visual #'s and letters on the cheap !
tommy
Posts: 84
Lookie what I found !
... my first thought was, "HERE is my 'O-C-C-U-P-I-E-D' sign for the restroom at the blood bank...· I've put off making a people-inside-sensor because I could not easily·convey the results to the general public.··Now I can very neatly, just spell it out like they do on the airplanes.
... $6.75 - surplus / second hand - yanked out of slot machines I believe -
... purchased from··http://www.allelectronics.com/ --- search for part # DL-241
... I made a quickie board, and wrote a quickie program, then took it down to IHOP, telling my favorite waitress that I was making new name tags for all the girls that would spell out messages...· (he he)· -- all in·just a couple of hours, using an SX-28.
... These are neat - Two 4-digit boards (the black units, 20 pins each - DLG-2416) come on a backboard/circuit (the green part) that combines the common pins and leaves them on 18-pins-in-a-row on the other side...· (a possible cursor function is ignored).
... just write to them - 128 possible letters and numbers are present in the units - and the letters stay 'lit' until you write to them again.· One drawback is that the letters cannot be seen outdoors in a sunlit area... the photo was taken outdoors but in the shadows.
FINALLY - I can get my projects to tell me something...·· well, yes - something I've pre-programmed it to say.··· a PDF is downloadable from AllElectronics site, and I've hacked the 18 pins on the backboard for you, at the bottom of this page...
review - 5 pins for control, 8 pins to designate each letter.
... one small drawback is that it takes eight pins (my whole RC register) to convey which letter I wish to display next --- perhaps I cound use just two pins to ratchet up a binary counter of some sort, leaving six pins free for other purposes...· (but which counter ? - there are hundreds...)
· tommy
below, I hacked the 18-pin backboard:
Post Edited (tommy) : 10/4/2007 10:01:26 PM GMT
... my first thought was, "HERE is my 'O-C-C-U-P-I-E-D' sign for the restroom at the blood bank...· I've put off making a people-inside-sensor because I could not easily·convey the results to the general public.··Now I can very neatly, just spell it out like they do on the airplanes.
... $6.75 - surplus / second hand - yanked out of slot machines I believe -
... purchased from··http://www.allelectronics.com/ --- search for part # DL-241
... I made a quickie board, and wrote a quickie program, then took it down to IHOP, telling my favorite waitress that I was making new name tags for all the girls that would spell out messages...· (he he)· -- all in·just a couple of hours, using an SX-28.
... These are neat - Two 4-digit boards (the black units, 20 pins each - DLG-2416) come on a backboard/circuit (the green part) that combines the common pins and leaves them on 18-pins-in-a-row on the other side...· (a possible cursor function is ignored).
... just write to them - 128 possible letters and numbers are present in the units - and the letters stay 'lit' until you write to them again.· One drawback is that the letters cannot be seen outdoors in a sunlit area... the photo was taken outdoors but in the shadows.
FINALLY - I can get my projects to tell me something...·· well, yes - something I've pre-programmed it to say.··· a PDF is downloadable from AllElectronics site, and I've hacked the 18 pins on the backboard for you, at the bottom of this page...
review - 5 pins for control, 8 pins to designate each letter.
... one small drawback is that it takes eight pins (my whole RC register) to convey which letter I wish to display next --- perhaps I cound use just two pins to ratchet up a binary counter of some sort, leaving six pins free for other purposes...· (but which counter ? - there are hundreds...)
· tommy
the attached .SRC file, [color=blue](at the bottom, below the image-attachment)[/color] displays twelve lines of text that was written into memory beforehand...
below, I hacked the 18-pin backboard:
Pin Left 4 Digits Right 4 Digits ----- ------------- -------------- 1 2 - CE2, 10 - Gnd 2 - CE2, 10 - Gnd 2 6 - Write 6 - Write 3 7 - A1 7 - A1 4 8 - A0 8 - A0 5 1 - CE1 (enable) 6 1 - CE1 (enable) ;this will make sense after 7 spare ;downloading the PDF from the 8 spare :electronics' store site... 9 11 - data-0 11 - data-0 10 12 - data-1 12 - data-1 11 13 - data-2 13 - data-2 12 14 - data-3 14 - data-3 13 3 - clear 3 - clear 14 15 - data-4 15 - data-4 15 16 - data-5 16 - data-5 16 17 - data-6 17 - data-6 17 spare 18 9 - Vcc, 5 - CU, BL 9 - Vcc, 5 - CU, BL
Post Edited (tommy) : 10/4/2007 10:01:26 PM GMT
384 x 512 - 55K
SRC
7K
Comments
Update: Added a scrolling subroutine.
Post Edited (JonnyMac) : 10/3/2007 2:17:17 AM GMT
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It's Only A Stupid Question If You Have Not Googled It First!!
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There's nothing like a new idea and a warm soldering iron.
Here's an updated SX/B program that uses an ISR to let you control display brightness -- 32 levels (0 [noparse][[/noparse]off] to 31 [noparse][[/noparse]full bright). I selected the ISR timing to accommodate adding UART VPs. The PWM frequency to the display blanking input is about 4800 Hz.
Post Edited (JonnyMac) : 10/3/2007 8:15:49 PM GMT
... [noparse][[/noparse]OCCUPIED SIGN] yes, I would use a motion sensor - but not look for a reading until after the door is closed.· If motion is detected then "OCCUPIED" is spelled out.· If no motion, then light an "EMPTY" message - and should motion not continue (after occupancy was initiated), sound some sort of alarm.· I give platelets twice a month and I've never seen anyone collapse at the site, but I suppose that it's possible.
... [noparse][[/noparse]MUCH WIRING] and like my (exercise) step counter that isn't built yet either, I was stymied by all of the wiring it normally takes to light the numbers on seven segment displays - especially four of them to, say, tell the time of day.· With one of these, it can be done just by copying the time's digits to one of these four-segment units.
...these units from http://www.allelectronics.com/ --- (search for part # DL-241) come on a backboard so that 8-digits are available for the same work as the original four...· Thank you [noparse][[/noparse]pwillard] for saying out loud that these are easy to use - they satisfy a leap over a fairly big hurdle for me, the intermediate hobbyist.· Still, if I were to use four of these 4-digit units without the included backboards -- I would·have to attempt my first two-sided·circuit board, else there would be dozens of jumpers...
... In my first example I used (5 + 8
·
... I think I can get a sixteen digit message using only seven of the SX-28's pins, but in counting up from zero for each letter, I then might be too slow for a presentable rate of 'cascade'.· maybe I could count up from thirty-two...
... and finally, thank you [noparse][[/noparse]JohnnyMac] for some code in SX/B (which I have put aside forever in favor of assembly).· You said that you picked up some modules, but apparently (from the code you included) you've thrown the connecting backboards away (the modules came in pairs).· I don't understand your comment about "inverters" - the word does not occur in the PDF, and four 4-digit units can be addressed simply by using four pins from the SX-28.· I will try to use your code to figure out the purpose of the cursor (?) - does it have a purpose if I am not asking a user for a response ? ? ?·· and what method did you use to present the code so well (tabs and all) within this forum ? ? ?
thank you there - http://www.allelectronics.com/ - cheap displays for the huddled masses...
Post Edited (tommy) : 10/4/2007 5:06:42 AM GMT
I wrote my program in SX/B because it allows for very quick development, compiles to clean assembly, and is easier to understand [noparse][[/noparse]than assembly] for most -- and I thought with the excitement created by your original post that forum members would appreciate a full listing (to be candid, I didn't learn much from the code fragment you posted -- but that's my weakness with assembly). You can see, though, I add in a bit of assembly in v2 so that I could control display brightness with an interrupt as suggested in the PDF. Finally... using SX/B gives me another project for my SX/B book! [noparse];)[/noparse]
I want to keep all of the RA bits free (for serial input from a BASIC Stamp, PC, etc.) and use minimal external hardware; this means that -- for full control of the display -- I'm limited to 16 pins (RB and RC) and that I can only use two bits for module selection; as the module wants to see both CEx lines go low for module selection (I'm going to use four modules), two inverters (NPN transistors will do) are needed to assist -- see figure 6 in the module documentation. If I wanted to give up cursor control (I don't), that would free two lines and then I could select any module using four pins.
When you set the cursor at a given display position it lights all character pixels (blocking the character underneath), so the user is responsible for setting/unsetting the cursor to make it useful. An easy method of blinking the cursor is to set it at a position and then toggle the cursor enable (CUE) line. Note that you can have multiple cursors active; this means that you could highlight a section of the display and then "flash" it using the cursor enable line (the blanking input affects all columns; CUE only affects columns with the cursor set to on). I've added this to version 3 of my program (attached). I also updated the SET_CRSR subroutine so that you can pass a cursor enable control bit -- this lets you decide if you want the cursor to show when you set it (pass nothing or a 1). I added a section that sets the cursors of all display columns and the toggles them using the CUE line.
Oh, I didn't do anything with my code -- that's right out of the SX-Key IDE. Admittedly, I'm a bit maniacal about formatting, but that comes from wanting to be able to understand my own code down the road. I don't have many pet peaves, but sloppy code formatting is one of them.
Post Edited (JonnyMac) : 10/4/2007 8:32:44 PM GMT
Post Edited (JonnyMac) : 10/4/2007 8:49:10 PM GMT
... Driving the·billboard truck around other cities, is slow this year - my boss can't find work for all twenty drivers - so I've started this year's "electronics season" a bit early...
... thank you.
and by using the attachement manager - I have successfully inserted the file that I unsuccessfully copied & pasted in my original posting...·· my internet explorer asks if I wish to open or save - but after that, a fully readable copy appears with both tabs and spaces (not all, but mostly)·intact.· That is quite acceptable.· Thank you very much.
Post Edited (tommy) : 10/4/2007 9:52:59 PM GMT
... thank you, Johnny - I see that. Making my own boards (laserjet / iron-on / kitchen sink) has changed me from a tinkering person to a maker of actual working objects: I have the only automatic vertical blinds that I've ever seen --
... I have a picture, here ---> http://home.att.net/~jcxz/electronics.html
...·but I'm sixty-two now, my eagle-eyes have degraded considerably, and ten-to-an-inch is about the best I can't muster unless I were to invest in special soldering tools...
... consequently, the twenty pins on the back of EACH DLG-2416 module pose a problem when used as pairs (40 pins) or quads (80 pins) - the board becomes huge for the size of the display. A "finished / for sale / something-I-would-make-twenty-of" ·project would be a different story - the backboard would be the first to go as the boards would be commercially made.
... I'm going to try the cursor function on my very next clock -- many of my projects know the time of day: my exercise step-counter resets to zero at 4:00 am each day (so I can't cheat) --- It doesn't display the time, yet -·the counter is·just nine LED's and I mentally convert the binary -- hmmm, later on, I could flash the digits when I (occassionally) reset the time using my TV-remote. Yes, I'd like to learn and see what the cursor function actually does...
... ' bye for now.
Post Edited (tommy) : 10/6/2007 3:15:32 AM GMT
The cursor functionality is also disabled by the DL-241 carrier board.
... but that's why I opened this thread to begin with -- this unit is an excellent value for the money - an easy, instant, and cheap display. letters for the huddled masses.
back on message:
... $6.75 - surplus / second hand - yanked out of slot machines I believe -
... purchased from http://www.allelectronics.com/ --- search for part # DL-241
t.
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There's nothing like a new idea and a warm soldering iron.