Seven Segment LED (NeoPixel/Arduino)

Last crawled date: 4 years, 2 months ago

I wanted large digits for a score keeping project I'm working on. Since I'm using Arduino (actually ESP8266/Wemos D1) and WS2812/NeoPixels for the project I wanted to be able to easily fit those pixel strips into the device.
This is two 7 segment displays. There is enough space on the backing plate to mount 3-4 LEDs from dense strips (60/m) or two LEDs from less dense strips (30/m) in each segement.
Although I went with two LEDs of a 60/m strip for this example.
To fully build you will want:
Enough LEDs on strips to populate the backing plate (7 segements x 2 Digits x 2 pixels per segment = 28 LEDs in my case).
Enough hook-up wire to solder all of the strips
A micro controller to drive them - sample source should work with all Arudino-like devices
A sheet of translucent - but opaque - material. I used copier paper in the sample but plan to switch to butcher paper for the final project
Glue to hold the strips down and case closed
Simply cut and glue the pixels to the backing plate. The segment manager source code doesn't care about the order in which they are wired however you may need to adjust the mapping to your wiring order. Slide the paper or other material between the back plate and face plate. Then slide them into the slots of the case pieces. The case has alignment pins that can also be glued once tested.
There should be enough room between the back of the backing plate and back of the case to permanently mount a small micro controller without pins/pin headers or you can feed the wire through the slot in the case.
Here's a sample counter: https://youtu.be/Krs2V0T__Cs
And here's the source: https://drive.google.com/open?id=14WIE2fckgNkawZp10kC_oE4zWcMO0TAK