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Make my own 7 Segment Display
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CatalinaWOW:
You don't mention quantity.  Will this be produced or is it a one off?  In the latter case a couple more options come up.  From thinking of the three separate functions you are trying to achieve.

1.  Diffusion/blending of LED light.
2.  Elimination of crosstalk/bleeding between segments.
3.  Segment definition.

The first can be achieved with sheet diffusers as mentioned above.  Paper is not the only option.

The second could in a pinch be done by gluing up walls of paper.  More practical would be stacking layers of paper cut with a stencil cutter.  And finally this could be achieved using a sheet of honeycomb material.  The honeycomb material doesn't have to match the segment shape, just have to have cells smaller than the spacing between segments.  This approach eliminates alignment issues, but it will be tough to source honeycomb of that small cell size.  0.69 mm is smallest I have seen advertised, and I haven't actually seen that.

Finally, the segment definition can be printed on a top layer. 

Some implementations of this approach would even be suitable for a production approach.
james_s:
I have some 4" high 7 segment LED displays, they were not terribly expensive.

Lots of options for making your own though. Cut a mask out of black plastic sheet and then glue a sheet of frosted plastic over it, illuminate the segments with LEDs. Another option is route the segments into a sheet of plywood with a CNC router and cover with frosted plastic. If you don't care about the diffused segment look, you can make them out of rows or outlines of individual LEDs, or on a PCB using SMT LEDs. I saw a project years ago of a 7 segment LED clock made with EL strips forming the segments. If I had space I always thought it would be cool to make a large clock using 4' fluorescent tubes as the segments. Your imagination is the limit.
tooki:

--- Quote from: PixieDust on February 10, 2018, 05:49:52 am ---It's not the size that I can't find, it's the way the characters are displayed.

--- End quote ---
Meaning what?
DaJMasta:
Have you looked around at old school LED matrix single character displays?  There are some 5x7 matrix single character displays in DIP packages that are not nearly as thick as most regular LED modules that could fit the bill if you don't mind the retro look.


If you really need ultra thin and you're doing DIY... you could probably use side firing SMD LEDs and then use a 3d printed gasket to basically form the segments adjacent to the arranged LEDs (so it's shifted up, for example, from the pattern of LEDs on the PCB) but fits over the LEDs to reduce thickness.  Then you fill the segment wells the LEDs are aiming into with your diffuser.  Complicated and probably a horrible idea for a production run, but probably something you could get right in a couple attempts for a one-off.


I think the blurred look you're seeing on the paper diffuser is something that could be worked around by sort of adjusting the focus of the LED.  Using one with a different illumination angle, or playing with the depth of the black plastic piece may give you much better results.  Using a potting compound to fill in the wells would probably alleviated this, though.  It also could be that the paper wasn't totally level in the shot and you're seeing some variation from that.
GeorgeOfTheJungle:

--- Quote from: DaJMasta on February 13, 2018, 04:36:39 pm ---I think the blurred look you're seeing on the paper diffuser is something that could be worked around by sort of adjusting the focus of the LED.  Using one with a different illumination angle, or playing with the depth of the black plastic piece may give you much better results.  Using a potting compound to fill in the wells would probably alleviated this, though.  It also could be that the paper wasn't totally level in the shot and you're seeing some variation from that.

--- End quote ---

Yep, I had the camera in one hand and was trying to hold it with the other, so the paper was a bit oblique and separated, not sticking perfectly to the leds. Also a plastic diffuser can have much better optical qualities than a paper.
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