Seven Segment Display Readability Outdoors

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

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jwachtel
 
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Seven Segment Display Readability Outdoors

Post by jwachtel »

I am using the 1.2" seven-segment displays (red and green) but when outdoors these are virtually unreadable. (Certainly there are better choices for outdoor use but here I am.) Looking for lenses or filters to help readability and can't find much online except at Digikey, but their products are too small to cover the display. Anyone with clues on getting such an item? Can't find them on Adafruit's site, nor Newark, nor Mouser. I'll recess these displays back in the 'package' as a start but that's probably not going to be the total solution.

Thanks for any help!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Seven Segment Display Readability Outdoors

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

Plastics suppliers like USPlastics or TAP Plastics should stock 'smoked' acrylic or polycarbonate sheet which is commonly used as a filter to increase contrast of displays. The light emitted by the display itself is partially filtered. But external light reflected from the display surface is filtered twice - effectively increasing the contrast.

With monochrome displays, you can use a filter of the same color as the display. This will minimize the filtering of light emitted by the display.

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