6 Dot Matrix Displays with Adafruit Trinket

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Xi4
 
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6 Dot Matrix Displays with Adafruit Trinket

Post by Xi4 »

Hello everybody,

I ordered a Adafruit Trinket with 5V today and while it is on its way to my I wanted to ask some questions.
I want to display six characters using six 5x7 Orange Dot Matrix Displays, but I'm relativly new to electronics stuff so here my questions:

1. What beside the Trinket and the six displays do I need? I heard of something like a white board to put in everything like a workspace.
2. Is there any recommened shop for that? I only found 8x8 displays at the Adafruit store. I live in germany, maybe someone knows a good shop in germany.
3. Are there any guides regarding dot matrix displays that you can recommend?

I hope someone can help me. :)
Greetz,
Kia.

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Franklin97355
 
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Re: 6 Dot Matrix Displays with Adafruit Trinket

Post by Franklin97355 »

What beside the Trinket and the six displays do I need?
Which displays have you chosen? As you say the Adafruit displays are 8x8.

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Xi4
 
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Re: 6 Dot Matrix Displays with Adafruit Trinket

Post by Xi4 »

I did not choose any yet, since I do ask which one to take. My question was what else I need.
Are there any recommend 5x7 displays or do all work?

EDIT: I found this one on eBay, can I use them? www.elemar.pl/PDF/CSM57221E.pdf

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: 6 Dot Matrix Displays with Adafruit Trinket

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

We don't carry any 5x7 dot displays. We do have distributors in Germany though, so check to see what they have: https://www.adafruit.com/distributors/

You'll probably want at least one breadboard on which to test circuits: https://www.adafruit.com/products/239

The Trinket doesn't have enough pins to drive an LED matrix by itself, so you'll need some additional hardware to carry signals between the Trinket and the matrices. The most direct way to do that is with 74HC595 shift registers: https://www.adafruit.com/product/450 There are lots of tutorials online for using '595s with Arduino-like microcontrollers.

You'll need some kind of wire to connect the Trinket to the shift registers and the shift registers to the LED matrices. We have premade jumper wires: https://www.adafruit.com/products/153 , but you can make your own jumpers from 22 gauge wire.

That should be enough to get you started. Once you've had some time to work with the pieces, you'll have a better idea of what you need next.

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Xi4
 
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Re: 6 Dot Matrix Displays with Adafruit Trinket

Post by Xi4 »

I've ordered 1x of each item you have linked, I hope that is enough since I don't know if 3 shift register are enough for 6 displays, do I need more?

Also, are the Displays I linked before usable?

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adafruit_support_mike
 
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Re: 6 Dot Matrix Displays with Adafruit Trinket

Post by adafruit_support_mike »

I've never worked with the displays you linked before, but they should work. A matrix is basically just a block of plastic that holds a bunch of LEDs.

To control a matrix, you'll need one output for each row and one for each column. For a 5x7 matrix, that will be 12 outputs, or 1-1/2 74HC595s (which have 8 outputs each). To run 6 displays, you'll need 9 74HC595s.

This tutorial shows how to run a set of LEDs using a 74HC595: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-ard ... s/overview You'll be doing more or less the same thing, just with more LEDs.

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Xi4
 
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Re: 6 Dot Matrix Displays with Adafruit Trinket

Post by Xi4 »

Alright, thanks for that information.
I will order 6 more 74HC595s.

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