Large Digit Driver Hookup Guide
Shawn Hymel Introduction
Large numerical displays are a great addition to any project where you want to be able to see information at a distance. Scorekeepers and lap timers would be a great application for large 7-segment LED displays. The Really Big 7-Segment Display (6.5") fits that bill nicely. Driving several displays at the same time would be handy, which is where the Large Digit Driver board comes in.
The Large Digit Driver can be soldered directly to the bottom of the 7-Segment Display.
Several Large Digit Drivers can be chained together to create a display with multiple digits.
Covered in This Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will give you an overview of the Large Digit Driver and provide an example of hooking up the driver to an Arduino:
- Board Overview -- To begin, we'll go over each of the pins on the breakout board and their function.
- Hardware Hookup -- In this section, we'll show you how to hook the Large Digit Driver up to an Arduino.
- Example: One Large Digit -- Here, we give an example of an Arduino sketch to control one of the large 7-segment displays through the Large Digit Driver.
- Example: Two Large Digits -- We show how to daisy chain two large 7-segment displays together and control them with two Large Digit Drivers.
- Resources and Going Further -- This section gives some additional resources for getting more out of the Large Digit Driver.
Materials Used
To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary. You will need a few components and tools to follow along with this tutorial. Here is the minimum parts needed for one 7-segment display.
For each additional digit you want to add, you will need:
Recommended Reading
Before getting started with the Large Digit Driver, there are a few concepts that you should be familiar with. Consider reading some of these tutorials before continuing:
- What is an Arduino? -- We will use an Arduino to control the Large Digit Driver
- Shift Registers -- The Large Digit Driver uses a shift register to move data to each digit
- How to Solder - Castellated Mounting Holes -- You will need to solder the Large Digit Driver to the back of the 7-segment LED display