Adruino-Based Stackable 2-Digit Large Seven-Segment Controller Shield

The open-source hardware development platform Arduino has been growing in recent years. Due to this growth, a wide varicty of expansion boards (shields) have emerged with many different purposes in mind: from simple logic expansions lo Ethernet upp Since 20I here are shields for wireless communication, using zigbee, Wi-Fi and GSM, but there is not a single one using Stackable 2 digit large 7-segment shield. The main advantage of using Stackable 2 digit large 7-segment controller shicld technology is the possibility to drive large 7 segment with high reliability up to 50-Vdc 500ma load, without additional infrastructures or heavy drivers like other technologics require (c.g. Relay driver shields). This thesis describes the conceptualization, development, and testing of a Stackable 2 digit large 7-segment controller shield for Arduino, that drives large 7 segments. A simple API (Application Programming Interface) in Ct, compatible with the Arduino IDE, is developed in order to interface the shield using SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface), This API allows for two different programming methods: polling and events. The controller shield contains two shift registers, which are used to decode data and send it to the output driver. Communication with the Arduino, using SPL, proved to be tolerable to error because the shield recovers in case of faults, and reliable since it is rare to lose functionalities during heavy SPI usage. A 4-digit large 7-segment display is implemented in order to demonstrate the controller shield.