Flowcode Support Board

Hi,

I am thinking of buying the board Mikroe AlphaNum R Click to start experimenting with a different shift register than the 74HC595/TPIC6B595, so I found the TLC5926, a 16-bit constant-current LED-sink driver from Texas Instruments. Is anyone interested in making a component for it?

https://www.mikroe.com/alphanum-r-click

I found that 14-16-segment displays aren't very popular in Flowcode's library...

Andreas

I did a little - see https://flowcode.co.uk/forums/viewtopic ... 16+segment

Thank you for the link, Martin!

By the way, what do you think of MAX6954?
It looks quite capable, and also supports many other features. it's definitely the solution for space and component-saving, but it comes at around 35EUR/unit, according to Mouser.

https://www.analog.com/en/resources/des ... x6954.html
https://www.analog.com/media/en/technic ... ax6954.pdf

The MAX device looks very good - and is ideal for using with small MCUs as it has the built in character set.
The HTK chip I used doesn't have this - so there is a cost in memory usage but a lot cheaper for the part itself. I did look at the MAX development board, but decided it was just too expensive (~£100) as I didn't have an immediate use for it.

Programming wise - they (and the driver in the Mikroe board) - are very similar. Indeed I'd been playing with the MAX7219 at the time - and the code has many similarities to that too.

There wasn't much interest in the HTK board so I kinda left it to the side and moved onto something else - but these displays make a neat display option and can display a much wider range of info than the 7 segment devices. The cost may be an issue - a OLED / LCD can display even more - and come in at a similar price?

Martin

Hi Martin,

Where have you seen the development board/kit with MAX6954? I have only seen this:

https://www.remelectronics.com/2023/09/ ... ay-driver/

It's not that expensive, and I could buy it for you if you want to make a component from it.

LE: I found it, the development kit is with MAX6955 and I think it worth the money, especially for how much time it saves and the components it has:

https://www.mouser.se/en/ProductDetail/ ... ujQA%3D%3D

Andreas

Ah - I did indeed see the 6955

Yes - if you'd like to lend (or send) me a board - I'd happily get some code going on it...

Martin

Martin, are you based in the UK?
I could eventually order one from Mouser and send it to your home address.
After you are done with it, you can either keep it or send it to me (and I will pay for shipping).
I think it would be useful for the whole community if someone like you could create a component for that display driver...

Yes, I'm in the UK. I can PM you my address...

Martin

Hi

I looked at the link and think it an expensive purchase (around £90+) especially as the associated datasheet informs it has a DB25 connector for connection to a computer's printer port and is compatible with OS's that disappeared decades ago

Clearly documentation hasn't been updated.

Other links show it can be obtained for around US$20 with SPI interface.

Regards

Yeah, it wasn't cheap - I bought one yesterday for 135 EUR (incl. VAT) and shipped it to Martin.
If you do a quick calculation, you'll find that it has two MAX6955 (50EUR), 8x 14-segment displays (32EUR), so the rest is not a big deal.
I know it's a board that works and saves time during the prototyping stage, so it's worth the investment...

I'll probably end up soldering something and making my own development board, just to follow Martin's work.