SparkFun Electronics Comments

Adam3 on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-11-13T22:09:39-07:00

Is anybody else having trouble flashing a custom firmware onto these?

I’m hoping to use it with an RFID reader, and was hoping to alter the firmware to do the talking to the RFID module and add to the serial protocol.

I’ve got two brand-new boards, and whenever I try to flash them using the code I managed to download, it compiles just fine and I get

avrdud: stk500_recv(): programmer is not responding

The device seems to be rebooting just fine, although it might be skipping the bootloader (or the programming cycle is not catching it). I’ve tried two devices and two FTDI breakouts, and I’ve tried swapping the RX/TX pins on the FTDI just in case there’s confusion about that.

Any ideas? Is there a baud-rate mismatch or are things just a bit flaky?

Nate on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-06-13T08:59:30-06:00

On the FTDI Breakout you’ll find labels ‘BLK’ and ‘GRN’. These are hold overs (color of the wires) from the FTDI cables. These indicators align with the BLK and GRN labeled pins on the OpenSegment.

Let us know if we can answer any other questions.

Toni_K on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-05-08T13:40:49-06:00

Sorry about the bad links! I cleaned up the repo where all the files are and it changed the URLs. All the links go to the GitHub repo here. I’m not really sure which pins you are referring to on the board, so I’d recommend double checking in the Eagle files. You can highlight pins on the schematic and have it highlight on the board as well. If you’re still having problems with it, please email techsupport@sparkfun.com and they’ll be able to help you more in depth than can be done over comments :)

DanielTT on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-05-07T22:26:36-06:00

I bought two of the smaller versions of this display and reprogrammed it via the standard Arduino software to run a custom sketch. I see no reason why any of what you said wouldn’t work. I removed the bulk of the Sparkfun code, leaving only the code that drives the LED segments, and added my own code to turn it into a programmable, auto-resetting timer. This required that I re-use most of the IO pins.

I just purchased two of these larger displays for the same project. It appears many of the links in the description are broken, however the schematic link works. I am currently looking at what changes I need to make to allow my code to work on this new display.

I do wish a few of the pads were labeled better.

The questions I have: Which pin on the FTDI breakout is pin ‘1’? Is the unlabeled pad next to the AVR the reset pin? Can anyone confirm if the RAW and VCC pins are the same?

Customer #402576 on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-05-06T00:56:42-06:00

If I understand properly, this can be used as an Arduino as is? I’m looking for a display for an anemometer. I’ve found a sensor that delivers pulses at a rate that varies with wind speed. Seems like I should be able to tie that to SDO, and add a timer function that checks it once a second and resets the count. Could that be done? Assuming that works, what about driving a second one from it via one of the serial interfaces? Thanks, Mike

free-bee on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-03-29T12:53:19-06:00

Oops, I meant counter. It didn’t hit me that I put meter.

The display would show “1234” on power up. Now it seems to be working correctly. I have noticed that if I hold RX and TX low (or floating) on power cycle, I need to re-program the display. But if I hold them high, it remains in counter mode.

Thank you. I would have never came across that code otherwise.

Nate on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-03-29T09:15:52-06:00

To be clear: you asked about the ‘meter function’. That to me says Analog meter mode where the display shows 0.0V to 5.0V. The remainder of your question seems to be around ‘counter mode’. I’m going to assume you’re really asking about the counter mode.

When you power up the OpenSegment what do you see on the display? ‘1234’ indicates normal data mode. ‘0.00.0’ is analog meter mode. ‘ 0’ indicates counter mode.

The solder jumpers may not be functioning correctly. Try putting the display into counter mode using the 0x82 mode command (there is example code here).

free-bee on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-03-28T17:51:46-06:00

How, exactly, does the meter function work? I soldered the jumper and connected power. I used 2 10K resistors to hold the SD0 and SDI pins high. I connected switches to pull the pins low. However, it does not work as expected. After pressing the buttons quickley and randomly, I got it to display random stuff (000 ) (0F00) ( ). So obviously I am doing something wrong.

EDIT

It seems that SPI will work, if I used it correctly. I have my UNO talking to it via TTL Serial. It is counting from 0001 through 9999 and resets. But the “Counter” function is not working as described:

The counter function simply counts up or down, incrementing when you pull down SDO and decrementing when you pull down SDI.

bladE_666 on COM-11648 - SparkFun OpenSegment Serial Display - 20mm (White)

2013-03-22T16:09:30-06:00

White is so neutral and sexy…i love it.

Nice product with multiple features and good design! Now we are waiting LASER RGB-segments with significantly reduced current draw :)

Resitors are good for equal digit brightness, but additional power dissipation can be expected. If segments should driven without resistors and equal brightness, PWM should be dynamic thus being unique on every digit value while demuxing. This wasn’t the case any of the previous revisions. This one is omitted to phenomenom by the resistors, but causes more current to drawn. I think this is still awesome product…