Cheap easy large LED temperature displays

[gengis]

Several surplus outlets in the US are carrying these already assembled counter driver display circuits. They were apparently intended to be used for "next customer served" displays, and are on two boards. One board has the 2 digit, ~2.5", 7 segment display made with discrete leds, and the other board with two 4026 decimal counters and a schmidt trigger IC for contact debounce. The reset is not used so the circuit board has to have a trace cut in two places to connect the reset line, and a capacitor removed to disable the contact debounce for fast counting. Cost ~$12 each They supply a counter, wall wart transformer and SPST PB switch as a "kit." The digits are nice and big and too bright for indoor use IMO. I added an adjustable voltage regulator to make the digits less bright. A pair of these might make a good clock display, I'm using a pair as indoor and outdoor temperature displays. http://www.mpja.com/prodinfo.asp?number=17511+KT (standard electronics surplus fare) https://www.surpluscenter.com/item.asp?catname=&qty=1&item=11-3223 (lot of industrial surplus including gas engines hydraulics motors pumps etc., neat catalog) I've also found some inexpensive DS18B20 temperature sensors (but unlike the above sources, I have no experience with them) http://www.satistronics.com/waterproof-ds18b20-waterproof-stainless-steel-encapsulated-temperature-sensor_p2993.html (encapsulated water proof $4) http://www.satistronics.com/ds18b20-1-wire-digital-thermometer-dallas_p2172.html ($1.48 each but must buy a minimum of 5) They say "wholesale" but seem to have no problem shipping small quantities. With things like IC's you may need to buy 10 or 20 to get a good price. They also have LEDs and radar and PIR detectors. I ordered some sensors yesterday....

 

[fernando_g]

Flooby;
thanks for sharing this useful website.
Although I'm not ordering anything from them right now, I've bookmarked the site for future projects.