[SOLVED] Any idea about how this display might be driven?

Projects Programming
1

This is the front of the display

IMG_20240409_182154815_HDR1
IMG_20240409_182154815_HDR11920Ă—1079 111 KB

and this is the back

IMG_20240409_1822087971
IMG_20240409_18220879711920Ă—1079 128 KB

Each white circle has six pads , the three down the left are
5v
din
gnd
and the three down the right
5v
dout
gnd
Do you have any idea how this could be driven?

2

It is a 16-segment alphanumeric display unit either of common-cathode type or common-anode type. Use a DVM or a 5V supply along with a 2.2k current limiting resistor to identify the segments. After that the programming is a simple approach using Arduino UNO.

3

5V, GND dIn, dOut sounds like a serial daisy-chainable interface.
Maybe even a Neopixel

Can you take a new picture of the backside and make sure that this pictures is highest resolution and sharp. Go as close as your camera still shows a sharp picture. If only one or two are shown is sufficient

1 Like
4

  • Appears the LEDs are a version of addressable pixel.

  • Suggest you treat them as neopixels to see if you can get them to work.

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5

Those are Adafruit neoPixels. They came in strips of about 8 that you could break off each one separately. I used a bunch of them in the past.

6

I agree with the others (except @GolamMostafa).

Install the Adafruit Neopixel library.

Choose one of the example sketches. Set the strip length to 16 and the pin to any digital pin of your choice.

Connect 5V and ground to the Arduino 5V and ground pins. Connect your selected pin to the display din pin with a ~500R resistor. This should allow you to test the display.

Note that powering 16 Neopixel LEDs is really too much for an Arduino to supply. However, the example sketches don't light all the LEDs at the same time at full brightness white, so the power consumption is much lower than it could be.

If you want to drive the display at max brightness, or drive more than one of these displays, you need an external 5V supply with about 1A current for each display. This can power the Arduino also. But don't let the current flow through the Arduino. Take separate power wires to each display, and to the Arduino, directly from the power supply.

7

WOW. Thanks for the help, I will try all your suggestions and get back to you as soon as I can.
Can I pass on the extra photos StefanL38? It look as if it has been identified.

8

I connected the unit up with a 470 ohm resistor in series with the nano pin and the power supplied by my bench tester with just the gnds connected together.
I didn't expect the result I got from the strandtest example from the library.
Here is a picture

IMG_20240410_143513623_HDR1
IMG_20240410_143513623_HDR11456Ă—2592 164 KB

I have uploaded a 10 second video to my pcloud site at this address if you are interested, I think it is quite impressive.

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9

Why? neoPixels run on 5V and have their own current limiters. They want 5V for the digital as well. If they get less than 5V they tend to do the tie-dye thing.

10

Here, I looked at your wiring and took a guess on how it should work. If I'm correct, this should give you a starting point to making it print letters for you.

11

That's standard advise. My guess is that it acts as a Series Termination for dealing with reflections ... similar to the method of the same name we used with ECL logic.

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