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Seven Segment Display Module


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25 replies to this topic

#1 Matt Isenhower

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Posted 25 May 2012 - 11:04 PM

Hi everyone,

I just received some prototype boards for my Seven Segment Display Module. Here's what the assembled board looks like:

Posted Image

These prototype boards are green, but the final production boards will be black. Other than that, everything else should be pretty much the same. Black production boards are in!

I also made a quick video showing how the display works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s7QWRz9_rM

These should be available for purchase within the next few weeks. I will be accepting preorders soon, and I'll update this thread as soon as the store is online.

Now shipping!

Let me know if you have any questions! :)

Matt
Komodex Labs
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#2 Arron Chapman

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Posted 25 May 2012 - 11:07 PM

Awesome Matt! I can't wait to get one. :D

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#3 Christoc

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Posted 25 May 2012 - 11:09 PM

Nice! I may need a few of these for the DNNFoos project

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#4 Chris Walker

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Posted 25 May 2012 - 11:23 PM

I want! Who do I give my credit card to? :) Chris P.S. Nice job with the brightness control. That's a great feature.

#5 Gutworks

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Posted 25 May 2012 - 11:51 PM

Fantastic job Matt! I can't wait to buy one, or more :) Steve

#6 Nevyn

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Posted 26 May 2012 - 05:16 AM

Fantastic job Matt! I can't wait to buy one, or more :)

Neat :)

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#7 dblml320

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Posted 26 May 2012 - 11:50 AM

Noce Job! Now, where to order one of these displays?

#8 ItsDan

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Posted 05 June 2012 - 05:55 AM

I posted separately but wanted to thank Matt for letting me play with one of his prototype display modules, and it really is a nice display for those who just need a few digits for output, or a specialized display like a clock. But the Netduino Go still lacks a couple input devices, so I built my own!

A real module is in the works but this is a prototype 12 button keypad module (made on a production Protomodule board) that I'm using to interact with the display module. I'll be keeping this thread updated about the keypad module, and I highly recommend Matt's display module if it fits your project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egudmsx7lmI
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#9 Matt Isenhower

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Posted 05 June 2012 - 06:09 AM

Excellent work, Dan! That is really awesome. Seeing both of these custom modules working together makes really excited to see what else is coming from the community :) Anyway, I'm really happy to hear you like the display. Thanks for sharing! Matt
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#10 Matt Isenhower

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Posted 18 June 2012 - 08:25 PM

Hey everyone, Just a quick update -- I'm expecting to receive the production boards for this module early next week. After that, they'll just need to be assembled and then they should be ready to ship out to customers starting early/mid July. Also, I'm now accepting pre-orders for this module on my website: http://komodex.com/l...segment-display Let me know if you have any questions! :) Matt
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#11 Gutworks

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Posted 18 June 2012 - 10:30 PM

Also, I'm now accepting pre-orders for this module on my website: http://komodex.com/l...segment-display


I just bought mine!

#12 Dan T

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Posted 28 June 2012 - 12:13 AM

I was haning out in the super-cool Netduino chat room and heard about Matt's new URL:
http://komodex.com/7seg

Matt, Less web work, more soldering. I need my 7seg!
My projects are trying to communcate with me... but Red Green and Blue is a very limited vocabulary.


- Dan


P.S. Actually, now that I give it a full look, your website is stunning!

#13 Matt Isenhower

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Posted 29 June 2012 - 04:01 AM

Matt, Less web work, more soldering. I need my 7seg!

:lol: Glad to hear your enthusiasm!

The production panels arrived earlier this week and I'm really happy with how they turned out. Here are a few pictures of them:
https://www.dropbox....7tld/KeJfjRimxT

All of the boards and components have been sent off for assembly, so as soon as I get them back I'll begin shipping out the pre-orders.

In the mean time I have a few other things I'm developing so stay tuned for more :)

Matt
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#14 Matt Isenhower

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Posted 21 July 2012 - 05:55 AM

Hey everyone,

The Seven Segment Display module is now shipping! All preorders shipped out today and any new orders should ship within 48 hours. :)

The module drivers are now posted on the Komodex Labs Downloads page and there's also a new blog post: Getting Started with the Seven Segment Display Module.

Matt
Komodex Labs
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#15 Nevyn

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Posted 27 July 2012 - 11:26 AM

The Seven Segment Display module is now shipping! All preorders shipped out today and any new orders should ship within 48 hours. :)

Received mine a couple of nights ago and I've been using it to display sensor output :). As usual I've written up what I've been doing and you can find out more on this blog post.

Couple of things which went through my mind as I started using this:
- A Clear() method would be nicer than calling SetValue(" ").
- How about a segment enum?

I added a file Segment.cs to the driver project and added the following code:

using System;
namespace Komodex.NETMF
{
    [Flags]
    public enum Segment
    {
        A = 0x01,
        B = 0x02,
        C = 0x04,
        D = 0x08,
        E = 0x10,
        F = 0x20,
        G = 0x40,
        DP = 0x80,
        DecimalPoint = 0x80
    }
}

After recompiling the driver I could then use the following code to make up new digits:

SevenSegmentDisplay display = new SevenSegmentDisplay();
Digit newDigit = (Digit) (Segment.A | Segment.D);

while (true)
{
	display.SetValue(newDigit, (Digit) Segment.G, Digit.D, Digit.D3);
	Thread.Sleep(1000);
	display.SetValue("    ");
	Thread.Sleep(1000);
}

Nice module, so much better then Debug.Print...

Regards,
Mark

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#16 Gutworks

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Posted 27 July 2012 - 06:48 PM

My weekend just got a huge injection of fun — my Seven Segment Display and Go!bus Breakout modules just arrived from Komodex Systems! Wow,even the packaging looks cool. Now to play with the demos and start on my own demo. More to come!

Thanks Komodex!

Cheers,
Steve

Attached File  2012-07-27_0003.jpg   46.09KB   38 downloads
Attached File  2012-07-27_0005.jpg   47.52KB   35 downloads

#17 Gutworks

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Posted 31 July 2012 - 03:53 AM

So here is what I was working on this weekend... I now have the module working on my Netduino Plus! And now for my next trick...mind control power meter. Stay tuned! I wasn't sure where I should place the post since it really wasn't a Netduino Go project. In any case, if you're interested you can check it out here: http://forums.netdui...dpost__p__32916 Cheers, Steve

#18 Matt Isenhower

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 09:00 PM

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to let you all know that the module drivers have been updated to v1.0.3. Download here:
http://komodex.com/labs/downloads
This version fixes some issues with negative TimeSpan values.

I also wanted to get some feedback regarding out of range exceptions. Currently, if you try to call SetValue with a value that cannot fit on the display (e.g., 12345), an ArgumentOutOfRangeException will be thrown. I've gotten some feedback from users that would prefer some other way of handing out of range values.

I'm considering implementing an optional default "error" display value. To enable that, you could use something like:
display.SetErrorValue(Digit.Dash, Digit.Dash, Digit.Dash, Digit.Dash);
This would cause the specified value (in this case, four dashes or "----") to be displayed whenever an out of range value is sent to SetValue rather than throwing an exception.

Any thoughts? Would this be better than other options, such as displaying partial values?
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#19 Chris Walker

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 09:37 PM

For a display, I'd recommend cropping the value on the display. That's great for text and is consitent with what happens on other displays such as touchscreens. That said cropping numerical values might not be the best sceanrio in all cases. The four-dash idea is a good one, although you'll want to make it clear to users when that might be displayed. Consistency (i.e. always cropping) may be preferrable...or giving the user the option of what they'd like done if text overflows. Exceptions are generally best used for exceptional circumstances, like if the module is accidentally disconnected. Chris

#20 Matt Isenhower

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Posted 22 August 2012 - 10:08 PM

For a display, I'd recommend cropping the value on the display. That's great for text and is consitent with what happens on other displays such as touchscreens.

Since the numbers are right-aligned, I assume it would continue to show the four least significant digits rather than shifting over to show the four most significant digits. I'm concerned this may be unexpected behavior though, since the display will then start showing "incorrect" values, but it's definitely an option.

That said cropping numerical values might not be the best sceanrio in all cases. The four-dash idea is a good one, although you'll want to make it clear to users when that might be displayed. Consistency (i.e. always cropping) may be preferrable...or giving the user the option of what they'd like done if text overflows.

By default I'd still throw an ArgumentOutOfRangeException, but if the user called SetErrorValue these exceptions would be suppressed and the specified alternate value ("----" or "Err", etc.) would be displayed instead when a value is out of range. I'm not sure that this is the best option, but it might be easier than catching exceptions everywhere.
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