After several threads about LED matrices, I decided I'd order a few 7x5 LED displays... Any guesses what I'll be needing all these for? It took me all of yesterday evening to get the first 100 or so ASCII characters on the PIC, (Alphabet (upper and lower cases), numbers and all symbols on a standard keyboard along with a few smileys and other characters) I'm just waiting for the shift registers to arrive so that I can drive more than one block.
White and Blue 5x7's are £21.50 a piece So it was a choice between red, yellow and green. It's turning out to be quite and educational project. Although I haven't thought about how I'm going to manufacture a 60cm PCB just yet Anyone got an A3 laser printer??
You're moving to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch and want an illuminated address?
Damn. Cookie for cpemma - Got it in one Not really. I'm going to make a 2x16 character message board, although I'm not sure what for yet. It'll probably start off just saying the time, temperature and date.
i actually meant red, but blue would be cool! 60cm shouldn't be a problem... just print it out over 2-3 A4 pages and use some tape how do you make you'r PCB's? The iron-on method? or with UV light?
Yeah, I should have ordered an extra red and green display just to see what they look like. I think red would have given a better contrast against the background. Nevermind. I use a UV exposure box and photo-sensitive boards to create my PCB's. I used to use the toner-transfer method, but I got sick of not getting good results with closely packed thin tracks. My main concern about taping two bits of artwork together is that the areas that are taped together might not pass UV so well, especially if the pages overlap slightly.
well... i know there is some prblems with using multiple layers of artwork... i tried it once... i figured out that it doesn't really matter if you make the exposing time longer... you could print two wersions.. each one with a litte "offset".. then cut them WEEERY accurately, and then make two layers wich overlaps at different points.. cinda' like this: (i suck at ASCII drawing... hehe)
I shouldn't think you'd have a giant problem with this. Are you printing on paper or transparencys? I use transparenys and have taped peices together before without a problem. Just use clear tape and don't tape near your artwork. I always put the board and arwork clipped between two peices of glass when exposing them. If you do this you may not even need tape as you can line it up and the glass holds it from moving and close to the board. I just got 2 peices of replacement window pane for crosshatched windows that was like 1/16 inch think.... cheap and works well. Tape the edges of glass so you don't get cut. Make sure its not uv blocking glass though!
