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2 - 3 digit display eficiently — Parallax Forums

2 - 3 digit display eficiently

ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
edited 2004-04-17 22:33 in General Discussion
can some one point me in the direction of literature on prouducing a
3 digit display with out using 20 + pins, id like to use as few as
possible, even if it cost me 10$ for anohter chip for the bs2 to
power,,,,, man please dont block this , but i also wish it to work
on 16f84's or at best maybe a way to learn both, im compleatly
oblivous to "driver" chips, multiplexing, and any thing but the good
old 7 + 1 method per digit plus dec point, id apreacite any thing
you guys can throw me, just looking to make designing a display
feasable, rather then 8 i/o per digit
im not asking how, im asking where is the material to learn it. this
has to be the second most asked question on here

Comments

  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2004-04-17 17:07
    You could use (3) 4511s from the BS2 to the displays.

    Parallel the inputs of the 4511s (A,B,C,D) together, and use the "STORE"
    pins to select the display.

    A flow would go something like this

    Output your digits
    Enable Display 1
    Output your digits
    Enable Display 2
    Output your digits
    Enable Display 3

    This only takes 7 wires (ABCD and Display 1 2 3 enable) and works rather
    well...for me at least.

    Kris



    >can some one point me in the direction of literature on prouducing a
    >3 digit display with out using 20 + pins, id like to use as few as
    >possible, even if it cost me 10$ for anohter chip for the bs2 to
    >power,,,,, man please dont block this , but i also wish it to work
    >on 16f84's or at best maybe a way to learn both, im compleatly
    >oblivous to "driver" chips, multiplexing, and any thing but the good
    >old 7 + 1 method per digit plus dec point, id apreacite any thing
    >you guys can throw me, just looking to make designing a display
    >feasable, rather then 8 i/o per digit
    >im not asking how, im asking where is the material to learn it. this
    >has to be the second most asked question on here
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >To UNSUBSCRIBE, just send mail to:
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    >from the same email address that you subscribed. Text in the Subject and
    >Body of the message will be ignored.
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  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2004-04-17 17:12
    There's a couple of simple ways to go:

    1) Use a MAX7219 or similar multiplexer
    2) Use three 74HC595 shift-registers for your segment outputs

    #1 gives you programmatic control over LED brightness, will cost more
    than #2. Both use just a few pins and can be ported to virtually any
    microcontroller.

    -- Jon Williams
    -- Applications Engineer, Parallax
    -- Dallas Office


    Original Message
    From: jutsuju [noparse]/noparse]mailto:[url=http://forums.parallaxinc.com/group/basicstamps/post?postID=FMjLF9aplFf6L0uoMoVDppOLyqL4MGQ_YzeCdTKAgDQNxk9Irl5MouEBmOkgUh36rkasQoVkm8smp8t_]xsavior38@h...[/url
    Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 12:40 AM
    To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] 2 - 3 digit display eficiently


    can some one point me in the direction of literature on prouducing a
    3 digit display with out using 20 + pins, id like to use as few as
    possible, even if it cost me 10$ for anohter chip for the bs2 to
    power,,,,, man please dont block this , but i also wish it to work
    on 16f84's or at best maybe a way to learn both, im compleatly
    oblivous to "driver" chips, multiplexing, and any thing but the good
    old 7 + 1 method per digit plus dec point, id apreacite any thing
    you guys can throw me, just looking to make designing a display
    feasable, rather then 8 i/o per digit
    im not asking how, im asking where is the material to learn it. this
    has to be the second most asked question on here
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2004-04-17 17:47
    There are many choices, and here is one option.

    It sounds like your three digit display has 24 pins (7 segments + dp). You
    can use a 74hc595 shift register and the basic stamp. This configuration will
    consume 3 stamp pins and you can control 24 outputs with the 3 pins, and 3 595
    ic's.

    Look at experiments 23 and 23b. There is the example on how to hook up the IC
    and example code.
    http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/downloads/sw/sw.asp

    ken
    ====================
    can some one point me in the direction of literature on prouducing a
    3 digit display with out using 20 + pins, id like to use as few as
    possible, even if it cost me 10$ for anohter chip for the bs2 to
    power,,,,, man please dont block this , but i also wish it to work
    on 16f84's or at best maybe a way to learn both, im compleatly
    oblivous to "driver" chips, multiplexing, and any thing but the good
    old 7 + 1 method per digit plus dec point, id apreacite any thing
    you guys can throw me, just looking to make designing a display
    feasable, rather then 8 i/o per digit
    im not asking how, im asking where is the material to learn it. this
    has to be the second most asked question on here


    [noparse][[/noparse]Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
  • ArchiverArchiver Posts: 46,084
    edited 2004-04-17 22:33
    The '595 solution is the most simple, and
    works with what you already know. Basically,
    the '595 is a serial-in, parallel out shift
    register with LOTS of current drive available.

    Thus, you wire one '595 to each LED character,
    with appropriate current limiting resistors. You
    then send your LED segment data from the BS2 to
    the '595 using the 'SHIFTOUT' command. This takes
    three pins of the BS2 -- AND, you can 'party-line'
    all your '595, so 3 pins of the BS2 can update
    any number of LED digits -- except you only get
    26 bytes of data in the BS2. Still, for 4 or 8
    LED digits, this is very practical -- one byte
    per digit.

    You don't have to worry then about multiplexing.
    Check out the 'Nuts&Volts' area of the Parallax
    site for more details.


    --- In basicstamps@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Williams" <jwilliams@p...>
    wrote:
    > There's a couple of simple ways to go:
    >
    > 1) Use a MAX7219 or similar multiplexer
    > 2) Use three 74HC595 shift-registers for your segment outputs
    >
    > #1 gives you programmatic control over LED brightness, will cost
    more
    > than #2. Both use just a few pins and can be ported to virtually
    any
    > microcontroller.
    >
    > -- Jon Williams
    > -- Applications Engineer, Parallax
    > -- Dallas Office
    >
    >
    >
    Original Message
    > From: jutsuju [noparse][[/noparse]mailto:xsavior38@h...]
    > Sent: Saturday, April 17, 2004 12:40 AM
    > To: basicstamps@yahoogroups.com
    > Subject: [noparse][[/noparse]basicstamps] 2 - 3 digit display eficiently
    >
    >
    > can some one point me in the direction of literature on prouducing
    a
    > 3 digit display with out using 20 + pins, id like to use as few as
    > possible, even if it cost me 10$ for anohter chip for the bs2 to
    > power,,,,, man please dont block this , but i also wish it to work
    > on 16f84's or at best maybe a way to learn both, im compleatly
    > oblivous to "driver" chips, multiplexing, and any thing but the
    good
    > old 7 + 1 method per digit plus dec point, id apreacite any thing
    > you guys can throw me, just looking to make designing a display
    > feasable, rather then 8 i/o per digit
    > im not asking how, im asking where is the material to learn it.
    this
    > has to be the second most asked question on here
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