7 segment display wiring

[egkkman]

Hello,

I had a thought that to reduce wiring I could connect all pins except the cathode pin and the pin for the centre horizontal bar (minus sign) together when I need a zero.

Does anyone know if this is okay to do? I plan to connect to OC display cards and am using Prosim.

Thanks for any advice.

My regards

Dave

[Mike.Powell]

Dave,

Paralleling segments in that manner is generally not a good idea. The individual LEDs are not quite identical and the current will not be divided equally, so the segments will not appear equally bright. In a worse case, one LED might hog enough current to become damaged.

It's best to provide each segment with a current limiting resistor.

[egkkman]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

I think I'll just wire all segments back to the display cards, at least that way I'll avoid the problems you highlight for the sake of a bit more cable.

My regards

Dave