Finding parts: Large 7-Segment displays

[MrGlass]

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?

[zener]

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]

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

[MrGlass]

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/

[ericgu]

You can also find some displays on ebay.

[skylen]

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.

[MrGlass]

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.

That's a really cool guide!
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.

[skylen]

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.