that’s how the demo application you see below came about Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit, I created this 7-segment display project not because I needed a visual output for my next Arduino project but simply because I have a really soft spot for those whimsical big-eyed miniature LED displays. Some 20+ years ago I have hand-soldered hundreds of these little displays at one of my first jobs and seeing these displays come to life was always a big relief – it meant that the device was working. But I digress…
In any case, despite the fact that these HP5082-7433 LED displays are rather hard to come by these days, they are still available from online sources such as eBay and they are a great match for any MCU-based project that requires visual output, especially indoors. They pack 3 digits that are big enough to be seen from anywhere on the desk and yet fit inside a breadboard-friendly DIL-12 package (15.37mm x 6.35mm). They are very easy to drive due to the very small forward currents and the rest of this post is about how to do just that Read the rest of this entry »