Some of use enjoy locating, using and ... hoarding vintage electronic devices and components - and a popular category of these contains LED displays. Ed Nisley shares this passion in his article explaining how to use DL1414 alphanumeric LED displays with an Arduino. The DL1414 contains four characters that can display numbers and letters to help reminisce from a bygone era. However if you have some, they can easily be controlled by using two 74HC595 shift registers, for example:
For more details including nicely documented code, visit Ed's website. And for more, we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
Instead of using DIP-format 74HC595s, consider our Freetronics EXPAND: Expansion/Shift register modules. They contain the 74HC595 shift register on a small board with standard 0.1" spacing holes that are perfect for soldering header pins into for breadboard use, and a small "power on" LED. By doing this you have a robust vehicle to insert and remove easily without tools or the risk of bending the IC pins. This is only one of our large range of prototyping modules - check the full range today!
