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I have disassembled a virgin router that I had left over at home, and managed to get this screen out.

Back Pins Front Screen

I am wondering if it would be possible to connect it to the raspberry to show time or something else and put it on my table just as a small project to understand how GPIO pins work :)

Can i get some ideas on how or where to start please?

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    First thing would be to use the numbers on the display to find the data sheet. This will give you the pinout, voltages and communication protocol. – Steve Robillard Oct 21 '14 at 20:45
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this is a dynamic LED screen, that needs constant multiplexing on the row/column pins to get a properly displayed numbers or letters. there are two types of these screens, one with the common anode and another with the common cathode, the difference is the polarity and the type of transistor you need to drive it.

not sure if you really need a data sheet, you may easily find out pinout using a 3-5V power supply along with the 500ohm resistor to limit the current. still, I would not recommend to connect this to RPi, because of insufficient number of GPIO pins and timing issues.

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  • Is it possible to connect it though? My intention is just to learn and understand, and actually to try – Pash Shocky Oct 22 '14 at 12:43
  • sure it's possible. there are 4 common leads, one for every digit, then 7 selectors, that light individual segments in 7LED matrix. and maybe one or two extra for the dots -- not sure how these are controlled, separately or together. get a 5V power source, 1kOhm resistor and start checking which lead goes where. remember, polarity matters, so you may need to check every pair twice, applying voltage in reverse the second time. – lenik Oct 23 '14 at 10:13
  • ive figured it out already and got it working for the pi ;) thanks for the help! – Pash Shocky Oct 24 '14 at 19:45

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