Output Devices

Acknowledgements

Ed Baafi for helping me debug the Fabduino (problem with my USB port) and Dan Schultz for sharing the soldering iron.

Related Links

Fabduino
Ella Peinovich's Fabduino Pin Assignments
Fabio 1.1

“Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software.”

- Arduino Website
As the assignments get more complex, I found myself begging for a simpler coding environment. So, this week, I made my own fabduino, so I can now use Arduino libraries. That is up and working well. I had a little problem programming it since my USB port was acting up, but after trying it on Ed Baafi’s computer, things worked great.

Next step was to get my test circuit up and running. The 7 segment displays work great and are incredibly bright but need a minimum of 7V to run at a minimum and ideally 8-9V for ideal brightness.

I built a schematic that is a hybrid of the Fabduino, with an external resonator for more accurate time, a speaker, 7 segment displays mounted in the board and an ambient light sensor to dim the LEDs when it’s dark in the room. When I went to lay out the board, I got an error saying I needed a better version of Eagle to make anything bigger than 100mm x 180mm.

Outputting to a 7 segment display with an arduino is super easy. I followed this article http://www.hacktronics.com/Tutorials/arduino-and-7-segment-led.html to get me to the finish line. Set each of 7 pins to sink current and that’s really all you have to do.