Chapter 14. Displays
14.0 Introduction
Although the Raspberry Pi can use a monitor or TV as a display, it is often nice to use a smaller, more specialized display with it. In this chapter, you will explore a range of different displays that can be attached to a Raspberry Pi.
Some of the recipes require the use of a solderless breadboard and male-to-female jumper wires (see Recipe 9.8).
14.1 Using a Four-Digit LED Display
Note
Be sure to check out the accompanying video for this recipe at http://razzpisampler.oreilly.com.
Problem
You want to display a four-digit number in an old-fashioned, seven-segment LED display.
Solution
Use an I2C LED module, such as the model shown in Figure 14-1, to a Raspberry Pi using female-to-female jumper wires.
Figure 14-1. Seven-segment LED display with Raspberry Pi
To make this recipe, you need:
-
Four female-to-female jumper wires (see “Prototyping Equipment”)
-
Adafruit 4×7-segment LED with I2C backpack (see “Modules”)
The connections between the Raspberry Pi and the module are as follows:
- VCC (+) on the display to 5V on the Raspberry Pi GPIO connector
- GND (-) on the display to GND on the Raspberry Pi GPIO connector
- SDA (D) on the display to GPIO 2 (SDA) on the Raspberry Pi GPIO connector
- SCL (C) on the display to GPIO 3 (SCL) on the Raspberry Pi GPIO connector
Note that Adafruit also supplies a jumbo-sized LED display. This can be ...