Customising Serial7SegmentDisplay

Development Boards Arduino
1

I am using a 7 segment display in my application, multiplexing the display takes a lot of effort and changes are time consuming. While I was working on adding the Serial7SegmentDisplay I wondered whether I could bring my application to the display as it is already equipped with a processor. I use both tekst and numbers. For numbers there is an example supplied.

char analogChars[4];
void loop()
{
  if (!(millis() % 10))  // update adcReading 100 times a second
  {
    int analogReading = analogRead(A7);
    sprintf(analogChars, "%4d", analogReading);
  }
  myDisplay.DisplayString(analogChars, display.decimals); 
}

This is very usable for displaying the parameter values I use, I searched the forum about displaying tekst but could not find any. Where do I start? An example how to display the text “SECS” would be appreciated.

2

You mean this display ?

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11442

If so some text characters will be “difficult” to display. I have no idea what segments to turn on to make a K or an R or … What’s your thinking on this ? Are their only certain letters you want to display ?

FYI they do make (though rare these days) alpha-numeric LED displays, like this ;

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9932

… that do a good job of displaying text.

If you want to use the existing display, the you need to come up with a mapping of what segments are on for each text character. See the wiki on this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-segm … sentations

… and then this

http://playground.arduino.cc/ComponentL … ED-library

3

Yes, that is the display

Normally you would use an Arduino Board to make a serial connection that is displayed in the SerialDisplay. I would like to put my logic into the display software directly, that saves a lot of wiring as the functionality is really limited.

Part of the display firmware is SevSeg.h where all possibilities are listed. I can live with that by choosing names that correspond with the possibilities. SECS for Seconds will do the job.

I am looking for the logic that puts a 4 letter tekst into a buffer and the publish it, something like this

char Buffer[4];
sprintf(Buffer, "SECS %s");
// followed by a statement to publish the string
myDisplay.DisplayString(Buffer, display);

I am not sure whether I used the sprintf and myDisplayString correctly