Author Topic: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?  (Read 4485 times)

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Offline dentakuTopic starter

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I got this part from an old Cornell-Dubilier AM Transceiver Mark 20
I can connect a 9V battery to it, turn the knob and the 7 segment LED switches from 1 to 40.
The only IC on this thing is an MSM5807 - PLL Frequency Synthesizer.
No BCD to 7 Segment driver IC or anything. The big rotary switch has 20 pins and seems to make a connection before it clicks.
The switch is connected directly to the LED display so I'm guessing the switch is quite specially designed.

How does this LED work?


don't you hate it when you post something and realise you forgot the attachments after 15 people  have already read the post :)
« Last Edit: July 10, 2014, 01:46:54 pm by dentaku »
 

Offline PA0PBZ

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2014, 02:10:00 pm »
It's the switch, it controls the PLL and it controls the display.
As you can see in the datasheet the divide-by-N in the PLL has only 8 inputs, so there are eonough pins left on the switch.
And since these switches were used in almost all 40 channel CB tranceivers at that time they probably produced a million  :)
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Offline dentakuTopic starter

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2014, 02:45:18 pm »
It's the switch, it controls the PLL and it controls the display.
As you can see in the datasheet the divide-by-N in the PLL has only 8 inputs, so there are eonough pins left on the switch.
And since these switches were used in almost all 40 channel CB tranceivers at that time they probably produced a million  :)

Now that's a fancy switch :)
 

Offline grumpydoc

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2014, 03:02:31 pm »
Quote
Now that's a fancy switch
I'd have thought several concentric tracks which are arrranged to connect to the segments - eg the a segment (top horizontal) of the "ones" LED needs to be on in positions x2,x3,x5,x7,x8,x9 where x = 0,1,2,3 and so on for all of the segments. I wonder if it can be done with fewer than 14 outputs from the switch.
 

Offline mikeselectricstuff

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2014, 03:17:41 pm »
Yep -the switch outputs a binary code for the synth, and the segment patterns for the display.
This is from the days when mechanics were cheaper than silicon
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Offline London Lad

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2014, 03:29:35 pm »
I got this part from an old Cornell-Dubilier AM Transceiver Mark 20
I can connect a 9V battery to it, turn the knob and the 7 segment LED switches from 1 to 40.
The only IC on this thing is an MSM5807 - PLL Frequency Synthesizer.
No BCD to 7 Segment driver IC or anything. The big rotary switch has 20 pins and seems to make a connection before it clicks.
The switch is connected directly to the LED display so I'm guessing the switch is quite specially designed.

How does this LED work?



You seem to have answered your own question :-)
 

Offline PA0PBZ

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2014, 03:54:40 pm »
I wonder if it can be done with fewer than 14 outputs from the switch.

I think they use 14 outputs, because for 40 channels you only need 6 outputs to the PLL.
However, segment b on the ten's display can be hardwired on.
Keyboard error: Press F1 to continue.
 

Offline dentakuTopic starter

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2014, 04:09:48 pm »
Quote
Now that's a fancy switch
I'd have thought several concentric tracks which are arrranged to connect to the segments - eg the a segment (top horizontal) of the "ones" LED needs to be on in positions x2,x3,x5,x7,x8,x9 where x = 0,1,2,3 and so on for all of the segments. I wonder if it can be done with fewer than 14 outputs from the switch.

The second digit is connected as you would expect with 7 pins connected to 7 resistors, another pin is ground.

The first digit has four diodes connected to it and is a bit too complicated to bother figuring out because this is just a curiosity of course, it's not terribly useful in modern times other than to salvage that amazing turned metal knob. I wish I had two of these knobs instead of just one because they're expensive to buy new.
 

Offline dentakuTopic starter

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2014, 04:17:38 pm »
By the way, the switch is capable of having 26 pins but this one only has 20 installed.
 

Offline SL4P

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2014, 11:47:40 pm »
By the way, the switch is capable of having 26 pins but this one only has 20 installed.

Ahh yes, I remember the days when I swapped the switches to get extra channels on my old 27MHz CB !
Thanks for reminding me!!
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Offline dentakuTopic starter

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Re: old two digit LED with no 7seg driver IC... How did they do it?
« Reply #10 on: July 11, 2014, 01:14:36 am »
By the way, the switch is capable of having 26 pins but this one only has 20 installed.

Ahh yes, I remember the days when I swapped the switches to get extra channels on my old 27MHz CB !
Thanks for reminding me!!

And now this equipment gets put out on the sidewalk during the bi-annual large garbage pickup so I can salvage, switches, jacks, pots and nice old knobs from them :)
Solid aluminium knobs can cost $5 each and up.
 


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