How does this 8 segment driver work?

groggory

http://datasheets.maxim-ic.com/en/ds/MAX6950-MAX6951.pdf

I think I understand the operation, but it seems like they're saying I can control 8 digits of 8 segments apiece with this. I'm a little confused on how this would get wired up. I remember seeing these neat LED matrixes used for LED dot displays, but just can't put together the relevance.

Up til now I've been using s2p shift registers to work with 8 segment displays.

Little advice please?

kwinn

You can control 8 digits of 8 segments. The catch is that each digit must be separate or have all 8 segment pins and digit select pins accessible. A multidigit display with 8 common segment pins and a digit pin for each digit will not work.

Table 1 on page 6 of the data sheet shows how it must be connected. This type of multiplexing is called "Charlieplexing"