4 Digit 7 Segment Display Showing Text?

Other Hardware Displays
1

I just bought this 4 digit 7 segment display and inputting numbers and a counter have been simple enough but I have no idea how to make it display any text.

(This is the display) Adafruit 1.2 4-Digit 7-Segment Display w/I2C Backpack - Green : ID 1268 : $18.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits

On adafruit's website they say you can use it to show some letters

" print(variable,HEX) - this will print a hexidecimal number, from 0000 up to FFFF"

(found here) 1.2" 7-segment Backpack | Adafruit LED Backpacks | Adafruit Learning System

but is there a way to make the display print a full range of letters and words?
The only examples I saw in the library I downloaded have the hexidecimal number from 0000 to FFFF

I am very new to arduino and have only done a few projects in school so any advice on this would help greatly!

2

Get a hold of seven toothpicks and do some experimenting.

Don

3

Here is a pseudo alphabet:

//                    .abcdefg 
//                    76543210  
const byte chrA   = 0b01110111;  // A
const byte chra   = 0b11100111;  // a
const byte chrB   = 0b01111111;  // B
const byte chrb   = 0b00011111;  // b
const byte chrc   = 0b00001101;  // c
const byte chrC   = 0b01001110;  // C
const byte chrD   = 0b01111110;  // D
const byte chrd   = 0b00111101;  // d
const byte chrE   = 0b01001111;  // E
const byte chre   = 0b01101111;  // e
const byte chrF   = 0b01000111;  // F
const byte chrG   = 0b01011111;  // G
const byte chrg   = 0b01111011;  // g
const byte chrH   = 0b00110111;  // H
const byte chrh   = 0b00010111;  // h
const byte chrI   = 0b00110000;  // I
const byte chri   = 0b00010000;  // i
const byte chrJ   = 0b01111100;  // J
const byte chrK   = 0b10100111;  // K
const byte chrj   = 0b00111000;  // j
const byte chrL   = 0b00001110;  // L
const byte chrl   = 0b00110000;  // l
const byte chrM   = 0b11111001;  // M
const byte chrn   = 0b00010101;  // n
const byte chrO   = 0b01111110;  // O
const byte chro   = 0b00011101;  // o
const byte chrP   = 0b01100111;  // P
const byte chrq   = 0b11110011;  // q
const byte chrR   = 0b01110111;  // R
const byte chrr   = 0b00000101;  // r
const byte chrS   = 0b01011011;  // S
const byte chrt   = 0b00001111;  // t
const byte chrU   = 0b00111110;  // U
const byte chru   = 0b00011100;  // u
const byte chrW   = 0b11001111;  // W
const byte chrX   = 0b10100111;  // X
const byte chrY   = 0b00111011;  // Y
const byte chrZ   = 0b11100101;  // Z
4

Thank you so much for this!!
Exactly what Jamesyboy needed

5

Just an idea but if you wanted to display text in more readable format, look up 14 or 16 segment LED. They aren't common and can be a bit pricey compared to 7 segments but they were widely used back in the day before LCD became cheap.