Cascading LM3914's

  • Thread starter Stephen Robinson
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Stephen Robinson

Guest
Hi Guys,
I am building a circuit that measures vacuum and displays it on a LED
bargraph and was wondering if anybody has any experience with the LM3914 led
driver IC, specifically, building displays with multiples of 10 led's.
I have the data sheet and have built a 30 led display in dot mode, but I may
need to go to either 40 or 50 led display to improve resolution but cannot
find any info on what is needed so it could be scaled correctly.
The data sheet has a lineararity circuit, which I thought would be
satisfactory for using as span adjustment, but in hind sight, am not so
sure. This is designed to be set and left. I want something that can be
adjusted as needed.
I hope I have given you enough info for you to help.
Stephen
 
Stephen Robinson wrote:
Hi Guys,
I am building a circuit that measures vacuum and displays it on a LED
bargraph and was wondering if anybody has any experience with the LM3914 led
driver IC, specifically, building displays with multiples of 10 led's.
I have the data sheet and have built a 30 led display in dot mode, but I may
need to go to either 40 or 50 led display to improve resolution but cannot
find any info on what is needed so it could be scaled correctly.
The data sheet has a lineararity circuit, which I thought would be
satisfactory for using as span adjustment, but in hind sight, am not so
sure. This is designed to be set and left. I want something that can be
adjusted as needed.
I hope I have given you enough info for you to help.
Stephen


I doubt the internal accuracy of the comparators in the LM3914 is good
enough to do more than about 30 steps with any reliability. You might
be better to use an A/D converter and digital display, like eg the
ICL7216 or similar. You can get good digital panel meters from Lascar
Electronics.

--
Regards,

Adrian Jansen adrianjansen at internode dot on dot net
Design Engineer J & K Micro Systems
Microcomputer solutions for industrial control
Note reply address is invalid, convert address above to machine form.
 
"Stephen Robinson" <sterob@westnet.com.au> wrote in
news:4277605c$1@quokka.wn.com.au:

Hi Guys,
I am building a circuit that measures vacuum and displays it on a LED
bargraph and was wondering if anybody has any experience with the
LM3914 led driver IC, specifically, building displays with multiples
of 10 led's. I have the data sheet and have built a 30 led display in
dot mode, but I may need to go to either 40 or 50 led display to
improve resolution but cannot find any info on what is needed so it
could be scaled correctly. The data sheet has a lineararity circuit,
which I thought would be satisfactory for using as span adjustment,
but in hind sight, am not so sure. This is designed to be set and
left. I want something that can be adjusted as needed.
I hope I have given you enough info for you to help.
Stephen
Stephen, you did not say if you want to make more than one or if you are
doing the project for fun, but a cheap $10 digital multimeter is a good
cheap way to incorporate into test or calibration equipment. It already has
a reasonable A/D and display, and is really cheap.
 
I doubt the internal accuracy of the comparators in the LM3914 is good
enough to do more than about 30 steps with any reliability. You might be
better to use an A/D converter and digital display, like eg the ICL7216 or
similar. You can get good digital panel meters from Lascar Electronics.

Regards,

Adrian Jansen
Ok..Thanks. I will have a look at that. 30 leds MIGHT be enough. WIll try it
and take it from there.

Stephen
 
Stephen, you did not say if you want to make more than one or if you are
doing the project for fun, but a cheap $10 digital multimeter is a good
cheap way to incorporate into test or calibration equipment. It already
has
a reasonable A/D and display, and is really cheap.
I'm making it for me and for fun, but will probably offer my results to a
couple of mates who want to build one as well.
I thought about using a digital display but I need 2 displays to compare two
vacuums and I suspect the display would not update fast enough. I use
multimeters in my job. Thanks for the input.

Stephen
 

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