Working with Arduino! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Mr1234kaki
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2012, 11:26:21 am
content: Hi there,Im working on an arduino project, a thermostat with a display, i already done with the thermostat circuit and i can view the current temperature reading on the computer, but i do not know how to interpret these value into my display, im thinking of either using LCD module or LED seven segment display, which one is better? And how to code the value in the computer into my display? Thanks in advance!

author: Rerouter
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2012, 11:49:35 am
content: hmm lets break it down a little,how does your thermostat work, are you reading values through the arduino on your computer or does the computer directly interface with it?if the first, you feed the value through to your display after formatting it correctly, e.g. change a reading of x volts to x volts into 0-45 degrees,this can be accomplished by one of the many libraries out there for arduino, most of them go well beyond what pins to use but reccomend modelslcd vs led, that comes down to how you plan to use the display, an lcd draws far less current, and you can generally fit more information onto it for a given size, but generally the driver will add a few dollars to your design, while 7 segments have excellent readability even over some meters, but can really suck down some current, e.g. 5mA per segment, but is very cheap and easy to drive,post a scheamtic or some code or even just some more info otherwise i am left with mainly assumptions

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 27, 2012, 12:55:17 pm
content: Quote from: Mr1234kaki on August 27, 2012, 11:26:21 amThe most simply way is to use a LCD module and the LiquidCrystal library which is included in the Arduino IDE. Have a look athttp://arduino.cc/en/Reference/LiquidCrystalfor the documentation and some examples.

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 02:55:46 am
content: LCD all the way. You can display text and it will consume less I/O pins than an LED display.

author: HardBoot
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 04:02:02 am
content: Quote from: MikeK on August 28, 2012, 02:55:46 amLED looks a hell of a lot better though, just need to row-column instead of driving each led individually to save pins, hell, you can serially drive LEDs with gate + shift.

author: shebu18
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 06:13:22 am
content: You can use a BCD decoderhttp://skory.z-net.hu/alkatresz/cd4543.pdfand an aditional pin per segment for the seelction.

author: MikeK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2012, 07:17:12 pm
content: I agree that an LED display looks good. And you can read it from across the room! Thermostats tend to be battery powered, though, and 7-segs are power hogs compared to LCD. Plus, you can do really cool stuff with LCD like text and menus. Mr1234 needs to decide which fits his design requirements.

author: T4P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2012, 10:36:40 am
content: How about this?http://www.sureelectronics.net/goods.php?id=974OR the most beautiful temp LCD screen EVER!http://www.sureelectronics.net/goods.php?id=790