The MAX7219 LED display controller – real or fake?

Introduction

If you’re experimenting with various Arduino or other projects and working with LED matrices or lots of LEDs – you may have come across the Maxim MAX7219 “Serially Interfaced, 8-Digit, LED Display Driver” IC. It’s a great part that can drive an 8 x 8 LED matrix or eight digits of seven-segment LED displays very easily. However over the last few years the price has shot up considerably. Supply and demand doing their thing – and for a while there was also the Austria Microsystems AS1107 drop-in replacement, which could be had for a few dollars less. But no more.

So where does the budget-minded person go from here? Charlieplexing? Lots of shift registers? Or dig a little deeper to find some cheaper units. With a MAX7219 heading north of US$10 in single units, they may turn to ebay or other grey-market suppliers in the Far East. Everyone likes to save money – and who can blame them? However with the proliferation of counterfeiting, “third shift” operations and other shifty practices – is buying those cheaper examples worth it?

A few people have been asking me of late, and there’s only one way to find out … so over the last month I ordered eight random “MAX7219s” from different suppliers on ebay and will compare them to the real thing using somewhat unscientific methods, then see how they work. The funny thing was that after five weeks only six of the eight arrived – so there’s risk number one: if it doesn’t come from a reputable supplier, it might not come at all. Funny stuff. Anyhow, let’s get started by looking at the differences between the real MAX7219 and the others.

Pricing differences

The easiest hint is the price. The non-originals are always cheaper. And if you wonder how much the real ones are in bulk, the quickest indicator is to check the Maxim website and that of a few larger distributors  For example the Maxim “sticker price” for 1000 units is US$4.18 each:

How much at Digikey? Lots of 500 for US$4.67 each:

And you wouldn’t buy just one from element14 at this price:

However in fairness to element14 they will price match if you’re buying in volume. So if you can get a “MAX7219″ delivered for US$1.50 – there’s something wrong. Moving on, let’s examine some of those cheap ones in more detail.

Visual differences

If you’ve never seen a real MAX7219 – here it is, top and bottom:

And here’s our rogue’s gallery of test subjects:

In a few seconds the differences should be blindingly obvious – look at the positioning of the printed bar across the part, the printing of the logo, and the general quality and positioning of the printing. Next, those circles embedded in the top of the body at both ends of the part, and the semi-circle at the top end. And if you turn them over, there’s nothing on the bottom. Furthermore, there isn’t a divot indicating pin 1 on the fakes, as shown on the real part:

Oh – did you notice the legs on the real one? Look closely again at the image above, then consider the legs on the others below:

Finally, the non-originals are shorter. The Maxim width can fall between 28.96 and 32.13 mm – with our original test MAX7219 being 32 mm:

and all the test subjects are narrower, around 29.7 mm:

Fascinating. Finally, I found the quality of the metal used for the legs to be worse than the original, they were easier to bend and had trouble going into an IC socket. You can find all the physical dimensions and other notes in the data sheet available from the Maxim website. Finally, this packaging made me laugh – knock-offs in knock-off tubes? (Maxim purchased Dallas Semiconductor a while ago)

Weight difference

Considering that they’re shorter, they must weigh less. In the following video I put the original on the scales, tare it to zero then place each test subject – you can see the difference in weigh. The scales are out a bit however the differences are still obvious:

However over time the manufacturers may go to the effort of making copies that match the weight, size and printing – so future copies may be much better. However you can still fall back to the price to determine a copy.

Do they actually work? 

After all that researching and measuring – did they work? One of the subjects came with a small LED matrix breakout board kit:

… so I used that with a simple Arduino sketch that turned on each matrix LED one at a time, then went through the PWM levels – then left them all on at maximum brightness.

#include "LedControl.h"
LedControl lc=LedControl(12,11,10,1); // data, clock, load, 1 MAX7219

void setup() 
{
 lc.shutdown(0,false);
 lc.setIntensity(0,15);
 lc.clearDisplay(0);
}

void single() {
 for(int row=0;row<8;row++) {
 for(int col=0;col<8;col++) {
 delay(25);
 lc.setLed(0,row,col,true);
 delay(25);
 for(int i=0;i

void loop() 
{ 
 single();
 for (int n=0; n<5; n++)
 {
 for (int z=0; z<16; z++)
 {
 lc.setIntensity(0,z);
 delay(100);
 }
 for (int z=15; z>-1; --z)
 {
 lc.setIntensity(0,z);
 delay(100);
 }
 }
 lc.setIntensity(0,15);
 do { }  while(1);
}

Here’s the real MAX7219 running through the test:

And test subjects one through to six running it as well:

And from a reader request, some current measurements. First the current used by the entire matrix module at full PWM brightness, then with LEDs off, then the MAX7219 in shutdown mode:

Well that was disheartening. I was hoping and preparing for some blue smoke, dodgy displays or other faults. However the little buggers all worked, didn’t overheat or play up at all.

Conclusion

Six random samples from ebay – and they all worked. However your experience may vary wildly. Does this tell us that copies are OK to use? From my own personal opinion – you do what you have to do with respect to your own work and that for others. In other words – if you’re making something for someone, whether it be a gift or a commercial product, or something you will rely on – use the real thing. You can’t risk a fault in those situations.  If you’re just experimenting, not in a hurry, or just don’t have the money – try the cheap option. But be prepared for the worst – and know you’re supporting an industry that ethically shouldn’t exist. And at the end – to be sure you’re getting a real one – choose from a Maxim authorised source.

I’m sure everyone will have an opinion on this, so let us know about it in the moderated comments section below.  And if you made it this far – check out my new book “Arduino Workshop” from No Starch Press.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Book – “Arduino Workshop – A Hands-On Introduction with 65 Projects”

Over the last few years I’ve been writing a few Arduino tutorials, and during this time many people have mentioned that I should write a book. And now thanks to the team from No Starch Press this recommendation has morphed into my new book – “Arduino Workshop“:

Although there are seemingly endless Arduino tutorials and articles on the Internet, Arduino Workshop offers a nicely edited and curated path for the beginner to learn from and have fun. It’s a hands-on introduction to Arduino with 65 projects – from simple LED use right through to RFID, Internet connection, working with cellular communications, and much more.

Each project is explained in detail, explaining how the hardware an Arduino code works together. The reader doesn’t need any expensive tools or workspaces, and all the parts used are available from almost any electronics retailer. Furthermore all of the projects can be finished without soldering, so it’s safe for readers of all ages.

The editing team and myself have worked hard to make the book perfect for those without any electronics or Arduino experience at all, and it makes a great gift for someone to get them started. After working through the 65 projects the reader will have gained enough knowledge and confidence to create many things – and to continue researching on their own. Or if you’ve been enjoying the results of my thousands of hours of work here at tronixstuff, you can show your appreciation by ordering a copy for yourself or as a gift

You can review the table of contents, index and download a sample chapter from the Arduino Workshop website.

Arduino Workshop is available from No Starch Press in printed or ebook (PDF, Mobi, and ePub) formats. Ebooks are also included with the printed orders so you can get started immediately.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Arduino and KTM-S1201 LCD modules

Learn how to use very inexpensive KTM-S1201 LCD modules in this edition of our Arduino tutorials. This is chapter forty-nine of a series originally titled “Getting Started/Moving Forward with Arduino!” by John Boxall – A tutorial on the Arduino universe. The first chapter is here, the complete series is detailed here.

Introduction

After looking for some displays to use with another (!) clock, I came across some 12-digit numeric LCD displays. They aren’t anything flash, and don’t have a back light –  however they were one dollar each. How could you say no to that? So I ordered a dozen to try out. The purpose of this tutorial is to show you how they are used with an Arduino in the simplest manner possible.

Moving forward – the modules look like OEM modules for desktop office phones from the 1990s:

With a quick search on the Internet you will find a few sellers offering them for a dollar each. The modules (data sheet) use the NEC PD7225 controller IC (data sheet):

They aren’t difficult to use, so I’ll run through set up and operation with a few examples.

Hardware setup

First you’ll need to solder some sort of connection to the module – such as 2×5 header pins. This makes it easy to wire it up to a breadboard or a ribbon cable:

The rest of the circuitry is straight-forward. There are ten pins in two rows of five, and with the display horizontal and the pins on the right, they are numbered as such:

Now make the following connections:

• LCD pin 1 to 5V
• LCD pin 2 to GND
• LCD pin 3 to Arduino D4
• LCD pin 4 to Arduino D5
• LCD pin 5 to Arduino D6
• LCD pin 6 to Arduino D7
• LCD pin 7 – not connected
• LCD pin 8 – Arduino D8
• LCD pin 9 to the centre pin of a 10k trimpot – whose other legs connect to 5V and GND. This is used to adjust the contrast of the LCD.

The Arduino digital pins that are used can be changed – they are defined in the header file (see further on). If you were curious as to how low-current these modules are:

That’s 0.689 mA- not bad at all. Great for battery-powered operations. Now that you’ve got the module wired up, let’s get going with some demonstration sketches.

Software setup

The sketches used in this tutorial are based on work by Jeff Albertson and Robert Mech, so kudos to them – however we’ve simplified them a little to make use easier. We’ll just cover the functions required to display data on the LCD. However feel free to review the sketches and files along with the controller chip datasheet as you’ll get an idea of how the controller is driven by the Arduino.

When using the LCD module you’ll need a header file in the same folder as your sketch. You can download the header file from here. Then every time you open a sketch that uses the header file, it should appear in a tab next to the main sketch, for example (click to enlarge):

There’s also a group of functions and lines required in your sketch. We’ll run through those now – so download the first example sketch, add the header file and upload it. Your results should be the same as the video below:

So how did that work? Take a look at the sketch you uploaded.  You need all the functions between the two lines of “////////////////////////” and also the five lines in void setup(). Then you can display a string of text or numbers using

ktmWriteString();

which was used in void loop(). You can use the digits 0~9, the alphabet (well, what you can do with 7-segments), the degrees symbol (use an asterix – “*”) and a dash (use  - “-”). So if your sketch can put together the data to display in a string, then that’s taken care of.

If you want to clear the screen, use:

 ktmCommand(_ClearDsp);

Next – to individually place digits on the screen, use the function:

 ktmPrnNumb(n,p,d,l);

Where n is the number to be displayed (zero or a positive integer), p is the position on the LCD for the number’s  (the positions from left to right are 11 to 0…), d is the number of digits to the right of the decimal point (leave as zero if you don’t want a decimal point), and l is the number of digits being displayed for n. When you display digits using this function you can use more than one function to compose the number to be displayed – as this function doesn’t clear the screen.

To help get your head around it, the following example sketch (download) has a variety of examples in void loop(). You can watch this example in the following video:

Conclusion

So there you have it – an incredibly inexpensive and possibly useful LCD module. Thank you to Jeff Albertson and Robert Mech for their help and original code.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

mbed and the Freescale FRDM-KL25Z development board

In this article we examine the mbed rapid prototyping platform with the Freescale FRDM-KL25Z ARM® Cortex™-M0+ development board.

Introduction

A while ago we looked at the mbed rapid prototyping environment for microcontrollers with the cloud-based IDE and the NXP LPC1768 development board, and to be honest we left it at that as I wasn’t a fan of cloud-based IDEs. Nevertheless, over the last two or so years the mbed platform has grown and developed well – however without too much news on the hardware side of things. Which was a pity as the matching development boards usually retailed for around $50 … and most likely half the reason why mbed didn’t become as popular as other rapid development platforms.

Also – a few months ago – we received the new Freescale Freedom FRDM-KL25Z development board from element14. I started to write about using the board but frankly it did my head in, as at the time the IDE was almost a one gigabyte download and the learning curve too steep for the time I had available. Which was a pity as the board is inexpensive and quite powerful. So the board went into the “miscellaneous dev kit” box graveyard. Until now. Why?

You can now use the Freedom board with mbed. 

It isn’t perfect – yet – but it’s a move in the right direction for both mbed and Freescale. It allows educators and interested persons access to a very user-friendly IDE and dirt-cheap development boards.

What is mbed anyway?

mbed is a completely online development environment. That is, in a manner very similar to cloud computing services such as Google Docs or Zoho Office. However there are some pros and cons of this method. The pros include not having to install any software on the PC – as long as you have a web browser and a USB port you should be fine; any new libraries or IDE updates are handled on the server leaving you to not worry about staying up to date; and the online environment can monitor and update your MCU firmware if necessary. However the cons are that you cannot work with your code off-line, and there may be some possible privacy issues. Here’s an example of the environment (click to enlarge):

As you can see the IDE is quite straight-forward. All your projects can be found on the left column, the editor in the main window and compiler and other messages in the bottom window. There’s also an online support forum, an official mbed library and user-submitted library database, help files and so on – so there’s plenty of support. Code is written in C/C++ style and doesn’t present any major hurdles. When it comes time to run the code, the online compiler creates a downloadable binary file which is copied over to the hardware via USB.

And what’s a Freedom board?

It’s a very inexpensive development board based on the Freescale ARM® Cortex™-M0+ MKL25Z128VLK4 microcontroller. How inexpensive? In Australia it’s $9 plus GST and delivery.

Features include  (from the product website):

• MKL25Z128VLK4 MCU – 48 MHz, 128 KB flash, 16 KB SRAM, USB OTG (FS), 80LQFP
• Capacitive touch “slider,” MMA8451Q accelerometer, tri-color LED
• Easy access to MCU I/O
• Sophisticated OpenSDA debug interface
• Mass storage device flash programming interface (default) – no tool installation required to evaluate demo apps
• P&E Multilink interface provides run-control debugging and compatibility with IDE tools
• Open-source data logging application provides an example for customer, partner and enthusiast development on the OpenSDA circuit

And here it is:

In a lot of literature about the board it’s mentioned as being “Arduino compatible”. This is due to the layout of the GPIO pins – so if you have a 3.3 V-compatible Arduino shield you may be able to use it – but note that the I/O pins can only sink or source 3 mA (from what I can tell) – so be careful with the GPIO . However on a positive side the board has the accelerometer and an RGB LED which are handy for various uses. Note that the board ships without any stacking header sockets, but element14 have a starter pack with those and a USB cable for $16.38++.

Getting started

Now we”ll run through the process of getting a Freedom board working with mbed and creating a first program. You’ll need a computer (any OS) with USB, an Internet connection and a web browser, a USB cable (mini-A to A) and a Freedom board. The procedure is simple:

1. Download and install the USB drivers for Windows or Linux from here.
2. Visit mbed.org and create a user account. Check your email for the confirmation link and follow the instructions within.
3. Plug in your Freedom board – using the USB socket labelled “OpenSDA”. It will appear as a disk called “bootloader”
4. Download this file and copy it onto the “bootloader” drive
5. Unplug the Freedom board, wait a moment – then plug it back in. It should now appear as a disk called “MBED”, for example (click to enlarge):

There will be a file called ‘mbed’ on the mbed drive – double-click this to open it in a web browser. This process activates the board on your mbed account – as shown below (click to enlarge):

Now you’re ready to write your code and upload it to the Freedom board. Click “Compiler” at the top-right to enter the IDE.

Creating and uploading code

Now to create a simple program to check all is well. When you entered the IDE in the previous step, it should have presented you with the “Guide to mbed Online Compiler”. Have a read, then click “New” at the top left. Give your program a name and click OK. You will then be presented with a basic “hello world” program that blinks the blue LED in the RGB module. Adjust the delays to your liking then click “Compile” in the toolbar.

If all is well, your web browser will present you with a .bin file that has been downloaded to the default download directory. (If not, see the error messages in the area below the editor pane). Now copy this .bin file to the mbed drive, then press the reset button (between the USB sockets) on the Freedom board. Your blue LED should now be blinking.

Moving forward

You can find some code examples that demonstrate the use of the accelerometer, RGB LED and touch sensor here. Here’s a quick video of the touch sensor in action:

So which pin is what on the Freedom board with respect to the mbed IDE? Review the following map:

All the pins in blue – such as PTxx can be referred to in your code. For example, to pulse PTA13 on and off every second, use:

#include "mbed.h"

DigitalOut pulsepin(PTA13);

int main() {
 while(1) {
 pulsepin = 1;
 wait(1);
 pulsepin = 0;
 wait(1);
 }
}

The pin reference is inserted in the DigitalOut assignment and thus “pulsepin” refers to PTA13. If you don’t have the map handy, just turn the board over for a quick-reference (click to enlarge):

Just add “PT” to the pin number. Note that the LEDs are connected to existing GPIO pins: green – PTB19, red – PTB18 and blue – PTB.

Where to from here? 

It’s up to you. Review the Freedom board manual (from here) and the documentation on the mbed website, create new things and possibly share them with others via the mbed environment. For more technical details review the MCU data sheet.

Conclusion

The Freedom board offers a very low cost way to get into microcontrollers and programming. You don’t have to worry about IDE or firmware revisions, installing software on locked-down computers, or losing files. You could teach a classroom full of children embedded programming for around $20 a head (a board and some basic components). Hopefully this short tutorial was of interest. We haven’t explored every minute detail – but you now have the basic understanding to move forward with your own explorations.

The Freescale Freedom FRDM-KL25Z development board used in this article was a promotional consideration supplied by element14.

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

First look: Arduino Due

Updated 27/02/2013

Introduction

After much waiting the Arduino Due has been released, so let’s check it out. We’ll run through the specifications and some areas of interest, see what’s different, some random notes – then try out some of the new features. Before moving forward note that it might look the same - the Due is not a drop-in replacement for older boards – even the Mega2560. It’s different.

First announced in late 2011, the Due is the Arduino team’s first board with a 32-bit processor – the Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU. With an 84 Mhz CPU speed and a host of interfaces and I/O, this promises to be the fastest and most functional Arduino board ever. According to the official Arduino press release:

Arduino Due is ideal for those who want to build projects that require high computing power such as the remotely-controlled drones that, in order to fly, need to process a lot of sensor data per second.
Arduino Due gives students the opportunity to learn the inner workings of the ARM processor in a cheaper and much simpler way than before.
To Scientific projects, which need to acquire data quickly and accurately, Arduino Due provides a platform to create open source tools that are much more advanced than those available now.
The new platform enables the open source digital fabrication community (3d Printers, Laser cutters, CNC milling machines) to achieve higher resolutions and faster speed with fewer components than in the past.

Sounds good – and the Due has been a long time coming, so let’s hope it is worth the wait. The SAM3X CPU holds a lot of promise for more complex projects that weren’t possible with previous ATmega CPUs, so this can be only a good thing.

Specifications

First of all, here’s the Due in detail – top and bottom (click to enlarge):

You can use Mega-sized protoshields without any problem (however older shields may miss out on the upper I2C pins) – they’ll physically fit in … however their contents will be a different story:

The specifications of the Due are as follows (from Arduino website):

Microcontroller		AT91SAM3X8E
Operating Voltage		3.3V
Input Voltage (recommended)		7-12V
Input Voltage (limits)		6-20V
Digital I/O Pins		54 (of which 12 provide PWM output)
Analog Input Pins		12
Analog Outputs Pins		2 (DAC)
Total DC Output Current on all I/O lines		130 mA
DC Current for 3.3V Pin		800 mA
DC Current for 5V Pin		800 mA
Flash Memory		512 KB all available for the user applications
SRAM		96 KB (two banks: 64KB and 32KB)
Clock Speed		84 MHz

Right away a few things should stand out – the first being the operating voltage – 3.3V. That means all your I/O needs to work with 3.3V – not 5V. Don’t feed 5V logic line into a digital input pin and hope it will work – you’ll damage the board. Instead, get yourself some logic level converters. However there is an IOREF pin like other Arduino boards which intelligent shields can read to determine the board voltage. The total output current for all I/O lines is also 130 mA … so no more sourcing 20mA from a digital ouput for those bright LEDs.

The power regulator for 5V has been changed from linear to switching – so no more directly inserting 5V into the 5V pin. However the 3.3V is through an LDO from 5v.

Each digital I/O pin can source 3 or 15 mA – or sink 6 or 9 mA … depending on the pin. High-current pins are CAN-TX, digital 1, 3~12, 23~51, and SDA1. The rest are low current. And there’s still an LED on digital 13. You will need to redesign any existing projects or shields if moving to the Due.

The analogue inputs now have a greater resolution – 12-bits. That means it can return a value of  0~4095 representing 0~3.3V DC. To activate this higher resolution you need to use the function analogReadResolution(12).

Memory – there isn’t any EEPROM in the SAM3X – so you’ll need external EEPROMs to take care of more permanent storage. However there’s 512 KB of flash memory for sketches – which is huge. You have to see it to believe it:

Excellent. A new feature is the onboard erase button. Press it for three seconds and it wipes out the sketch. The traditional serial line is still digital 0/1 – which connect to the USB controller chip.

Hardware serial – there’s four serial lines. Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is still 8-bit and on digital pins 2~13.

The SPI bus is on the ICSP header pins to the right of the microcontroller – so existing shields that use SPI will need to be modified – or experiment with a LeoShield:

You can also use the extended SPI function of the SAM3X which allow the use of digital pins 4, 10 or 52 for CS (chip select).

The SAM3X supports the automtive CAN bus, and the pins have been brought out onto the stacked header connectors – however this isn’t supported yet in the IDE.

There are two I2C buses – located on digital 20/21 and the second is next to AREF just like on the Leonardo.

There’s a 10-pin JTAG mini-header on the Due, debug pins and a second ICSP for the ATmega16U2 which takes care of USB. Speaking of USB – there’s two microUSB sockets. One is for regular programming via the Arduino IDE and the USB interface, the other is a direct native USB programming port direct to the SAM3X.

The SAM3X natively supports Ethernet, but this hasn’t been implemented on the hardware side for the Due. However some people in the Arduino forum might have a way around that.

Using the Due

First of all – at the time of writing – you need to install Arduino IDE v1.5.1 release 2 – a beta version. Windows users – don’t forget the USB drivers. As always, backup your existing installation and sketch files somewhere safe – and you can run more than one IDE on the same machine.

When it comes time to upload your sketches, plug the USB cable into the lower socket on the Due – and select Arduino Due (Programming Port) from the Tools>Board menu in the IDE.

Let’s upload a sketch now (download) – written by Steve Curd from the Arduino forum. It calculates Newton Approximation for pi using an infinite series. As you can see from the results below, the Due is much faster (690 ms) than the Mega2560 (5765 ms). Click the image to enlarge:

Next, let’s give the digital-to-analogue converters a test. Finally we have two, real, 12-bit DACs with the output pins being … DAC0 and DAC1. No more mucking about with external R-C filters to get some audio happening. These pins provides true analogue outputs which is controlled by the analogWrite() function. To use them is very simple – consider the following example sketch which creates a triangle wave:

void setup() 
{
 analogWriteResolution(12); // 12-bit!
}

void loop() 
{
 for(int x=0; x<4096; x++) 
 {
 analogWrite(DAC0, x); // use DAC1 for ... DAC1
 }
 for(int x=4095; x>=0; --x) 
 {
 analogWrite(DAC0, x);
 }
}

And the results from the DSO (click image to enlarge):

This opens up all sorts of audio possibilities. With appropriate wavetable data saved in memory you could create various effects. However the DAC doesn’t give a full 0~3.3V output – instead it’s 1/6 to 5/6 of the Aref voltage. With the IDE there are example sketches that can play a .wav file from an SDcard – however I’d still be more inclined to use an external shield for that. Nevertheless for more information, have a look at the Audio library. Furthermore, take heed of the user experiences noted in the Arduino forum – it’s very easy to destroy your DAC outputs. In the future we look forward to experimenting further with the Due – so stay tuned.

Getting a Due

Good luck … at the time of writing – the Dues seem to be very thin on the ground. This may partly be due to the limited availability of the Atmel SAM3X8E. My contacts in various suppliers say volumes are quite limited.

Quality

I really hope this is a rare event, however one of the Dues received had the following fault in manufacturing:

One side of the crystal capacitor wasn’t in contact with the PCB. However this was a simple fix. How the QC people missed this … I don’t know. However I’ve seen a few Arduinos of various types, and this error is not indicative of the general quality of Arduino products.

Where to from here?

Visit the official Arduino Due page, the Due discussion section of the Arduino forum, and check out the reference guide for changes to functions that are affected by the different hardware.

Conclusion

Well that’s my first take on the Due – powerful and different. You will need to redesign existing projects, or build new projects around it. And a lot of stuff on the software side is still in beta. So review the Due forum before making any decisions. With that in mind – from a hardware perspective – it’s a great step-up from the Mega2560.

So if you’re interested – get one and take it for a spin, it won’t disappoint. The software will mature over time which will make life easier as well. If you have any questions (apart from Arduino vs. Raspberry Pi) leave a comment and we’ll look into it.

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Kit Review – akafugu TWILCD Display Controller Backpacks

Introduction

Working with LCD displays is always useful, for debugging hardware by showing various data or part of a final design. Furthermore, using them can be rather wasteful of I/O pins, especially when trying to squeeze in other functionality. Plus there’s the external contrast adjustment, general wiring and the time taken to get it working. (Don’t believe me? See here).

However, using the subjects of this kit review – you can convert standard HD44780 LCD modules to use the I2C bus using a small backpack-style board – bringing total I/O down to four wires – 5V/3.3V, GND, SDA and SCL. If you’re using an Arduino – don’t panic if you’re not up on I2C – a software library takes care of the translation leaving you to use the LiquidCrystal functions as normal. Furthermore you can control the brightness and contrast (and colour for RGB modules) – this feature alone is just magic and will make building these features into projects much, much easier.

In this review we examine both of the backpacks available from akafugu. There are two available:

• the TWILCD: Supports 1×16 and 2×7 connectors. It covers 16×1, 20×1, 16×2, 20×2 and 20×4 displays with and without backlight, and the
• TWILCD 40×2/40×4/RGB: Supports 1×18 connector (for Newhaven RGB backlit displays), 2×8 connector (used for some 20×4 displays) and 2×9 connector (used for 40×4 displays)

If unsure about your LCD, see the list and explanation here. The LCDs used in this article were supplied with the mono and colour LCD bundles available from akafugu. So let’s see how easy they really are, and put them through their paces.

Assembly

The backpacks arrive in the usual anti-static bags:

First we’ll examine the TWILCD board:

Very small indeed. There are three distinct areas of interface – including the single horizontal or dual vertical connectors for various LCDs, and I2C bus lines as well as ICSP connectors for the onboard ATTINY4313 microcontroller. The firmware can be updated and is available on the akafugu github repository. If you look at the horizontal row along the top – there are eighteen holes. This allows for displays that have pins ordered 1~16 and also those with 15,16,1~16 order (15 and 16 are for the LCD backlight).

The next step is to solder in the connectors for power and I2C if so desired, and then the LCD to the backpack. Double-check that you have the pin numbering and alignment correct before soldering, for example:

and then you’re finished:

Simple. Now apply power and after a moment the the backpack firmware will display the I2C bus address:

Success! Now let’s repeat this with the TWILCD 40×2/40×4/RGB version. The backpack itself is still quite small:

… and has various pin alignments for different types of LCD module. Note the extra pins allowing use of RGB-backlit modules and 40×4 character modules. Again,  make sure you have the pins lined up against your LCD module before soldering the backpack in:

 Notice how the I2C connector is between the LCD and the backpack – there is enough space for it to sit in there, and also acts as a perfect spacer when soldering the backpack to the display module.  Once finished soldering, apply 5/3.3V and GND to check your display:

Using the TWILCDs

Using the backpacks is very easy. If you aren’t using an Arduino, libraries for AVR-GCC are available. If you are using the Arduino system, it is very simple. Just download and install the library from here. Don’t forget to connect the SDA and SCL connectors to your Arduino. If you’re unsure about LCD and Arduino – see here.

Programming for the TWILCD is dead simple – just use your existing Arduino sketch, but replace

#include <LiquidCrystal.h>

with

#include <Wire.h>
#include <TWILiquidCrystal.h>

and that’s it. Even creating custom characters. No new functions to learn or tricks to take note of – they just work. Total win. The only new functions you will need are to control the brightness and contrast… to set the brightness, use:

lcd.setBrightness(brightness);

You can also set the brightness level to EEPROM as a default using:

lcd.saveBrightness([YOUR_VALUE])

Contrast is equally simple, using:

lcd.setContrast(contrast);

and

lcd.saveContrast([YOUR_VALUE])

You can see these in action using the example sketches with the Arduino library, and in the following video:

Now for the TWILCD 40×2/40×4/RGB version. You have one more function to set the colour of the text:

lcd.setColor(red, green, blue);

where red, green and blue are values between 0 and 254. Easily done. You can see this in action using the test_RGB example sketch included with the library, and shown in the following video:

Conclusion

The TWILCD backpacks are simple, easy to setup and easy to use. They make using LCD displays a lot easier and faster for rapid prototyping, experimenting or making final products easier to use and program. A well-deserved addition to every experimenter’s toolkit. For more information, visit the akafugu product website. Full-size images available on flickr.

Note – the products used in this article were a promotional consideration from akafugu.jp, however the opinions stated are purely my own.

In the meanwhile have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column? And join our friendly Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Translated version in Serbo-Croatian language.

Arduino and TM1640 LED Display Modules

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the use of the second (here’s the first) interesting LED display module I discovered on the dealextreme website, for example:

As you can see the display unit holds a total of sixteen seven-segment LED digits using four modules. However thanks to the use of the TM1640 controller IC…

… the entire display is controlled with only four wires – 5V, GND, data in and clock:

Here is the data sheet for the TM1640. The board also ships with the 30cm long four-wire lead and fitted plug. Finally, there is a ‘power on’ LED on the right-hand end of the board:

Getting Started

Now to make things happen. From a hardware perspective – it couldn’t be easier. Connect the 5V and GND leads to … 5V and GND. The data and clock leads will connect to two Arduino digital pins. That’s it. The maximum current drawn by the display with all segments on is ~213mA:

So you should be able to drive this from a normal Arduino-compatible board without any hassle. Please note that the TM1640 IC does heat up somewhat, so you may want to consider some sort of heatsink if intending to max out the display in this manner.

From the software side of things you will need to download and install the TM1638 library (yes) which also handles the TM1640 chip. To simply display text from a string on the display, examine the following sketch:

#include "TM1638.h"// yes you need both
#include "TM1640.h"

// define a module on data pin 7, clock pin 8
TM1640 module(7, 8);

void setup()
{
 // nothing to do here
}

void loop()
{
 String name = "0123456789012345";
 module.setDisplayToString(name, 0b0000000000000000);
 delay(32766);
}

Which will display:

The sixteen digit binary number in the module.setDisplayToString() line controls the decimal points – 0 for off and 1 for on. For example, changing it to

0b1010101010101010

will display:

You can also display text in a somewhat readable form – using the characters available in this list.

Displaying numbers is very easy, you can address each digit individually using:

module.setDisplayDigit(x, y, true/false);

where x is the digit, y is the position (0~15), and true/false is the decimal point. At this time you can’t just send a long integer down to the display, so you will need to either convert your numbers to a string or failing that, split it up into digits and display them one at a time.

In the following example sketch we display integers and unsigned integers by using the C command sprintf(). Note the use of %i to include an integer, and %u for unsigned integer:

#include "TM1638.h"  // required because the way arduino deals with libraries
#include "TM1640.h"

// define a module on data pin 7, clock pin 8
TM1640 module(7, 8);

void setup()
{
 // nothing to do here
}

void loop()
{
 char text[17];
 int z;

for (z=0; z<5; z++)
 {
 int a=32767;
 sprintf(text, "INTEGER %i",a);
 module.setDisplayToString(text); 
 delay(1000);
 module.clearDisplay();

unsigned int ui=65535;
 sprintf(text, "UNSIGNED %u",ui);
 module.setDisplayToString(text);
 delay(1000);
 module.clearDisplay();
 }

 for (z=0; z<32767; z++)
 {
 sprintf(text, "COUNTING %i",z);
 module.setDisplayToString(text); 
 delay(10);
 }
}

And the resulting output:

Now you have an idea of what is possible, a variety of display options should spring to mind. For example:

Again, this display board was a random, successful find. When ordering from dealextreme, do so knowing that your order may take several weeks to arrive as they are not the fastest of online retailers; and your order may be coming from mainland China which can slow things down somewhat. Otherwise the module worked well and considering the minimal I/O and code requirements, is a very good deal.

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Hewlett-Packard 5082-7415 LED Display from 1976

In this article we examine a five digit, seven-segment LED display from Hewlett-Packard, the 5082-7415:

According to the data sheet (HP 5082-series.pdf) and other research this was available for a period of time around 1976 and used with other 5082-series modules in other HP products. Such as the Hewlett-Packard 3x series of calculators, for example:

Using the display is very easy – kudos to the engineers at HP for making a simple design that could be reusable in many applications. The 5082-7415 is a common-cathode unit and wiring is very simple – there are the usual eight anodes for segments a~f and the decimal point, and the five cathodes.

As this module isn’t too easily replaceable, I was very conservative with the power supply – feeding just under 1.6V at 10mA to each of the anode pins. A quick test proved very promising:

Excellent – it worked! But now to get it displaying some sort of interesting way. Using the following hardware…

• Freetronics Eleven Arduino-compatible board
• Two 74HC595 shift registers
• Eight 560 ohm resistors
• Five 1k ohm resistors
• Five BC548 transistors
• A large solderless breadboard and plenty of wires

… it was connected in the same method as a four-digit display (except for the extra digit) as described in my tutorial. Don’t forget to use the data sheet (HP 5082-series.pdf). You don’t have to use Arduino – any microcontroller with the appropriate I/O can take care of this.

Here is a simple Arduino sketch that scrolls through the digits with and then without the decimal point (download):

// Arduino sketch to demonstrate HP 5082-7415 LED Display unit
 // John Boxall, April 2012

int clockPin=6;
 int latchPin=7;
 int dataPin=8;

// array for cathodes - sent to second shift register
 byte digits[]={

 B10000000,
 B01000000,
 B00100000,
 B00010000,
 B00001000,
 B11111000}; // use digits[6] to turn all on

// array for anodes (to display 0~0) - sent to first shift register
 byte numbers[]={

 B11111100,
 B01100000,
 B11011010,
 B11110010,
 B01100110,
 B10110110,
 B10111110,
 B11100000,
 B11111110,
 B11110110};

void setup()
 {
 pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
 }

void loop()
 {
 int i;
 for ( i=0 ; i<10; i++ )
 {
 digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, digits[6]);
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, numbers[i]);
 digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
 delay(250);
 }
 // now repeat with decimal point
 for ( i=0 ; i<10; i++ )
 {
 digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, digits[6]);
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, numbers[i]+1);
 digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
 delay(250);
 }
 }

And the results:

Now for something more useful. Here is a function that sends a single digit to a position on the display with the option of turning the decimal point on or off:

void displayDigit(int value, int posit, boolean decPoint)
// displays integer value at digit position posit with decimal point on/off
{
 digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, digits[posit]);
 if (decPoint==true)
 {
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, numbers[value]+1); 
 } 
 else 
 {
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, numbers[value]); 
 }
 digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

So if you wanted to display the number three in the fourth digit, with the decimal point – use

  displayDigit(3,3,true);

with the following result:

We make use of the displayDigit() function in our next sketch. We introduce a new function

displayInteger(number,cycles);

It accepts a long integer between zero and 99999 (number) and displays it on the module for cycles times. You can download the sketch from here.

// Arduino sketch to demonstrate HP 5082-7415 LED Display unit
// Displays numbers on request
// John Boxall, April 2012

int clockPin=6;
int latchPin=7;
int dataPin=8;

// array for cathodes - sent to second shift register
byte digits[]={
 B10000000,
 B01000000,
 B00100000,
 B00010000,
 B00001000,
 B11111000}; // use digits[6] to turn all on

// array for anodes (to display 0~0) - sent to first shift register
byte numbers[]={
 B11111100,
 B01100000,
 B11011010,
 B11110010,
 B01100110,
 B10110110,
 B10111110,
 B11100000,
 B11111110,
 B11110110};

void setup()
{
 pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);
 randomSeed(analogRead(0));
}

void clearDisplay()
// turns off all digits
{
 digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, 0);
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, 0); 
 digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

void displayDigit(int value, int posit, boolean decPoint)
// displays integer value at digit position posit with decimal point on/off
{
 digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, digits[posit]);
 if (decPoint==true)
 {
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, numbers[value]+1); 
 } 
 else 
 {
 shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, LSBFIRST, numbers[value]); 
 }
 digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);
}

void displayInteger(long number,int cycles)
// displays a number 'number' on the HP display. 
{
 long i,j,k,l,z;
 float f;
 clearDisplay();
 for (z=0; z

void loop()
{
 long l2;
 l2=random(0,100001);
 displayInteger(l2,400);
}

For demonstration purposes the sketch displays random numbers, as shown in the video below:

Update – 23/04/2012

Finally after some more hunting around I found some four-digit (possible knock-off versions of the) HP QDSP-6064 display units on eBay (item #120876219746) as shown below:

They worked very nicely and can be driven in the same method as the 5082-7415s descibed earlier. In the following video we have run the same sketches with the new displays:

In the meanwhile, I hope you found this article of interest. Thanks to the Vintage Technology Association website and the Museum of HP Calculators for background information and Freetronics for the use of the Eleven.

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

Arduino and TM1638 LED Display Modules

Introduction

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the use of some interesting LED display modules I discovered on the dealextreme website, for example:

They contain eight 7-segment red LED digits, eight red/green LEDs and also eight buttons for user input. You can get red or green display models. The units can also be daisy-chained, allowing up to five at once, and a short cable is included with each module, as well as some short spacers and bolts, such as:

The spaces are just long enough to raise the PCB above a surface, however to mount the boards anywhere useful you would need longer ones. You may also want to remove the IDC sockets if you want to mount the module close to the surface of a panel. This would be a simple desoldering task as they are through-hole sockets:

The board is controlled by a TM1638 IC:

This part seems to be a domestic Chinese product from “Titan Micro Electronics“. After a quick search the TM1638 isn’t available from Digikey, Mouser or the element14 group… so if anyone has a lead on a low-volume, reliable supplier for these – please leave a comment below. However here is a link to the data sheet – thanks Marc!.

Getting Started

Now to make things happen…

Hardware – Connection to an Arduino-compatible board (or other MCU) is quite simple. The pinouts are shown on the rear of the PCB, and match the fitting on the ribbon cable. If you look at the end of the cable as such:

The top-right hole is pin one, with the top-left being pin two, the bottom-right pin nine and bottom-left pin ten. Therefore the pinouts are:

1. Vcc (5V)
2. GND
3. CLK
4. DIO
5. STB1
6. STB2
7. STB3
8. STB4
9. STB5
10. not connected

For Arduino use, pins 1~4 are the minimum necessary to use one module. Each additional module will require another digital pin connected to STB2, STB3, etc. More on this later. Please note that each module set to full brightness with every LED on consumes 127mA, so it would be wise to use external power with more than one module and other connections with Arduino boards. After spending some time with the module, I made a quick shield with an IDC header to make connection somewhat easier:

Software –  download and install the T1638 library from here. Thanks and kudos to rjbatista at gmail dot com for the library.

Initialising modules in the sketch is simple. Include the library with:

#include <TM1638.h>

then use one of the following for each module:

TM1638 module(x, y, z);

x is  the Arduino digital pin connected to the module cable pin 4, y is the Arduino digital pin connected to the module cable pin 3, and z is the strobe pin. So if you had one module with data, clock and strobe connected to pins 8, 7,  and 6 you would use:

TM1638 module(8, 7, 6);

If you had two modules, with module one’s strobe connected to Arduino digital 6, and module two’s strobe connected to digital 5, you would use:

 TM1638 module(8, 7, 6);

 TM1638 module(8, 7, 5);

and so on for more modules.  Now to control the display…

The bi-colour LEDs

Controlling the red/green LEDs is easy. For reference they are numbered zero to seven from left to right. To turn on or off a single LED, use the following:

  module.setLED(TM1638_COLOR_RED, x);  // set LED number x to red
  module.setLED(TM1638_COLOR_GREEN, x); // set LED number x to green
  module.setLED(TM1638_COLOR_RED+TM1638_COLOR_GREEN, 0); // set LED number x to red and green

Using the method above may be simple it is somewhat inefficient. A better way is to address all of the LEDs in one statement. To do this we send two bytes of data in hexadecimal to the display. The MSB (most significant byte) consists of eight bits, each representing one green LED being on (1) or off (0). The LSB (least significant byte) represents the red LEDs.

An easy way to determine the hexadecimal value to control the LEDs is simple, image you have one row of LEDs – the first eight being green and the second eight being red.  Set each digit to 1 for on and 0 for off. The convert the two binary numbers to hexadecimal and use this function:

module.setLEDs(0xgreenred);

Where green is the hexadecimal number for the green LEDs and red is the hexadecimal number for the red LEDs. For example, to turn on the first three LEDs as red, and the last three as green, the binary representation will be:

00000111 11100000 which in hexadecimal is E007. So we would use:

module.setLEDs(0xE007);

which produces the following:

The 7-segment display

To clear the numeric display (but not the LEDs below), simply use:

module.clearDisplay();

or to turn on every segment AND all the LEDs, use the following

module.setupDisplay(true, 7); // where 7 is intensity (from 0~7)

To display decimal numbers, use the function:

module.setDisplayToDecNumber(a,b,false);

where a is the integer, b is the position for the decimal point (0 for none, 1 for digit 8, 2, for digit 7, 4 for digit 6, 8 for digit 4, etc), and the last parameter (true/false) turns on or off leading zeros. The following sketch demonstrates the use of this function:

#include <TM1638.h>

// define a module on data pin 8, clock pin 9 and strobe pin 7
TM1638 module(8, 9, 7);

unsigned long a=1;

void setup(){}

void loop()
{
 for (a=10000; a<11000; a++)
 {
 module.setDisplayToDecNumber(a,4,false);
 delay(1);
 }
 for (a=10000; a<11000; a++)
 {
 module.setDisplayToDecNumber(a,0,true);
 delay(1);
 }
}

and the results:

One of the most interesting features is the ability to scroll text across one or more displays. To do so doesn’t really need an explanation as the included demonstration sketch:

tm_1638_scrolling_modules_example.pde

included with the TM1638 library is easily followed. Just insert your text in the const char string[], ensure that the module(s) are wired according to the module definition at the start of the sketch and you’re set. To see the available characters, visit the function page. Note that the display is only seven-segments, so some characters may not look perfect, but in context will give you a good idea – for example:

Finally, you can also individually address each segment of each digit. Consider the contents of this array:

byte values[] = { 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 };

each element represents digits 1~8. The value of each element determines which segment of the digit turns on. For segments a~f, dp the values are 1,2,4,6,16,32,64,128. So the results of using the array above in the following function:

module.setDisplay(values);

will be:

Naturally you can combine values for each digit to create your own characters, symbols, etcetera. For example, using the following values:

byte values[] = { 99,99,99,99,99,99,99,99 };

we created:

The buttons

The values of the buttons are returned as a byte value from the function:

module.getButtons();

As there are eight buttons, each one represents one bit of a binary number that is returned as a byte. The button on the left returns decimal one, and the right returns 128. It can also return simultaneous presses, so pressing buttons one and eight returns 129. Consider the following sketch, which returns the values of the button presses in decimal form, then displays the value:

#include <TM1638.h>

// define a module on data pin 8, clock pin 9 and strobe pin 7
TM1638 module(8, 9, 7);

byte buttons;

void setup(){}

void loop()
{
 buttons=module.getButtons();
 module.setDisplayToDecNumber(buttons,0,false);
}

and the results:

Update – 21/05/2012

A reader from Brazil has used one of the modules as part of a racing simulator – read more about it here, and view his demonstration below.

Update – 08/02/2013

Great tutorial on using these with a Raspberry Pi.

These display boards were a random, successful find. When ordering from dealextreme, do so knowing that your order may take several weeks to arrive as they are not the fastest of online retailers; and your order may be coming from mainland China which can slow things down somewhat. Otherwise the modules work well and considering the minimal I/O and code requirements, are a very good deal.

Have fun and keep checking into tronixstuff.com. Why not follow things on twitter, Google+, subscribe  for email updates or RSS using the links on the right-hand column, or join our Google Group – dedicated to the projects and related items on this website. Sign up – it’s free, helpful to each other –  and we can all learn something.

The world’s smallest oscilloscope??

Hello readers

[Update 14/01/2013 - Now available locally in Australia]

Today we examine a tiny and fascinating piece of test equipment from Gabotronics – their XMEGA Xprotolab. Sure, that sounds like a lot – and it is. Yet the functionality of the Xprotolab is inversely proportional to its physical size. Try to imagine having an oscilloscope, arbitrary waveform generator, logic analyser and a spectrum analyser – including a display – in a package no larger than 25.4 x 40.6 mm (1″ x 1.6″) in size. Well imagine no more as here it is:

As described above, this tiny marvel of engineering has the following functions:

• Two analogue oscilloscope channels with a maximum sampling rate of 2 million samples per second;
• Analogue bandwidth of 320 kHz at 8-bits resolution;
• Buffer size of 256 samples;
• Fast fourier-transform;
• Analog and external digital triggering;
• Maximum input voltage of +/- 10V;
• Automatic average and peak-to-peak measurements;
• Logic analyser with eight channel maximum simultaneous monitoring;
• Firmware is user upgradable;
• Can also be used as a development board for the XMEGA microcontroller (extra items required);
• When powered from a USB cable, the board can supply +/-5V and +3.3V into a solderless breadboard.

The OLED screen is very clear and precise, which considering the size of 0.96″ – very easy to read. One can also set the display mode to invert which changes the display to black on white, bringing back memories of the original Apple Macintosh:

Using the Xprotolab took a little getting used to, however after pressing menu buttons for a few minutes I had it worked out. The more sensible among you will no doubt read the instructions and menu map listed at the website. Having the dual voltmeter function is quite useful, it saved me having to mess about with a couple of multimeters when trying to debug some analogue circuits I’m currently working with.

The display can be as complex or as simple as you choose, for example when working with the oscilloscope you can disable one channel and shift the waveform so it occupies the centre of the screen. Or when working with the logic analyser, you can choose to only select the channels being monitored, instead of filling the screen with unused logic lines.

There are a couple of things to take care with. When inserting the Xprotolab into your breadboard, be careful not to put pressure on the OLED display when pushing down; when removing it from the breadboard, try and do so evenly with the help of an DIP IC puller.

Generally in my reviews there is a video clip of something happening. Unfortunately my camera just isn’t that good, so below is the demonstration clip from the manufacturer:

As you can see the Xprotolab would be quite useful for monitoring various signals whilst prototyping, as you can just drop it into a breadboard. Furthermore, if your required range is measurable the Xprotolab saves you having to look back-and-forth between a prototype and the display from a regular oscilloscope as well.

As the purchase price is relatively cheap compared against the time and effort of trying to make an OLED display board yourself, one could also plan to build an Xprotolab into a final design – considering a lot of measurement and display work is already done for you it could be a real time-saver. The Xprotolab can run from a 5V supply and only draws a maximum of 60 milliamps. Product support is quite extensive, including source code, schematics, videos, a user forum and more available from the product page.

In conclusion the Xprotolab is genuinely useful, inexpensive and ready to use out of the box. It would make a useful piece of test equipment for a beginner or seasoned professional, and also integrates well into custom projects when required.

Remember, if you have any questions about the Xprotolab,  please contact Gabotronics via their website.

Otherwise, have fun, stay safe, be good to each other – and make something! 

[Note - the Xprotolab reviewed in this article was received from Gabotronics for review purposes]