[simpits-tech] need displays...

[Cris Harrison]

On 4/10/2012 11:22 AM, Gene Buckle wrote:
> On Tue, 10 Apr 2012, Cris Harrison wrote:
>
>> I have the following KW-104S, KW-104S-CL-TB, KW-104SDP-TB, KW-104S-AL I
>> use them in my NAV head
>> CP-1252/ASN-128 http://phoenixcomm.wordpress.com/projects/nav-cdu/  The
>> 104 series runs on 4vdc and 15ma (max) any more and you pop them!! make
>> sure that when you drive them to use a current limiting resistor in each
>> segment.. also I was driving them with 74LS family  but I lost some of
>> them as TTL has a 5v rail.
>>   they have a .300" character height, x .155(7digit) .200(alpha)... You
>> used to be able to find them on ebay.. I was lucky and I scored 3 CDU's
>> the lamps are also called PinLite and they are manufactured by Wamco
>> Lighting 714-545-5560..
>>
>> Basicly Gene they are harder to find then hens teeth..
>>
> They're not hard to find, they're hard to *buy*.  Best price I've seen is
> $110 *each*.  I've got a full set of working displays that I can use by
> essentially duplicating the circuit that the VHF radio uses to drive them
> (9 CD4511B bcd to 7seg decoders) but it would be nice if I could just
> reconstruct the assembly and use a single Maxim 7 segment driver.  It
> would keep the board cost down. (WAAAY down - 9 16 pin chips eat a ton of
> real estate)
>
> g.
>
you should look at the MAX6955  (I2C) or MAX6954 (SPI) plus they can 
also take care of your keyboard as well. I have played with them.. (you 
can get them as samples from maxim) the programing is a pain.. there are 
a boat load of config registers.. but there is a white paper.. and a on 
line config builder to take the pain away.
I was driving them from an arduino..  for my NAV head.. and talk about 
the wire LOL. 4 of the Alphas (16 seg) and 13 more Numeric (7 segs)  =  
155 segments + 17 commons or about 172 wires what a mess.. and no room.
The box was originally used in a sim and had all the pins coming out  
the rear of the unit.
right now Im using a ps2 keyboard encoder (a old keyboard gave up its 
guts) it was easier, and it got there first (I hate re-inventing the 
wheel), plus its almost a no brainer..

Cris H.