Displays

Archive for the ‘Displays’ Category

St. Patrick’s Day is coming up and I thought it’s already time to update the original Valentine’s Day POV display with a new message and make use of the second PCB I had done at BatchPCB. Also, fortunately, John “smeezekitty” (the author of the Attiny13 core used for programming it in Arduino IDE) stopped by my blog and pointed out to an issue with the original firmware, which prompted me to take another hard look at it and the result has been a saving of whopping 20 or so bytes – it was just enough to fit the word “BEER” which, as I mentioned in the original post, we did not have any space in flash left for. Well, now we do and below is the new software Read the rest of this entry »

There’s nothing out there that says “I love you!” quite like a box of chocolates that actually says “I love you” (or “I ❤ U” as it were). Here is a quick electronics project that takes less than 2 hours to complete and makes a nice Valentine’s Day present. It is based on what has lately become my favorite small MCU – Atmel Attiny13 – and the software was written using my favorite development environment – Arduino IDE. So, keep reading for the schematic, the software, the build pictures and a small video showing the message slightly better than a still picture can Read the rest of this entry »

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 »