It’s no secret that seven-segment displays are an easy and useful way to relay data, so [Kelvyn Panici] decided to put together a minimalst, self-contained display for use around the house.
The display itself is a 16-digit model he picked up from DealExtreme for under $10. He wanted to find a microcontroller small enough to fit behind the display’s footprint, so he chose an ATtiny85 to control it. After mounting the mcu on a small piece of perfboard, he burned the Arduino bootloader and uploaded a small sketch to drive the display.
Things worked out quite well as you can see by the video below where he shows off a pre-perfboard prototype. [Kelvyn] currently does not have any immediate projects in the works that will utilize the display, though there are a plethora of possibilities. We think it would work great anywhere if it were fitted with a battery and some sort of wireless radio in order to make it completely self-contained.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4NZ0nGKdFo&feature=player_embedded&w=470]
I saw these the other day on DX and thought I’d mention what I bought instead: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/8x-digital-tube-8x-key-8x-double-color-led-module-81873
I think it would work nicely for a midi pattern controller. It uses only 3 control pins and can be chained together. Also worth mentioning — I bought it over a week ago and they’re still “waiting for supplier.” It might be awhile before I get to use them.
I also ordered it a week ago and it is still “waiting for suppliers”. So prepair to wait a loooong time (shipping is als another 2 weeks).
Thanks for the link!
I hadn’t been to dx before, bookmarked.
Prepare to discover the true meaning of the word ‘patience’.
Their ‘in stock’ status is a lie, and some things take forever to arrive.
To their credit if they make a mistake they will sort it out, and if you complain too much they’ll refund you instantly.
ATTiny85’s do not have a bootloader feature. They did not burn a bootloader to it, as none exist for this chip.
I believe that they have crafted a boot loader for the attiny85.
I will just leave this here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrZvrz-6EdA
i would love this! the 2 things i need in the morning – weather for the day and a countdown timer for when i have to leave the house. :)
+1
Be warned, I’ve been waiting on this since December. Dealextreme probably didn’t have a lot of them, so they definitely seem to be waiting on the supplier… but since it’s only 8 bucks I didn’t cancel it, let’s see how long it takes.
I did by other stuff from the same supplier (JY-MCU) and got that already… a very cheap bluetooth serial module.
I also ordered 1 in december 2011 and mine arrived 2 weeks ago.
I cant seem to get the library to compile but im looking for help and advice elsewhere :P Its a awesome display and using the Buspirate it works, anyway I can say that DX takes a long time, and now chinese new years over maybe they are getting quicker again. Goodluckbuy also has awesome stuff, no JY-MCU :( but on ebay there’s alott. Cheap to :)
I also ordered on the 8 january some arduino part on DX , it s don’t arrived yet , but the projetc look like http://www.dealextreme.com/p/jy-mcu-16x-digital-tube-yellow-led-module-104311 .
And this one will be nice too : http://www.dealextreme.com/p/jy-mcu-16x-digital-tube-yellow-led-module-104311
anyone know if this 16x strip can be daisy chained together like the 8x strips people are mentioning in the comments
Any documentation on the commands and data format used to control the module?