Interesting LED displays.

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I have found these LED displays in a pile of ham radio junk that I recieved from a friend.

They are the same style of display used in my HP45 calculator and I wish to use them to make a display for my atomic clock project which is here in another thread.

Does anybody have any information on these devices? Like what the pinout is, or any good chips for driving them???
 
Darn, I forgot the picture!:smash:
 

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I have a set much like those, also from an old calculator. Lovely, aren't they? They give the best eerie red glow ever, but are kinda small.

Anyway, they're common LEDs; don't know exactly what type though. The arrangement is exactly the same used today for more modern display: common anode/cathode for each segments in all digits, and separate catode/anode to select it individually. Meaning that, yes, they need a controller. Maxim made a nice one (MAX7219) that can drive up to 8 digits via a serial line. They can be chained to drive more digits too.

My leds light fine with about 5-6mA of current BTW.
 
Joe Dirt: Thankyou very much, that would be great to see your project.

fdegrove: That's I very good site to see nixies and other interesting display devices. I was actually just looking at that this morning;)

I have some nixie tubes and I soon intend to make a clock out of them. That will probably become part of the clock project I'm doing with the LED displays.
 
Ohhh nixies... i always wanted to build me a nice AM/FM clock using nixies and a el-cheapo portable radio guts (just use a relay to turn on/off - no need to tune radio circuits). Nixies are quite rather rare to find down here, but the second i see some i'm getting them for sure.
 
diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
Hi,

Nixies are quite rather rare to find down here, but the second i see some i'm getting them for sure.

You could try Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), I know Nahra ( yet another Philips daughter) made them and I saw some being made at the factory while visiting in the early Nineties.

Glad to see you guys enjoyed the link...fascinating stuff.

Ciao, ;)
 
diyAudio Senior Member
Joined 2002
Hi,

They still manufacture nixies? Quite interesting... got any links you care to share.

Unfortunately that was over ten years ago.
I very much doubt they still manufacture tubes today.

In those days nixies were still used by the industry so there still a modest demand for replacement tubes.

There should still be plenty of stock at dealers for diy project though.

those are so lovely! Why must "new" mean "ugly/lifeless" ?

I couldn't agree more...00011101000...:D

Cheers,;)
 
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