I love seeing projects where people take electronic components and make them bigger. Whether it’s a discrete version of an IC or a huge 7-segment display it just tickles me. The original purpose of this display was to create a radar speed sign Halloween costume, which is the sort of humour that I also greatly appreciate!
Built from individual segment boards, each section can be independently controlled and has an array of super-bright, daylight-readable amber LEDs. At 12V, each segment consumes about 120mA at full brightness, so the number 8 takes 840mA! Definitely easier to use in a stationary display with a decent power supply, but if you want to make it portable like in the radar speed sign costume, you’ll likely need some quality lithium batteries and a charge controller.
These can be used for practical purposes too, of course. Public displays often need to be large and bright to be read at a distance, and with a little bit of diffusion, it looks like these digits can be read from quite a ways away. At 188x92mm per digit, these could be used for those “Now Serving Ticket #” displays, or even to create a gas price display for your garage or carport, showing you the average price nearby! With the flexible design and bright LEDs, we’re sure these will end up in all sorts of unusual places.
