SplitFlapDisplay

Split flap display Arduino library

Introduction

This is a simple high level library to drive split flap display letters with Arduino.

Note:

It assumes that each letter uses 2 Arduino pins, one to make the letter flap through a relay, and one hall sensor, that will return 0 only when the display is at the first letter (blank). It is also assumes that the hall sensor is using a 20K pull up resistor.

Installation

• Download SplitFlapDisplay.zip.
• In the Arduino IDE, navigate to Sketch > Include Library > Add .ZIP Library

Reference

isReady();

Returns false if any of the letters is still flapping.

returns: true|false

print(char letter);

Prints the same character on all the display letters.

note:

The display will only print characters in the ALPHABET array (see SplitFlapLetter.cpp)

print(char* letter);

Displays the provided char array on the display. Only the first lettersNumber will be displayed, all the remaining characters will be ignored.

note:

The display will only print characters in the ALPHABET array (see SplitFlapLetter.cpp)

refresh();

Refresh is intended as refresh in displays. Perhaps I should have called it tick or loop. By the way, this is what keeps the display going, it must be called at each Arduino loop() iteration.

reset();

Resets all the letters in the display to the first character (usually " ")

Example

// Copyright (c) 2020 Stefano Guglielmetti
// 
// This software is released under the MIT License.
// https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

#include <SplitFlapDisplay.h>

// Delay between palette flaps. 80 is a safe value
#define FLAP_DELAY 80

// Button pin. Doesn't require additional pull up resistors
#define BUTTON_PIN 12

// Number of display letters
#define DISPLAY_LENGTH 2

// Relay pins of the single letters
int letterPins[] = {10, 11};

// Hall sensor pins of the single letters
// They must follow the same order of letterPins
int hallPins[] = {6, 7};

// Initialize the display object
SplitFlapDisplay display(DISPLAY_LENGTH, letterPins, hallPins, FLAP_DELAY);

void setup() {
  // Initialize the button pin
  pinMode(BUTTON_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
}

void loop() {
  display.refresh();

  if (digitalRead(BUTTON_PIN) == LOW) {
    display.print("OK");
  }
}

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Stefano Guglielmetti

This software is released under the MIT License.

https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT