Worth a punt?

J

John West

Senior Member
It looks like a fun circuit. However, I'm thinking Deal Extreme has them for sale because the connectors got mounted on the front instead of the back.

It looks like they will be in the way for any simple mounting methodology, requiring hard-wiring to the backside of the connectors or removing them and remounting them on the back side of the bd. For either of those changes, make sure the bds are not already conformal coated. Though I suspect they are not, conformal coating can be a real pain to do mods through and makes many changes virtually impossible.

Also, I have no idea what they mean by "three I/O ports." Serial? Parallel? USB?

But it still looks like a fun circuit. Buy one, experiment, and let us know the results. I'm very free with other people's money.
 
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hippy

hippy

Technical Support
Staff member
Check the "Community tools" and check / follow the comments / links there. It's SPI with a bi-directional I/O lines and uses a command protocol. If you can read Chinese or find a decent translation, some example from someone who's used the chip, that will make things easier.

Possibly a fair investment if you want to experiment and enjoy a challenge. It could give you an excuse to head to your favourite Chinese restaurant on the grounds of seeking 'translation services' :)
 
T

Texy

Senior Member
John West said:
For either of those changes, make sure the bds are not already conformal coated. Though I suspect they are not, conformal coating can be a real pain to do mods through and makes many changes virtually impossible.
Click to expand...
Con-coat is easily removed with standard flux cleaner, ie iso-alcohol and a stiff brush. I doubt they are coated in any case.

Texy
 
fernando_g

fernando_g

Senior Member
"Integrates buttons, LED & digital tube
- Only requires three IO ports to be driven
- By day of the module's TM1638 chip micro-8 8-segment LED display and 8 buttons and 8 test Two-color LED control, IO savings serial communication interface, 8-level brightness adjustment (LED and adjust the brightness of a unified digital), and scan button scans showed no MCU intervention, MCU only needs to read or send display data to register RAM chips can save MCU resources."

I need help with their translation.

I assume that a "digital tube" is the thru-hole LED.
Also that a 8-segment LED is actually a 7-segment plus DP.
That "scan button scans showed no MCU intervention" means that the scanning and reading of the pushbuttons is handled by the board itself, no main controller intervention is required.
And finally that "TM1638 chip micro" means the contoller IC for the board.

Sounds reasoneable?
 
J

John West

Senior Member
Texy said:
Con-coat is easily removed with standard flux cleaner, ie iso-alcohol and a stiff brush. I doubt they are coated in any case.

Texy
Click to expand...
Not to get too far off the subject, but a correction to this comment may be in order here. Acrylic, Epoxy, Polyurethane, Silicones, Parylene, and Amorphous Fluoropolymer are all used for conformal coatings. Not all of them are easily removed with common solvents.
 
N

NXTreme

Senior Member
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I

inglewoodpete

Senior Member
Sheesh. Ain't that a cheap headache! It would cost more in paracetamol than my poor liver could take.

I'll buy the components individually if I need them.
 
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S

samis_p

New Member
Excuse me for bringing this thread back from the dead, but has someone found a way to use these with a picaxe? I know there's an Arduino library now, but I have no knowledge about them whatsoever.
 
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