Customized 7 segment displays - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 03, 2019, 12:09:47 pm
content: Hi,I want to design a new product, so I need some customized LED displays, like digits and some characters symbols like V,A,W,KVA etc..I want to know which companies do that with a cheep price, do you know some Chinese manufacturer? what sort of prices and MOQ should I expect? any Ideas? I like the dave's idea of custom LCD's, but I need something similar with LED's.

author: rhodges
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 03, 2019, 03:23:56 pm
content: Could you make it work with 14-segment LED modules? Here is one that looks fun:https://www.ebay.com/itm/252512641544It is common anode, 18 pins.

author: reboots
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: April 03, 2019, 04:04:36 pm
content: A custom monolithic LED display will cost a lot, and won't save you much assembly. Even large manufacturers will generally use a custom plastic mask and diffuser, designed to fit over a PCB with discrete LEDs. This technique is available even on a hobbyist budget:https://bikerglen.com/blog/custom-3d-printed-led-bar-graphs/https://all3dp.com/weekend-project-3d-print-a-sleek-7-segment-led-clock/The mask could be 3D printed for prototype quantities, and injection-molded for production.

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2019, 07:57:27 pm
content: Thanks for the hints, but even lcsc shows some customized LED displays for about 1USD on 100QTY,https://lcsc.com/products/LED-Displays-Modules_11091.htmlSo I suspect that we should have some very cheep sources hidden in china doing custom LED displays.Please our Chinese members enlighten us

author: branadic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2019, 08:34:51 pm
content: Is this what you are looking for?http://www.light-bo.com/p-Alphanumeric-LED-Display-161782/14-Segment-LED-Display-161784/-branadic-

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 04, 2019, 09:02:34 pm
content: Thanks branadic, I'm not after general 7 segment or 14 segment types, I'm after something completely customized, like these ones from LCSC or like the custom designed LCD that dave did it in china, it has bar-graph, some digits, ohm symbol etc...Any way I drop the light-bo and email to see if they do it? any Idea about the prices? or some alternatives? If I have multiple sources usually the price and quality can be discussed more easily.

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 05, 2019, 03:07:29 pm
content: I did not got any response form them, any Idea?

author: branadic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 05, 2019, 03:28:50 pm
content: I've send them a request with pictures of my design today and got a promt response asking for dxf design files. So no problem whatsoever.-branadic-

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 06, 2019, 04:55:58 am
content: It's weird that they did not answered me? I have used these emailslightbo3 at lightbo.cn and lightbo at lightbo.cnThis is my emailQuote

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 09:06:40 am
content: So have a look at a bunch of the displays you found on LCSC.This datasheet is from a company called "oasistek"https://datasheet.lcsc.com/szlcsc/1812111709_OASIS-TOF-54541BSG-B4_C344209.pdfAccording to the datasheet the company is Taiwanese, not Chinese, but the Chinese do not seem to agree with that.Other LCSC displays may of course be from other manufacturers.What sort of numbers are you thinking about?Have you considered 3D printing or laser cutting ?

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 09:23:34 am
content: QuoteThanks I have already contacted them too, not any response eitherQuoteI do not know, But I think maybe in the range of 100 to 300 USD, laser cutting and 3D printing can not be used because it's for a mass produced product in the order of 1K to 5K units.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 12:14:54 pm
content: A few thouasand units is a bit difficult number.Still doable to print (multiple printers parrallel) but time consuming.To low a number to justify injection moulding for a reasonable price.It might be an idea to use a PCB as a front panel and put the segment outlines in copper, but this will have bleeding to close by segments.China is a huge country with a huge internal market.In a documentary it was stated once that if a (consumer) product sold less than a million units it was considered a failure.For a million units you can easily have custom injection moulds made such as for the Oasis displays, but not for the number of displays you have in mind. Tooling costs for injection moulds can easily be EUR 10.000.Another Idea is to make laser cut stencils, as used in stencils for solder paste. In single quantities these can be < EUR 20, but I have no Idea what costs will be if you buy thousands of them.You can also have laser cut black acrylic or even plywood (mdf), with a semi transparant window in front of it. This will need a bit of experimenting, but you can get nice results this way. CO2 laser cutters usable for this cost a few thousand EUR, but these are also popular at maker spaces, and can usualy be rented for a hourly fee.

author: rhodges
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 07, 2019, 04:57:02 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on April 07, 2019, 12:14:54 pmHow about soldering ordinary surface mount LEDs on a circuit board where the segments or symbols go. For the window, use frosted plastic for diffusion, and use a silkscreen to paint the rest black.

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 08, 2019, 07:18:15 am
content: Finally I got some answersQuoteso it's around 75USD to 2200USDI think it's definitely doable! forget about 1 Million units, it's just bool shit in western countries

author: Helix_14
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: May 19, 2021, 09:38:00 am
content: Quote from: rhodges on April 07, 2019, 04:57:02 pmI am trying to do this for a custom project where display has both 7 segment digits and some icons. It works well for the digits. But for the icons, diffused light is not helping as the icon appear blurry. Do you have any suggestion for icons (battery charging symbol or text "min" for timer.

author: mysterlund
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: January 07, 2024, 01:07:40 am
content: I know this has been awhile. But for anyone like me who is looking for an answer here, this seemed promising:https://www.ynvisible.com/news-inspiration/designing-a-custom-segment-display

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 07, 2024, 01:28:20 am
content: Quote from: mysterlund on January 07, 2024, 01:07:40 amThat’s pretty nifty. For my final project (the one that counted for graduation) for my apprenticeship, I was a given the assignment to design a low-power driver for a segment e-ink (electrophoretic) display. This says it’s a different technology (electrochromic), but it seems to be driven in a very similar way, just at lower voltages. It’s nice that they offer a proper datasheet, a dev kit, and sample code for it.