Show colon with showString

[andik-ariyanto]

Can I show colon with showString function ?

[jasonacox]

Currently showString renders colon as "=" on the display. The challenge is that the library can't detect if your TM1637 display is wired to display a middle colon or decimal dots. I've often wanted to make it work so that you could send "12:34" or "1.234" and have it translate the colon and decimal to the appropriate LED. One option I thought about is having the class initialize with a setting for type of display (colon, decimal or none), something like this:

#include <TM1637TinyDisplay.h>

#define CLK 4
#define DIO 5
#define DTYPE COLON

TM1637TinyDisplay display(CLK, DIO, DTYPE);

void setup() {
  display.setBrightness(BRIGHT_7);
}

void loop() {
  display.showString("12:34");
}

If DTYPE is not specified, the library would assume you want the colon rendered as text (equal sign) for scrolling etc. If a colon is specified, it would force center and clip the values before/after the colon to fit the display (colon is in the middle), so that if you tried to send "1:2345" it would actually render " 1:23", and "1234:5" would be rendered "34:50".

Let me know if you think this would be helpful.

[andik-ariyanto]

thanks for your help

[jasonacox]

Hi @andik-ariyanto to be clear, I haven't update the library yet to support that. If I did, is this the behavior you were looking for?

[andik-ariyanto]

I don't think so. What I need is like showNumberHex, but equipped with dot / colon. For example like "H."

[jasonacox]

The function, showNumberHex has a dot parameter you can send to set the colon. I think you could do what you want with two function calls:

#include <TM1637TinyDisplay.h>

#define CLK 4
#define DIO 5

TM1637TinyDisplay display(CLK, DIO);

void setup() {
  display.setBrightness(BRIGHT_7);

  //!        For displays with dots between each digit:
  //!        * 0.000 (0b10000000)
  //!        * 00.00 (0b01000000)
  //!        * 000.0 (0b00100000)
  //!        * 0000. (0b00010000)
  //!        * 0.0.0.0 (0b11100000)
  //!        For displays with just a colon:
  //!        * 00:00 (0b01000000)
  //!        For displays with dots and colons colon:
  //!        * 0.0:0.0 (0b11100000)

  // first set dots
  uint8_t dots = 0b01000000; // Add dots or colons - see above
  display.showNumberHex(0, dots);

  // display H at position 1
  display.showString("H", 1, 1);

}

[jasonacox]

I have something better. I just updated the library to v1.4.2. It now lets you pass the dots parameter to the showString() function. The library will soon be available for upgrade in Arduino IDE or you can pull the latest code from this repo. So you should be able to do this:

#include <TM1637TinyDisplay.h>

#define CLK 4
#define DIO 5

TM1637TinyDisplay display(CLK, DIO);

void setup() {
  display.setBrightness(BRIGHT_7);

  //!        For displays with dots between each digit:
  //!        * 0.000 (0b10000000)
  //!        * 00.00 (0b01000000)
  //!        * 000.0 (0b00100000)
  //!        * 0000. (0b00010000)
  //!        * 0.0.0.0 (0b11100000)
  //!        For displays with just a colon:
  //!        * 00:00 (0b01000000)
  //!        For displays with dots and colons colon:
  //!        * 0.0:0.0 (0b11100000)

  uint8_t dots = 0b01000000; // Add dots or colons - see above

  // void showString(const char s[], uint8_t length = MAXDIGITS, uint8_t pos = 0, uint8_t dots = 0);

  // display HH:SS 
  display.showString("HHSS", 4, 0, dots);
  delay(1000);

  // display H: 
  display.showString(" H", 4, 0, dots);
}

void loop()
{
}