The First Big LED Displays! 1975 Dialco 7-Segment
Added 2023-11-27 01:55:56 +0000 UTCI have never encountered anything like this so early. In the incandescent, VFD, and Panaplex era of large bright displays this upstart module is using bright light emitting diodes? And they're not microscopic? Yes! A real rare find, and I go all-in to get this running and demo it for you. Enjoy!
Comments
These LED's would have been very expensive, so definitely would not have been cheap.
Fran Blanche
2023-11-28 20:31:34 +0000 UTCWho knows... I'd like to find out who they sourced them from.
Fran Blanche
2023-11-28 20:30:53 +0000 UTCMy thought as to why they bothered to use LEDs rather than incandescent for this is less heat generated and possibly longer life too. But this is far from my area of expertise. So I'll probably get shot down here.
Dr Andy Hill
2023-11-27 21:24:31 +0000 UTCWonder if the LED chemistry is early gallium nitride
William
2023-11-27 18:57:07 +0000 UTCWow! Feels a good 5 years ahead of its time, excellent find Fran! 👍
Zygmunt Dean
2023-11-27 17:19:53 +0000 UTCamazing
Fred Niell
2023-11-27 15:47:25 +0000 UTCEarly LEDs were very dim, though - I remember using some that were OK for panel indicators but finding some bright enough for this job must have been a challenge. Maybe not possible until large green leds appeared (and reds were brighter by then). I did mostly use 0.1" LEDs and I wonder if 0.2" were brighter. Probably just the same die with a bigger lens though.
adrian
2023-11-27 14:33:22 +0000 UTCAny kind of display themed video always gets my vote.
David Peaker
2023-11-27 12:35:15 +0000 UTCI'm not surprised. The standard 7seg LED could perfectly evolve from a lightguide incandescent, only replacing bulbs with diodes available back then. Miniaturization would have come later.
Keri Szafir
2023-11-27 07:34:45 +0000 UTCIt amazed me that this technology was ramping up in the mid 70's.
-Jeff-
2023-11-27 07:03:47 +0000 UTC
