Hello,
I have a product suggestion. It’s based on my experience with the “Sparkfun 7-Segment Serial Display - Red”. I’ve used it often when prototyping. I use the ttl interface and it runs at 3.0V, which is the voltage I use for many of my design experiments. So simple, so easy.
My suggestion: A red led matrix display using 5x7 dot modules - but laying them horizontally. eg. making a 5x14, 5x21 or 5x28. A 5x21 display you could still display 5 digits. Such a display could be used to display characters, bar graphs, rolling displays etc. With red leds you could have a display that works at 1.8V, which seems to be needed for a few new designs I’m working on (eg. the excellent I2S microphone TDK T5848 runs at 1.8V).
Greg
