3 digit 7 segment display

Forum 2005-2010 (read only) Hardware Interfacing
#1

Whilst rummaging through a box I found a 3 digit 7 segment display from an old pc (presumably for displaying the speed). I am wondering how (if possible) to connect it to an Arduino.

The display itself is one unit and connects to its board with 10 pins, on the board is a 16 pin IC, labelled F51231E and 9414. The board has a six pin header on it, one pin seems to be marked 5 (top left) and the pin to the right is marked with what looks to be a B. If I connect +5V to the pin marked 5, and ground to the bin below, the display lights up and displays 0. With it wired like this the remaining pins on the top row seem to be at +5, and the remaining on the bottom row read 0.

The letters on the left of the board are BM-899B. I have tried searching for a datasheet for the chip but turned up nothing.

#2

#3

I found a 3 digit 7 segment display from an old pc (presumably for displaying the speed).

I think that this sort of device has a very limited set of things that it can display; it'll be set up so that if one signal is high, it displays "133", and if some other signal is set, "166" and so on, rather than being able to display arbitrary values. The chip is probably a small microcontroller that does most of that work, and your best bet would be to unsolder the display itself and throw the PCB and chip away...

#4

labelled F51231E and 9414

Of those two numbers, 9414 is most likely a date code: 1994, week 14.

#5