Kit Two: “Giant Lasercut 7 Segment RGB Display!”

We needed a way to alert users to problems with the lasercutter cooling systems. It’s easy for people to forget to check the temperature of the cooling system, and this can (and has!) caused the life of the tube to be cut short. So, what’s the best way to make sure people pay attention to the display? Make it giant of course! And as it is RGB you can set a huge range of colours, as I have done, so when the water is cold the numbers are blue, but if it is too hot you get a blast of flashing red!

It uses the TCL5940 16 pwm led driver IC. Two of these ICs control the 8 pwm leds that sit behind each segment. This gives you full control of all of the display with just a few pins on your arduino (or your fave mcu!).

The kit also comes with an easy to use library that does the hard work out of driving the TCL5940s for you! You can either control the colour of each segment individually, or just call a number to be shown in a colour of your choosing on the whole display. The display is also built for chaining, so you can join multiple segments to form a large numeric display.

Your kit will be made from mdf or laser ply wood for the body of the display, and thick opal acrylic for the segments. Limited edition versions will come later.

So another kit down, and a few days early too… now where did I put that lasertag kit…