In SX Microcontrollers, SX/B Compiler and SX-Key Tool, robotworkshop wrote:

Hello Bean,

I haven't had a chance to measure the current draw yet.  These use individual lamps to make up each segment.  The large white power connectors on the back are for the lamp power.  At the moment i'm using a 9vac 1000ma wall wart power cube as the lamp supply.  The two white connectors are in parallel so you can just connect a jumper to the next display for lamp power.

Several years ago someone from the Battlebots crowd had picked up a set of these and used them with the BASIC Stamp to make a count down timer for local events.  Ed M. was kind enough to let me know what the pinout was for the 6-pin connectors and saved me some time tracing them out myself. 

The other two 6-pin connectors are for data in and out. 

Data in:
CLK
/OE
LATCH
GND
N/C
SIN

Data out:
CLK
/OE
LATCH
GND
N/C
SOUT

These are also setup so you can just use a 6-pin jumper to the next panel.  Just clock out the data (8-bits per panel) for the number of panels then latch it.  For the test /OE was just tied to ground but I expect it could be used to dim the display and save power.

Once I hooked up one of these to the SX48 I added the extra characters for a through f.  The connection to the SX48 is simple.  Just ground, LATCH, CLK, and SIN.  It was acting odd at first but that was fixed by adding 4.7K pullup resistors on the three data lines to the 5v regulator on the SX48 module.

I'm going to use a set to make a large count down timer display and i'll be glad to post it to the completed projects when it's done.

At the moment we have quite a few extra panels (more than I can ever use!)  We were thinking about taking them to a Ham swap but if anyone here is interested in the extra's they would be $10 each or 6 for $50.

Best Regards,

Robert

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