I have a project (essentially a huge clock) that requires some rather large 7 segment displays. I have seen many commercial items use them, but I'm having trouble finding parts that fits my needs. I found one (http://www.robotshop.com/sfe-7-segment- ... mpaign=jos) that is fairly close to the size I want, but I'm trying to find one with a black backing. Price is also a big concern, $15 each is a bit above what I'd like to spend but I couldn't go much more than that.
Does anyone know a good vendor for these sort of displays?
Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays
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- zener
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Re: Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays
That price seems pretty reasonable for that. You could paint the background. You could make your own from arrays of led's.
- adafruit_support_bill
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- Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am
Re: Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays
That price does sound reasonable for such a large display. That is a lot of surface area to illuminate and there are probably well over 100 leds inside it. Remember, if you double the height, the area increases by a factor of 4.
EMSL has even larger ones - for proportionally more money of course.
http://evilmadscience.com/productsmenu/ ... vensegment
EMSL has even larger ones - for proportionally more money of course.
http://evilmadscience.com/productsmenu/ ... vensegment
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Re: Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays
Yeah, its perfectly reasonable, I was just hoping someone here might know of a place that carried a few different models. I know these are used in scoreboards all over so I expected to see more variety.
I need 8 digits, so at $15 it gets a bit pricey. I'll probably scale it down to use 1 or 2" displays and see if thats big enough to make me happy.
Those EML displays are HUGE, and look awesome. Supposedly the 6.5" ones can be seen from 100' away, I expect a 12" display would be ridiculous.
FYI, the display is for a prop I want to recreate from Studio 60 http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/405/s60clock1.jpg/
I need 8 digits, so at $15 it gets a bit pricey. I'll probably scale it down to use 1 or 2" displays and see if thats big enough to make me happy.
Those EML displays are HUGE, and look awesome. Supposedly the 6.5" ones can be seen from 100' away, I expect a 12" display would be ridiculous.
FYI, the display is for a prop I want to recreate from Studio 60 http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/405/s60clock1.jpg/
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Re: Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays
You can also find some displays on ebay.
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- Posts: 56
- Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2009 5:54 pm
Re: Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays
You could also make your own 7-segment display at ANY size for low cost. Check out the SparkFun 12ft GPS Wall Clock for an example.
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- Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:50 am
Re: Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays
That's a really cool guide!skylen wrote:You could also make your own 7-segment display at ANY size for low cost. Check out the SparkFun 12ft GPS Wall Clock for an example.
The led strips they use would make the cost pretty close to prebuilt displays in the 5-7" range, but the technique looks like it could be used with an array of cheap consumer LEDs (and could be used for all sorts of large LED displays).
I have some small displays on the way from Jameco, along with a controller and some other necessary parts. If all goes well with the small model, ill start thinking about the cost of a big one.
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- Joined: Fri Sep 04, 2009 5:54 pm
Re: Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays
Oh yeah, I would definitely avoid using overpriced light bars. You could probably do it really easily using through-hole LEDs fitted into holes in some low-cost sheeting such as foam-core board, thin plywood, or even cardboard, and then solder the leads as needed on the back. Alternatively, you could made some light strips or even full segmented digits on a single board very cheaply using DIY toner-transfer on some incredibly cheap copper-clad board from the Electronic Goldmine. Then I would use SMT LEDs to avoid extra drilling (I hate drilling PCBs with my cruddy Dremel drill press) and use my $30 hot plate to solder them in a jiffy.
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.