Driving a 4-digit 7-segment display with a shift register and a few BJTs
See Led4Digit7Segment for general discussion of 4-digit 7-segment displays, how to drive them, and the details of the specific SMA420564 unit used in this test.
While you can wire up each segment pin to a digital out on the Arduino, it soon becomes pretty wasteful of pins. This project uses an 8-bit shift register to feed segment values and some BJTs to control digit selection.
A 74HC595 is used to shift out the segment values in a block, requiring only 3 pins.
S9013 NPN BJTs are used to switch the sinking of each digit's common cathode connection. In this circuit, the BJTs are directly controlled with an additional 4 pins. The S9013 is selected for no other reason than it's a nice reliable small-signal transistor, and some were on hand. Pretty much any NPN transistor would do.
This circuit puts the current-limiting resistors in series of the common cathode pins. Which is a bit of an approximation, as current (brightness) varies a little depending on how many LED segments are on. The better way is to put a resistor on each segment pin. But this was good enough for a simple test.
- 74HC595 Datasheet
- S9013 Datasheet
- KW4-561 Datasheet - not matching the part I have, but a pretty stanrd example
- a good How to.. question at EE.SE