Jeff’s quickie page of vintage LEDs:

Light Emitting Diode displays and panels



I freely admit that my web site is NOWHERE as neat as Micah Mabelitini's decadecounter.com nor is my collection as complete as Dan Veeneman's decodesystems.com, but I have MANY of these displays too, particularly the smart hex and alphanumeric ones (16 segment as well as 5x7 matrix).

The red one in top center is a Monsanto MAN 64A 7 segment

On the left side: On the right side:
On the left side: In the center with the green inside: 2: Siemens PD 2437 4 char 5x7 "smart" modules.

On the right side: Teeny magnifier-top LEDs: 3 digit, 5 digit 5082-7466
14 segment display modules
On the left: 2: single char Ledtech # LA3921-11B from All Electronics
CAT# SDA-24 $0.50 each, $0.45 each for 10 or more
14-segment with decimal point. Green LEDs on grey background.
0.39" (10.0 mm) height alphanumeric display
LA is common anode, LC is common cathode
(spec sheet)

center: IEE 3785R 2 character displays.
Instead of a common cathode or anode per character, they're divided diagonally into 7 segments per common
so an 8x8 matrix driver chip (such as the Maxim 7219) can drive 4 characters with decimal points.
More info on this separate page just for the IEE 3785R

right: Dan Wobser's wonderful find for IXR:
Lite-On LTM-8647AP 2 character 14 segment LED modules with built-in controller (spec sheet, pdf format)
These smart modules are used in this homebrew wifi stock ticker display

Unobtanium!
I'm starting a project with a .6" center Experimentor 600 breadboard and 4: HP 5082-7340 hex displays!
They edge stack nicely, unlike the TI TIL311 or DIS1417
(those have pins underneath them just like .3" DIPS, which would place them in the wrong orientation for breadboarding).


This is part of my "hall of shame".
Long ago, Radio Shack (and mail order catalogues) sold faulty/fallout chips marked as "hobby" since they were otherwise too expensive.
I tried following the suggested circuit for the 5311 clock only to find ALL 3 of my chips were faulty.
The DL-747 0.6" tall LEDs are still nice, and cost $4.95 EACH at the time (Archer cat no 276-056).
The LED mux PCB was a Radio Shack part too!


16 LEDS with transistor drivers. They'd look pretty mounted on a panel.
Definitely a Canal St find, probably from Ramco since the gold edge connector was cut off.


A Radio Shack kit: 7 segment display, 7447 (BCD to 7-segment Decoder/Driver) 7475 (4 bit latch) and a socket for a counter (a 7490 Decade Counter?)
See wiki's list of 74xx chips


I made this panel long long ago, probably for a homebrew EPROM programmer (a step up from the one a classmate made using only toggle switches.
My college was so poor we had NO EPROM programmers in the early 80s)
I guess I had intended to use the lower pushbuttons to set (or toggle) the 8/16 bits
with the upper switches for "clear all", increment address, decrement address, load data, load address, burn data.
The calculator buttons were a Radio Shack item, so they're probably in many homebrew projects. I abandoned the project because it was just too tedious.


I'm unsure if these are manufactured BY AT&T, Western Electric or FOR AT&T.
I got them around 1988 while working at AT&T.

They are ¼" diameter with evenly cut leads.
No markings.
The clear LED is bonded to a green diffuser.

Just the part numbers

Here are just the part numbers to clarify the variations for color and characters

hdsp_48xx 10-Element Bar Graph Array

The Hewlett-Packard 5082-73xx series displays are individual 4x7 LED matrix arrays with decoder/drivers and memory. the new Avago part numbers (Spec sheet here)
where x is

Texas Instruments hexadecimal display with logic
0.3" pins underneath, vertical

HP HDSP-200x series 4 character 5x7 array "dumb" shift-register LED.
The column inputs need to source half an ampere
(but it may be from a separate power source than the logic Vcc). 
        pinout
1-column 1     data in-12
2-column 2         gnd-11
3-column 3       clock-10
5-column 4         Vcc-9
5-column 5    blanking-8
6-do not use  data out-7


4 char 16 segment MAGNIFIER smart display unit
Litronix  HP
DL-1414   HPDL-1414 12 pins  0.112 character height
DL-2416   HPDL-2416 18 pins  0.160


4 Character 5.0 mm (0.20 Inch) 5 x 7 Alphanumeric Display for Sunlight Viewable Applications

Four Character 5.0 mm (0.2 inch) Smart 5 x 7 Alphanumeric Displays
Eight Character 5 mm and 7 mm Smart Alphanumeric Displays
                 AlGaAs  High Efficiency
Font Height       Red         Red         Orange    Yellow     Green
 0.2 inches    HDSP-2107   HDSP-2112     HDSP-2110 HDSP-2111 HDSP-2113
 0.27 inches   HDSP-2504   HDSP-2502     HDSP-2500 HDSP-2501 HDSP-2503
HDSP-253X Series Eight Character 5 mm Intelligent Alphanumeric Display


Siemens PD 243x series of 0.2" 4 character 5x7 dot matrix alphanumeric programmable display
20 pins


Agilent HDLx-2416
4 character 5.0mm (0.2 inch) smart 5x7 alphanumeric displays
- enhanced drop in replacement for HPDL-2416
- 128 ASCII character set
18 pins

Spec Sheets


Litronix DL-747: 0.6" red LED 7 segment display
Lafayette MAN64A all-led 7 segment readout
Radio Shack 276-055 3 digit LED calculator display
Archer (Radio Shack) FNA30 9 digit 7 segment LED display
spec sheet for FNA30, common for calculators
Schematic for an un-named MOS calculator chip and the required driver chips.

Siemens DLx2416 LED module 4: 5x7 characters @ 0.2 inch (pdf)

new additions

HP light bars and bar graph arrays selection guide
including HDSP-48xx 10 LED bargraph units
and HLMP-2xxx series.

HP T-2 (6 mm) LED replacements for incandescent lamps.
They're 4 LED chips in one package: state of the art for 1986.
  • HLMP-A200 (high efficiency red)
  • HLMP-A300 (yellow)
  • HLMP-A500 (high performance green)
I donated my samples to The LED Museum
The DL1414 edge stacks into a 40 pin 0.6" DIP socket
The TIL311 vs. the DIS1417: same pinout
The TIL311 has thin leads that bend easily.
The DIS1417
  • is slightly larger in both width and height
  • has sturdy round pins that go nearly all the way thru the package
  • is a more transparent red plastic; the TIL is slightly hazy
  • has a wider temperature range

See Also:

hparchive.com has info on HP LED modules

Walter Shawlee's Sphere Research sells vintage displays



Trammell Hudson's Alphawatch uses an HDSP211x alphanumeric display (8 character module @ 5x7 yellow led)



Dave McGuire made the THB: Temperature, Humidity, Barometric Pressure
with the Avago HDSP-2531 Eight Character 5 mm Smart Alphanumeric Display
front back MOV video
Thanks to Glitch, I'm slowly catching up to Dave's stash of HP5082-7359 mil-spec green hex display modules
Digital display. Hexadecimal, smart 4 x 7 dot matrix LED display. No decimal point, 0.29". 0-9, A-F, base 16 operation. Blanking control, conserves power. On-board decoder driver, with 5-bit memory. High reliability, ceramic glass dip