Segment Library
Welcome to the Segment library! This is an Arduino library for 7/14/16 displays, wired up to the arduino using parallel (each segment with an I/O pin), with a decimal point (sega - dp) or with a shift register (clock, latch and data).
Installation
To install Segment, install it using the Arduino library manager, or manually from the releases page.
Using the library / syntax
Declare the library
You can either declare the library for use with straight wiring, straight wiring with a decimal point or with a shift register. You also specify whether you have a common cathode (one ground pin on the display and a positive pin for all the segments) or a common anode display (one positive pin on the display and a ground pin for all the segments). True is common cathode and False is common anode.
Seven Segment Display
STRAIGHT WIRING:
#include <Segment.h> // Include the Segment library
// Segments: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, c a/c
Segment sevseg(5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, true); // Set the pins you want and whether the display is common anode/cathode
STRAIGHT WIRING WITH DECIMAL POINT:
#include <Segment.h> // Include the Segment library
// Segments: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, dp, c a/c
Segment sevseg(5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, true); // Set the pins you want and whether the display is common anode/cathode
SHIFT REGISTER WIRING (decimal point or not):
#include <Segment.h> // Include the Segment library
// Pins: D, C, L, , S, c a/c D = Data, C = Clock, L = Latch, S = Number of Segments (7), c a/c = Common anode/cathode display
Segment sevseg(5, 6, 7, -1, 7, true); // Set the pins you want, number of segments (7) and whether the display is common anode/cathode
An 8-bit shift register should be used. Output 1 of shift register should be decimal point if there is one, or not wired if there is not a decimal point. Output 2 should be segment a, output 3 should be segment b etc. all the way to output 8 > segment g.
+-------------+ 1 ========== dp +-------------+
+ | | 2 ========== a | +-------+ |
C | 8-bit | 3 ========== b | | | |
D | shift | 4 ========== c | +-------+ |
L | register | 5 ========== d | | | |
- | | 6 ========== e | +-------+ |
| | 7 ========== f | 7 Segment |
+-------------+ 8 ========== g +-------------+
Sixteen Segment Display
STRAIGHT WIRING:
#include <Segment.h> // Include the Segment library
// Segments: a1, a2, b, c, d1, d2, e, f, g1, g2, h, i, j, k, l, m, c a/c
Segment sixtseg(2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, true); // Set the pins you want and whether the display is common anode/cathode
STRAIGHT WIRING WITH DECIMAL POINT:
#include <Segment.h> // Include the Segment library
// Segments: a1, a2, b, c, d1, d2, e, f, g1, g2, h, i, j, k, l, m, c a/c
Segment sixtseg(2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, true); // Set the pins you want and whether the display is common anode/cathode
SHIFT REGISTER WIRING (no decimal point as shift register is 16-bit):
#include <Segment.h> // Include the Segment library
// Pins: D, C, L, dp, S, c a/c D = Data, C = Clock, L = Latch, dp = Seperate decimal point pin (optional, otherwise leave blank), S = Number of Segments (16), c a/c = Common anode/cathode display
Segment sixtseg(5, 6, 16, 8, 7, true); // Set the pins you want, number of segments (16) and whether the display is common anode/cathode
Since the shift register is 16-bit (or 2 8-bit registers), and there are 16 segments on the display all needing an output, there is no support for a decimal point (it would be unnecessary to have another shift-register just for a decimal point).
You should use a 16-bit shift register or 2 daisy-chained 8-bit shift registers. Output 1 of shift register should be wired to segment a, and output 2 should be wired to segment b etc. all the way to output 16 > segment m.
Seperate Arduino Pin ========== dp +-------------+
+--------------+ 1 ========== a1 | |
| | 2 ========== a2 | |
| | 3 ========== b | |
| | 4 ========== c | +-------+ |
| | 5 ========== d1 | |\ | /| |
+ | | 6 ========== d2 | | \ | / | |
C | 16-bit | 7 ========== e | | \|/ | |
D | shift | 8 ========== f | +-------+ |
L | register | 9 ========== g1 | | /|\ | |
- | | 10 ========== g2 | | / | \ | |
| | 11 ========== h | |/ | \| |
| | 12 ========== i | +-------+ |
| | 13 ========== j | 16 Segment |
| | 14 ========== k | |
| | 15 ========== l | |
+--------------+ 16 ========== m +-------------+
SUPPORT FOR 14-segment and Virtual ASCII Art (Serial) DISPLAYS IS COMING SOON!
Commands
Printing characters
NOTE: When using a 16-segment display, replace sevseg with sixtseg or a different name so it makes it more obvious you are using a 16-segment display (the name of the instance doesn’t actually matter)
You can currently print to your segment display most possible English alphanumeric characters and symbols. It is possible to print: Numbers 0-9, Letters A-Z and Characters “#$%&’()*+,-~/`:;<=>?[]{}.\^_!
The format of the function is sevseg.display(char charac).
Here are some examples of printing single characters:
sevseg.display('A'); // Display letter A
sevseg.display('5'); // Display number 5
sevseg.display(';'); // Display character ;
sevseg.display('G'); // Display letter G
sevseg.display('3'); // Display number 3
sevseg.display('!'); // Display character ! (only supported for display with decimal point)
Printing strings
You can also print a string to the display(s), and it will print all the characters. By specifying the number of displays daisy-chained, it will automatically scroll the text if there is more characters in it than the number of displays. Also, you can specify whether to clear displays beforehand. If not and a word is shorter than the number of displays, there will be a letter from the previous word on unused displays.
The format of the function is sevseg.displayString(String word, int displays = 1, bool cleardisp = true)
Here are some examples of printing strings:
sevseg.displayString("Hello"); // Display Hello on 1 display, and clear the display beforehand
sevseg.displayString("Good bye", 4); // Display Good bye across 4 displays, and clear the displays beforehand
sevseg.displayString("OK", 3, false); // Display OK on 3 displays, and don't clear the displays beforehand (since there are three displays and two characters, the 3rd one will have a letter from the previous text on it as it isn't cleared)
sevseg.displayString("Awesome!", 5, true); // Display Awesome! on 5 displays, and clear the displays beforehand
Clearing the display(s)
To clear the display(s), use sevseg.clear(displays), where displays is the number of 7seg displays daisy-chained (integer). The command will clear them all. To just clear one display (or, if you have multiple, it will be like a space/gap), use sevseg.display(' ') or sevseg.clear().
Fun features
There is also the sevseg.example(int mode, int delayTime, int semiMode = 0) function which lets you display fun stuff e.g. figure-8, tetris-like display and scrolling through characters. The fun function is selected with the mode integer, which is a number from 1-6. delayTime is the delay between when the frame is updated. Mode (-)1 is a character scroll, and semiMode is used to select which characters to scroll through. semiMode is not used for any other mode. Here is the modes and descriptions of this function:
NOTE: Putting a negative sign before the mode reverses it. eg. mode -1 and semimode 1 scrolls from 9 to 0
The modes for the example function are:
1 - Scroll through characters. Semimodes are:
1 - Just numbers
2 - Just letters
3 - Numbers & letters
4 - Numbers & punctuation
5 - Letters & punctuation
6 - Numbers, letters and punctuation (everything)
2 - Animate 1 segment around the display (default clockwise unless negative sign is used)
3 - Animate 1 blank segment around the lit up display (default clockwise unless negative sign is used)
4 - Animate move upwards (negative numbers makes animate move downwards)
5 - Animate in an 8 fashion (negative number changes direction)
6 - Animate all segments on (a,b,c,d,e,f,g order) (negative number makes it animate all segments off)
The example Fun_features.ino demonstrates all of these functions. See below.
Examples
The examples available for this library are:
Number_cycle.ino - Cycles through the numbers 0-9 and then blank. Go to File > Examples > Segment > [Display type] > Number_cycle.
Letter_cycle.ino - Cycles through the letters A-Z and then blank. Demonstrates use of ‘for’ loop. Go to File > Examples > Segment > [Display type] > Letter_cycle.
Serial_input.ino - Prints the character/string on the display as recieved by Serial. Go to File > Examples > Segment > [Display type] > Serial_input.
Fun_features.ino - Demonstrates all of the functions available with the ‘example’ function. Go to File > Examples > Segment > [Display type] > Fun_features.
Updates
Updates can be done through the Arduino Library Manager, or by downloading the latest package from releases page.
Future update list (current version 3.0.0):
3.1.0 - Add support for virtual ASCII art (Serial) display v1.0
Here is a demonstration of the virtual ASCII 16-segment display that will be added:
3.2.0 - Add support for multiple instances of library to work, so you can use different wired displays (you can currently only use multiple displays if they are daisy chained)
3.3.0 - Add support for 14-segment displays
3.4.0 - Add support for dot matrix displays
Possible updates
Add support for BCD (binary coded decimal) decoder wired displays
License
This library is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license. For more information, click here.