Skip to Content
Build a Binary Clock with Elixir and Nerves
book

Build a Binary Clock with Elixir and Nerves

by Frank Hunleth, Bruce Tate
August 2022
Intermediate to advanced
108 pages
2h 23m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from Build a Binary Clock with Elixir and Nerves

SPI Communication

The next step is to send data to the TM1620 to make it turn on an LED. The flow chart on page 7 of the datasheet shows how to do this:

  1. Send the command to set the display mode.
  2. Send the command to write to data memory.
  3. Send the data bytes describing which LEDs to turn on and off.
  4. Send the command to turn the LEDs on and set their brightness.

In short, we set the display mode, send a write command, send the data to write, and then send the command to set brightness and go. We’ll take each one of those in turn.

Set the Display Mode

To follow the instructions on the datasheet to set the mode, we need to send 0b00000010, or just the number 2. Click evaluate on the notebook’s Elixir cell that has this code:

 SPI.transfer(spi, <<0b00000010>>) ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Build a Weather Station with Elixir and Nerves

Build a Weather Station with Elixir and Nerves

Alexander Koutmos, Bruce Tate, Frank Hunleth

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781680509762Errata Page