Large 7-segment display with neon glow on the ESP8266

I needed to make a large electronic display with a stopwatch function and neon glow to work.

For control, the ESP8266 chip was chosen, in which both the clock function and the stopwatch are implemented.

To get a neon glow, I used hot-melt adhesive cylinders. At the end of each tube, I glued one LED.





Components Used:

1 × ESP8266;
2 LEDs in each tube, total 14 pcs. for one digit;
1 × 100 ohm resistor;
2 × 10 kOhm resistor;
1 × MCP23017

I connected all the “cathode” contacts to one common wire, and connected the anodes of the LEDs to the control circuit.



To control seven segments, I used the MC23017. It would be more logical to apply four 74hc595, but I did not have a complete set, and I really wanted to make the neon display as quickly as possible.



The display diagram is shown above.



Appearance of the current watch segment.



Movie

I will tell about how I made a watch from the display in my next article.