I am very new to the gadget world let alone the Arduino one. I am an aspiring filmmaker who loves practical effects when it comes to movies. I have written a short film that involves time travel and need a bit of guidance.
The concept of the device is roughly the size of a 90's TV remote or the modern "phablet" phones we all carry. It would have a simple display that would show the "Day, Month, Year and Time" as well as the rheostats/dials/buttons (leaning more towards small/mini rheostats) that would be able to change them. I also wanted a hidden button that would scramble the letters and numbers with something like hieroglyphs to imply that the machine was working. There would also be another button that would have the display blink "8's" or what have you to imply that it is malfunctioning.
So far, I have purchased an Arduino Nano as well as a LCD Display 2 line (82x18mm) with no real direction to take. Other than knowing how to solder com cables during my time in the military, I have no idea what I'm doing.
I appreciate any advice or information anyone is willing to provide that will enable me to craft this thing myself.
To do anything useful with display, you’ll need a library for it. Can you please post a link to the display you bought? We can then help you find a library which provides the low level interfacing.
Beyond that, the absolute best way to get started with an Arduino would be to purchase one of the Uno basic starter kits. Go through the available tutorials, starting with controlling LED’s, move on to dimming them with a potentiometer and grow your understanding a step at a time. You need to understand how to interface pushbuttons, pots and other I/O before you can tackle the LCD. You have to crawl before you can walk and then run. Making the LCD change in response to you pushing things or turning things is running.
Could be a standard 1602 display, which has lots of tutorials available on how to make it work. Start with that.
Get parts as you need them - get them to work.
Don't forget to get a bunch of compartment boxes for all the parts you bought but ended up not using in this project (they're bound to become useful sometime in the future if you continue this hobby).
Unfortunately, I ordered these parts at my local hobby shop. The only information I can provide on the display is that it is a Samsung LCD Display 2 line 82x18mm. I purchased these items under the impression from the sales staff that they would be 'overkill' for the project I have described.
If I am in need of other parts, please let me know.
The idea is/was to create a functioning prop then build the body around it so I could make sure I'm not purchasing a ton of project boxes.
From the looks of it I'd guess it can be addressed as a standard 1602 LCD display, but the PCB layout is highly unusual. A quick Google search doesn't yield any useful information, but I did find images that are quite similar to yours.
I think you best get back to the shop, ask them for a detailed pinout or (even better) data sheet of that part. If they can't give you the information on you how it is to be connected, ask your money back.
Before buying any part, make sure you know how it's to be connected, and for more complex parts such as displays and sensors make sure an Arduino library exists (or you know how to read it without).
I apologize for the misinformation. The product I purchased is a Data Vision Phico 9902 94v-0. Unfortunately, the store nor the infinite wisdom of the internet can divulge any information pertaining to such a unique part.
I'm going to head to the shop and return it however, was wondering if there was a particular display I can purchase that would be compatible with the Arduino Nano or if I should return that as well.
Also, I was wondering if the prop is attainable with the description I've given of the concept.
Go to one of the on line shops ( adafruit , hobbytronics , Arduino store, coolcomponents etc) and look for a compatible display ( likely to be 1602 type) . These sites provide links to example and libraries to get you started , some with tutorials .
To me it looks like a standard 16x2 with an end header layout. I have a couple of these and they follow usual pinouts.
If you look closely at the pic they have markings 1 to 16 each which line up odd/even number sides. They follow usual 14 pin plus backlight 15 16 also as Anode (K)Cathode at opposite end.
LiquidCrystal library works with them.
Shame we are talking beginner because a nice prop would have 7 segment displays and the heiroglyphs look cool. Think arm band unit in Predator for glyphs and time setter in Back to the Future DeLorean for colour display.
You are correct that there is no usable information in that string other than 9902 being a design date code of manufacture and 94v-0 is the circuit board material flammability specification.
For some reason, I had assumed it was a graphic display, not character, since you’ll be quite limited with respect to animation. The jumper wires would have been more useful as female to female. As is, they’re pretty useless unless you have a solderless breadboard between the Nano and the display.
How’s your soldering skills? Ever install header pins?
Ahh, I gotcha. I'm gonna end up returning both the Arduino Nano as well as the Display and get the LCD + Key pad kit.
Is a 7 segment display out of my skill set for a beginner? The reason why I am keeping it simple is because of the type of character who is creating it. I wanted to lean towards a more realistic prop that isn't too flashy and could be created within our own world.
If anyone has any suggestions to stream line this or just ideas, please let me know and will build it.
You can usually directly drive a modern LED seven segment display with the limit being 20ma per segment. You’ll need current limiting resistors, one for each segment and the decimal point if you want that to illuminate as well.
As mentioned, the Uno starter kit is a very good buy. I don’t believe the official kit has an led display but most of the clone kits on Amazon and eBay do have them. You’ve find far better pricing online than at retail outlets.
Sweet. My only concern is if the nano can handle what I want and possibly more if I choose?
I dig the 7 segments a lot and will help show how much of a scavenger the character is by salvaging different electronic components however, will they also be able to show different symbols (or hieroglyphs, or the Greek alphabet)?
And the IC driver is the essentially the backpack of the display itself?
With only 7 segments you can display 128 different symbols. But most of them will look like numbers or - even worse - it will look like the Delorean time machine. That one also was supposed to look scavenged although 7-segment displays were not totally obsolete at the time.
I guess you want to avoid it looking like an app on a phone.
I think for a film, you need a display with reasonably large digits and high contrast. I don't think 16x2 lcd will be a good choice.
If 7 segment displays are not flexible enough in terms of the shapes they can display, the are 14 and 16 segment displays. These are more rare, expensive and not as well supported as other displays. If you are looking for these, get one with a backpack/interface board based on the ht16k33 chip, this is the most common chip used to drive these displays with Arduino.
Instead of showing hieroglyphs (I think that's supposed to be a synonym of "mangled characters") you may fake a malfunction by switching fast between several numbers on the display - this may cause some segments to flicker, and some segments will appear brighter than others as well.
most coffee posts and microwaves have displays.
look around where your character might be.
since this is 'hollywood' it does not have to be real,
an old cell phone screen could be controlled to look like a digital display of just numbers, but with more letters/characters available.
a new TFT screen could be used to make anything on the screen.
some duct tape over the screen to add more of the scavenger effect ? and hide the top or sides.
most libraries have different fonts, and can rotate them or flip them.
some can wipe the screen between letters or superimpose letters over each other to create what we would think is a mess.
youtube arduino tft and watch some of the test programs. anything you see on the screen can be altered.
Don't worry about that. It's extremely unlikely that what you're trying to do has not been done before. In a similar, but different manner. So get inspired by what you see around you, mix and match and add your own thing to it, and have fun.
