Quad Alphanumeric Display - 0.54" Digits w/ I2C Backpack

by Adafruit

Display, elegantly, 012345678 or 9! Gaze, hypnotized, at ABCDEFGHIJKLM - well it can display the whole alphabet. You get the point. This is a nice, bright alphanumeric display that shows letters and numbers in a beautiful red or blue hue.

It's super bright and designed for viewing from distances up to 23 feet (7 meters) away. Digits have seven segments on a black surface and you get a set of two alphanumeric displays as well as a driver board so you can make a clock or a four letter word.

Like our other LED backpacks, these are end-to-end stackable and by soldering the address jumpers on the back you can have up to 8 backpacks all sharing the same two I2C wires!

This product comes with:

  • 2 x Ultra-Bright Alphanumeric Display - 0.54" Digit Height for 4 digits total
  • 1 x Adafruit 14-segment LED Alphanumeric Backpack
  • 1 x 5-pin header

A bit of soldering is required to attach the matrix onto the backpack but its very easy to do and only takes about 5 minutes. Of course, in classic Adafruit fashion, they also have a detailed tutorial showing you how to solder, wire and control the display. If you've been eying alphanumeric displays but hesitated because of the complexity, this is the solution you've been looking for!

TECHNICAL DETAILS

Alphanumeric Display Dimensions:

  • 21mm x 25mm x 7mm / 0.8" x 1" x 0.3"
  • Height w/ Pins: 14mm / 0.6"
  • Weight: 4.7g

Backpack Dimensions:

  • 28mm x 51mm x 4mm / 1.1" x 2" x 0.2"
  • Weight: 5.5g

EagleCAD PCB files, datasheets, Fritzing objects and more in the tutorial

9 customer reviews

3 years ago
A very good screen. I did have to make some tweaks to the Arduino library to make the graphics line up properly, and the colours also require adjustment. However, it was a quick job so I can't complain too much.
by Ben about 0.96" SPI Colour LCD (160x80) Breakout via REVIEWS.io
4 years ago
Great little device - bright display with wide viewing angle. Software setup is reasonably straightforward. I have had a few issues with colours randomly not being the colour specified - there doesn't seem to be any way of fixing this other than turning it off and on a few times until it starts working again......
by Richard about 0.96" SPI Colour LCD (160x80) Breakout via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Works nicely, decent viewing angle. Backlight is bright enough for day; a bit too bright for dark viewing but that’s a niche case anyway. With it sat in the mini Breakout Garden on top of the Pi Zero it feels like everything needed to drive it it much bigger than the Pi or screen itself; proportionally the overhead of the breakout connectors and the garden etc are quite big. Once you incorporate it into an actual permanent build that’s much slicker. Too wide to fit the width of a Pi Zero unless you’ve got it raised high enough up that it clears all the GPIO pins, but on something more custom you could fit it quite neatly on there if you weren’t needing standard headers.
by Anonymous about 0.96" SPI Colour LCD (160x80) Breakout via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Works nicely, decent viewing angle. Backlight is bright enough for day; a bit too bright for dark viewing but that’s a niche case anyway. With it sat in the mini Breakout Garden on top of the Pi Zero it feels like everything needed to drive it it much bigger than the Pi or screen itself; proportionally the overhead of the breakout connectors and the garden etc are quite big. Once you incorporate it into an actual permanent build that’s much slicker. Too wide to fit the width of a Pi Zero unless you’ve got it raised high enough up that it clears all the GPIO pins, but on something more custom you could fit it quite neatly on there if you weren’t needing standard headers.
by Anonymous about 0.96" SPI Colour LCD (160x80) Breakout via REVIEWS.io
5 years ago
Be aware, this has a very fine ribbon cable on the back that stands proud of the PCB and so care is needed when plugging in or removing from the garden. Driver on the Pi is a long install - support is simpler on the Arduino boards! Quality is good (esp given the size) and it is nice and bright.
by Andrew about 0.96" SPI Colour LCD (160x80) Breakout via REVIEWS.io

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