This repository contains the Arduino library and simple demos for Neosegment Digit modules.

By default the Neosegment library assumes that Neosegment modules' data pin is connected to pin 9 on Arduino. You can easily change that assumption when instantiating the library in your code.

Unless you set all segments to white at once, it should be safe to use +5V and GND of the Arduino to light up 1-5 modules (0-10 digits) in some single color on low brightness (values 1-100 for the brightness). If you plan to use a lot of color mixing on the whole strip of modules, be sure to use additional 5V power supply.

If you are using Arduino IDE, you should be able to use Library Manager to find and install the library. You might need to install Adafruit Neopixel library as well in order for Neosegment library to work correctly

Note: I use PlatformIO for fast cross - compilation between Arduino, ESP8266 and similar architectures. It is highly recommended you check it out to save time compiling your Arduino projects.

If you are using PlatfomIO, Neosegment library can be installed via its library manager as well:

lib_deps =
  # Using a library name
  Neosegment

  # ... or using library Id
  2068

There are three main parameters that you need to set when using Neosegment library in your projects:

• Which pin the modules are connected to
• How many digits you have available (each module contains 2 digits)
• What brightness to set the modules to

Here is a snippet of code that you can use in your projects that use Neosegment library:

#include "Neosegment.h"
#define nDigits 6           // Each module has 2 digits. If you have 3 modules, set nDigits to 6
#define PIN 9               // Which Arduino pin is the Neosegment data pin connected to
#define LEDbrightness 100   // Brightness is a value from 0 to 255

Neosegment neosegment(nDigits, PIN, LEDbrightness);
...
void setup() {
  neosegment.begin();     
  neosegment.clearAll();  // Make sure to clear all modules
}
...

There are two main functions for displaying things on Neosegment:

• setDigit (could be either a number or a letter)
• setSegment

Each "digit" represents individual digit on the Neosegment modules, with the index starting at 0(zero).

To set the first digit on the first module to display number 6 in color red, you would do one of the following:

neosegment.setDigit(0, 6, 255, 0, 0);
// same as
neosegment.setDigit(0, 6, 0xFF0000);

You can also set a digit to display one of the 19 letters that work well on seven segment displays. For example if you wanted to write the word "colors" on the first 3 Neosegment modules in different colors, you would do this:

neosegment.setDigit(0, 'c', 0xFF0000);
neosegment.setDigit(1, 'o', 0xFFFF00);
neosegment.setDigit(2, 'l', 0xFF00FF);
neosegment.setDigit(3, 'o', 0x00FF00);
neosegment.setDigit(4, 'r', 0x0000FF);
neosegment.setDigit(5, 's', 0xFFFFFF);

To control each individual segment of the modules to do something better than showing numbers or letters, you can use setSegment function. The function needs to know the address of the segment you want to light up and you can provide that information by specifying the digit index, segment index and desired color to set the segment to.

For example if you wanted to light up the top and the bottom horizontal segment on the third digit in color white, you would do something like:

neosegment.setSegment(2, 1, 0xFFFFFF); // See the segment index below to see why the segment index is '1'
neosegment.setSegment(2, 5, 0xFFFFFF);

Neosegment modules have LEDs in the following order (the number signifies index):

      55555
   4        6
   4        6
   4        6
      33333
   0        2
   0        2
   0        2
      11111

There are three main examples included in this repository:

• DigitsOfPi, demonstrates basic display of numbers on Neosegment modules
• Potentiometer, demonstrates input from potentiometer via interactive display of readings using Neosegment modules
• SegmentAnimations, demonstrates some basic animations and effects

You can switch between the examples by using Arduino IDE's File > Examples menu.