I have a box of LED displays that I picked up all at once from a
Hamfest, probably either Dayton or Mansfield. There are enough
similarities between the three types that I figure they are from the
same maker. I don't have any easy way to take pictures right now, but
I can post the relevant characteristics to see if anyone has any
recognition. They seem easy enough to reverse-engineer, so while I'd
love schematics or other documentation, I'll be able to use them
without. I'm mostly curious what equipment they might have come out
of.
#1 - the oldest style. Marked "assy 4000123-101". Three double-digit
MAN6610 displays with a "336" date code on a "front board" attached
to
a driver board by dozens of individual 330 Ohm 1/4w resistors used
structurally as well as electrically. The driver board has six
74LS47s with date codes of "231". There are four lugs on one short
edge of the board with cut wire stubs, E1 and E2 have orange wires, E3
is blank, E4 has a black wire - +5V and GND. The data comes in on 30
individual wire-wrap stakes with the stubs of the old WW wire still on
them, BCD data plus latch x 6.
#2 - the middle board in age and appearance. Marked "assy 4002244",
with 4002243-1 on the front, it's a newer board with a solder mask,
and has *five* dual-digit LED displays, HDSP-K121s, grouped as 4
digits and three pairs of digits - as if it could display year plus
hrs/min/sec or DOY plus hrs/min/sec. It uses an unusual (to me)
driver chip - *nine* of a Motorola MC14543 (date code 9026) which the
datasheet tells me is suited for LCD driving. It also has the same
power lugs on the short edge, E1-E4 with the same color stubs. There
are 49 WW pins around a long and the opposite short edge. They
appear to be strangely numbered, first in nine groups of four, then
with ascending numbered pins adjacent to the groups (probably BCD plus
latch), with the last four pins over on one short edge.
Both of these displays have pins that are not aligned nor spaced to
permit a ribbon cable or molex or Berg connector to easily attach, and
in fact, both still have wire-wrap wire stubs, so they appear to have
been somewhat permanently attached to their surroundings. They also
take an enormous number of pins, but would be trivial to drive from
4-bit counters and such (thus the newer one would make a perfect
display for a DOY+TOD clock made from discrete TTL or CMOS).
#3 - much more modern design. Marked 4005935-1 on the back and
4005936-101 on the front. It has nine single-digit hpHDSP-E103
displays (date 852) driven by a pair of Maxim MAX7219CWG (date code
9611) 8-digit clocked-serial-interface LED drivers. It's physically
grouped as three digits, then three pairs (DOY+TOD), and comes with a
red plexi bezel with "error" over the bottom edge of the "single
hours" digit and "dropout" over the bottom edge of the "single
minutes" digit. Its connector to the outside world is a keyed and
latched 3M 3408 connector - 2x8 0.1" spacing.
So do any of these LED assemblies ring a bell with anyone in terms of
type or brand of equipment? The only thing that even closely
resembles a company name or logo is NTUF-1 near the commonly-seen
'94V-0' legend.
Thanks for any hints or suggestions,
-ethan