JP2894201B2 - LED display - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an LED for displaying characters and figures by selectively lighting a plurality of LED (light emitting diode) elements arranged in a matrix, for example.
It relates to a display device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as various kinds of guidance display devices,
Dot matrix type L with LED elements arranged in matrix
An ED display device is used. Figure 3 shows a conventional LED
It is the schematic which shows the example of a structure of a display apparatus. In this LED display device, for example, a display module 400 includes an LED substrate 200 on which 16 × 16 LED elements 100 are mounted in a matrix and a driver substrate 300 on which a driver circuit for driving and controlling the LED elements 100 is mounted. By selectively lighting the LED elements 100, images such as characters, numbers, and simple figures are displayed.

The display module 400 is capable of displaying one character or figure. When displaying a plurality of characters or figures, a plurality of the display modules 400 are arranged and used. The lighting control of the LED element 100 is performed by a controller 500 housed in a housing different from the display module 400. More specifically, the controller 500 includes a CP
A display image designation signal for designating an image to be displayed is given from a computer (not shown) including a U (Central Processing Unit) or a programmable controller. The controller 500 performs control for selectively lighting the LED elements 100 mounted on the LED substrate 200 via a driver circuit based on the display image designation signal.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the LED display device. A display image designation signal given from the outside is given to the CPU 502 via an I / O port 501 provided in the controller 500. CPU
At 502, when a display image designation signal is given, necessary display processing is performed according to a program stored in the software ROM 503.

More specifically, the CPU 502
When a display image designation signal is given, the display module 400 accesses the screen memory 504 storing the character code corresponding to the image to be displayed on the display module 400, and reads out the character code corresponding to the display image designation signal. . Next, the character ROM 505 in which image data corresponding to the character code is stored as a dot pattern is accessed, and the image data corresponding to the read character code is read. The read image data is stored in the display controller 5.
06.

The display controller 506 converts the given image data into data that can be displayed on the display module 400, and then provides the converted image data to the driver circuit 600. And the driver circuit 6
00 selectively turns on the LED element 100 to display an image corresponding to the image data. That is,
The content corresponding to the display image designation signal given from the outside is displayed.

A RAM (random access memory) 507 functions as a work area for the CPU 502 and the like.
Memory). FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another example of the electrical configuration of the LED display device. The LED display device includes an I / O port 501 to which a display image designation signal is externally supplied, and a character ROM 50 in which image data corresponding to a dot pattern of the display image is stored in advance.
5 and a controller 500 including a CPU 502 for reading image data from a character ROM 505 based on a display image designation signal given to the I / O port 501 and supplying the read image data to a driver circuit 600. It has a configuration.

As is apparent from this figure, the number of components constituting the controller 500 is smaller than that of the LED display device described with reference to FIG. This is because the screen memory 504 in which the character code is stored is deleted and the CP is deleted.
Directly reading the image data by U502,
The software ROM 503 and the RAM 507 are
2 and the CPU 502
The role of the display controller 506 has been taken over. In other words, in the LED display device of FIG. 5, the controller 500 is smaller than the LED display device described with reference to FIG.

[0009]

By the way, the above LED
The display device uses a CPU for controlling a display operation. However, since the CPU is expensive, it has led to an increase in cost. Further, the LE shown in FIG.
In the D display device, the controller 500 and the display module 400 are housed in separate housings. Therefore, L
When installing the ED display device, there is a problem that an extra installation space for the controller 500 must be secured. In particular, when it is desired to install a large number of LED display devices, it may be very difficult to secure an installation space for the controller 500.

On the other hand, in the LED display device shown in FIG. 5, the controller 5 is different from the LED display device in FIG.
Since 00 is downsized, the size of the housing in which the controller 500 is to be housed is reduced. Therefore, the difficulty of securing an extra installation space is reduced to some extent. However, since the display module 400 and the controller 500 are still housed in different cases, it is indispensable to secure a certain amount of extra installation space.

Note that, with the miniaturization of the controller 500, the controller 500 can be housed in the same housing as the display module 400. However, this is because the separate units of the display module 400 and the controller 500 are simply provided in the same housing. Therefore, there is a problem that the housing becomes thick and its weight becomes heavy.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the above technical problem,
An object of the present invention is to provide an LED display device that can reduce costs and does not require an extra installation space.

[0012]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an LED display device having a plurality of LED elements mounted in a predetermined arrangement, and a plurality of LED elements to be displayed in the LED section. A type of image is stored as a dot pattern, a storage means capable of reading out any one of the dot patterns by specifying an address, and a display image specifying signal for specifying an image to be displayed in the LED section are provided. Input from outside
Viewing a display image specifying signal input unit for providing an image designation signal as an address on SL storage means, based on the dot pattern read out from said memory means, LE of the LED portion of the
Driving means for selectively driving the D element.
The D unit, the storage unit, the display image designation signal input unit, and the driving unit are configured as one unit .
The display image designation signal input from the storage means is stored in the storage means.
Direct the address of the image data
The image is selectively displayed without requiring a CPU .

[0013]

In the above arrangement, one dot pattern corresponding to the address given from the display image designation signal input section is read from the storage means, and based on the read dot pattern, the driving means mounts the dot pattern on the LED section. The LED elements are selectively driven. And these storage means, table
The indication image designation signal input unit , the LED unit, and the driving unit are configured as one unit.

As described above, the above-described configuration is an inexpensive logic I
Since it is composed of C, an expensive CPU is not required.
Therefore, cost can be reduced. Also, L
Since the ED section, the driving means, and the like are constituted by one unit, the number of housings can be reduced as compared with the conventional case, and the housings can be designed to be thin and lightweight.

Further, since the number of wirings is reduced, the cost can be reduced.

[0016]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1A is a rear perspective view showing the configuration of an LED display device according to one embodiment of the present invention.
(b) is a front view showing a configuration of the LED display device.
FIG. 1 shows a display module 1 used to configure a display panel for displaying images such as characters, numbers, and simple figures. By combining one or more display modules 1, , The entire display panel is configured.

The display module 1 has an LED substrate 3 on which 16 rows × 16 columns of LED elements 2 are mounted in a matrix along the row direction C and the column direction R, and a drive control section for controlling the LED elements 2. And a control board 4 on which a control circuit is mounted. The LED board 3 and the control board 4 are fixed to each other by a mechanical fixing means 5 such as a screw.

As shown in FIG. 1 (a), substantially at the center of the surface 4a of the control board 4 not facing the LED board 3,
A character ROM (read only memory) 41 corresponding to image data storage means is mounted. Also,
An input connector 42 and an output connector 43 for connecting a power supply line from the outside are mounted on lower left and right portions of the front surface 4a. Further, an input connector 44 and an output connector 45 for connecting signal lines from a control device such as a computer or a programmable controller (not shown) are mounted on the left and right upper portions of the front surface 4a.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the display module 1. As shown in FIG. This display module 1
It is driven by power generated by the power supply circuit 10. The display module 1 is provided with a display image designation signal CH described later from an external control device or the like.
This display image designation signal CH is sent to the character ROM 4 via the input interface circuit (input I / F circuit) 11.
Erareru given to 1. The display image designation signal CH is also supplied to the next display module (not shown) via the output interface circuit (output I / F circuit) 12, if necessary.

The character ROM 41 stores n patterns (for example, n = 256) of image data corresponding to a dot pattern of an image to be displayed by the display module 1. Note that the number of display patterns is the RO for the character.
It can be easily changed only by changing the capacity of M41. The display image designation signal CH is used to designate this dot pattern.
1 is used as an upper address.

Each of the above dot patterns has 16 dots per line.
A total of 32 bytes (16 lines) of bits (2 bytes) are stored in the character ROM 41. Further, a different lower address is assigned to each dot pattern for each byte in the row direction. Note that, for example, an LED element having two light emitting portions capable of emitting different colors is arranged in 16 rows ×
When used by mounting on a matrix of 16 columns, 2 bits of data are required for each dot. Therefore, the dot pattern is 64 bytes (= 2 bits × 16 dots × 1).
6 lines) of data.

In the character ROM 41, when the display image designation signal CH is given, the display image designation signal CH
Are output in parallel in a predetermined order, one byte at a time. Details of the output order will be described later. One-byte image data output in parallel from the character ROM 41 is supplied to the parallel / serial conversion unit 13 and converted into serial data, and then sent to the row driver 14 that is in charge of driving control of the LED elements 2 in the column direction. It is given one bit at a time.

When two bytes of image data, that is, one line of dot pattern image data, are stored, the row driver 14 controls the driving of the LED element 2 so as to correspond to the stored image data. Further, the display module 1 is provided with a frequency dividing circuit 16 that outputs a signal serving as a reference for the output order of the image data and the drive control of the LED elements 2 in the row direction. The frequency dividing circuit 16 includes a 1/8 frequency dividing unit (hereinafter, referred to as a "first frequency dividing unit") 16a, a counter unit 16b, and a 1/2 frequency dividing unit (hereinafter, referred to as a "second frequency dividing unit").
6c and a counter section 16d, and a pulse signal of frequency f generated from the oscillation circuit 15 is provided to the first frequency dividing section 16a. In the first division part 16a, a pulse signal of a given frequency f is converted into a pulse signal of a frequency f / 8 (hereinafter referred to as "frequency f _1").

The output of the first frequency divider 16a is output from the second frequency divider 1
6c and the counter 16b. The counter 16b counts the number of given pulse signals, and is cleared every time 32 pulse signals are counted. The count value output from the counter section 16b is one of the dot patterns stored in the character ROM 41.
It corresponds to the lower address set for each byte. Specifically, the count values are 0, 1,.
In this case, 1 byte of the ninth to 16th columns of the first row of the dot pattern, and 1 byte of the first to eighth columns of the first row of the dot pattern
Bytes, ..., 1 in the 9th to 16th columns of the 16th row
One byte of data from the 1st column to the 8th column of the 16th row is read from the character ROM 41 in parallel / byte.
It is input to the serial conversion circuit 13.

The output of the counter 16b is the character R
OM41. In the character ROM 41,
Only when the display image designation signal CH is given, is the image data of the dot pattern corresponding to the display image designation signal CH, and the image data of the lower address corresponding to the count value output from the counter 16b. Is output. The output image data is converted into serial data by the parallel / serial conversion circuit 13 as described above, and is then supplied to the row driver 14.

On the other hand, in the second frequency dividing section 16c, the pulse signal of frequency f ₁ provided from the _first frequency dividing section 16a is a pulse signal of frequency f 1/2 (= f / 16, hereinafter referred to as “frequency f ₂ ”). The converted pulse signal is supplied to the counter unit 16d. The counter section 16d counts the number of pulses in response to the input of the pulse signal.
It is cleared each time six pulse signals are counted. The count value output from the counter unit 16d corresponds to the row number of the plurality of LED elements 2 arranged in a matrix. Specifically, when the count value is 0, 1,..., 15, the first row, the second row,.

The output of the counter section 16d is the LED element 2
Are sequentially supplied to a column driver 17 that sequentially drives one row at a time. In the column driver 17, the group of LED elements 2 of the row number corresponding to the given count value is driven. By the way, the counting speed of the counter unit 16b is
This is twice the counting speed of d. This is the counter 16b
The frequency f _{1 of the} pulse signal given to the counter 16
It is because twice the frequency f ₂ of the pulse signal supplied to the d. The counters 16b and 16d are synchronized with the timing of counting 0, respectively.

Therefore, when the counter 16b counts, for example, 0 or 1, the counter 16d counts 0. At this time, the image data given to the row driver 14 is 2 bytes in the first row of the dot pattern, and the two LED elements to be driven and controlled by the column driver 17 are the two LED elements in the first row. Therefore, by repeating the same operation, the image of the designated dot pattern can be displayed on the display module 1.

Next, scroll processing in the LED display device will be briefly described. The vertical scrolling process in the LED display device is realized by a configuration in which a logic circuit is added to the configuration shown in FIG. In particular,
Each time the counter 16d counts that the LED element 2 has been driven and the dot pattern of the image specified by the display content specifying signal CH has been displayed, the RO for the character is counted.
The address of the image data read from M41 is shifted by one line. Thereby, vertical scroll processing can be realized.

The same applies to the horizontal scrolling process. Each time the dot pattern of the designated image is displayed, the address of the image data read from the character ROM 41 is shifted by one column. Thereby, a horizontal scroll process can be realized. As described above, according to the LED display device of the present embodiment, an image can be selectively displayed using the control circuit constituted by an inexpensive logic IC, so that an expensive CPU is not required. Therefore, the cost required to manufacture only the conventional driver board and the cost required to manufacture the control board 4 of the present embodiment are substantially the same. Therefore, the manufacturing cost of the conventional controller can be reduced, and the cost can be reduced.

Further, since the display operation can be controlled and an image can be displayed by the display module 1 alone, LE
When installing the D display device, it is not necessary to secure an extra installation space for installing the controller as in the related art. Therefore, it can be installed in a place where it could not be installed conventionally. For example, even in the case where information is unavoidably displayed in color instead of character display because of a narrow space in the related art, character display becomes possible.

Further, the number of housings constituting the LED display device can be reduced as compared with the conventional case, and the housings can be designed to be thin and lightweight. Therefore, the installation work becomes very simple. Furthermore, since the number of wirings is reduced, the cost can be reduced. The description of the embodiment of the present invention is as described above, but the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment,
Although the display module 1 in which a plurality of LED elements are arranged in a 16 × 16 matrix is taken as an example, the dot configuration of the display module can be arbitrarily selected. In addition, LED
The elements 2 do not necessarily have to be arranged in a matrix, and if only a limited set of characters or graphics is required,
LE at the position corresponding to the character or figure to be displayed.
What is necessary is just to arrange the D element 2.

Further, the circuit configuration of the LED display device is not limited to the circuit configuration as in the above embodiment, and the display image designation signal CH given from the outside directly indicates the address of the image data stored in the character ROM 41. Then, any device having a function of outputting image data of the designated address and displaying an image may be used. In addition, various design changes can be made within the technical scope described in the claims.

[0034]

As described above, according to the LED display device of the present invention, since an expensive CPU is not required, the cost can be reduced as compared with the related art. Further, since an image can be displayed by one unit, it is not necessary to secure an extra space for installing the controller as in the related art when actually installing the LED display device. Therefore, it can be easily installed even in a narrow area where it has been extremely difficult to secure an installation space until now.

Further, since it is constituted by one unit, the number of cases can be reduced as compared with the conventional case, and the cases can be designed to be thin and lightweight. Also, the number of wirings can be reduced. Therefore, the installation work becomes very simple, and the cost can be reduced. Therefore, LE
D display devices can be easily added.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an LED display device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the LED display device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a conventional LED display device.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the LED display device.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing another electrical configuration of the LED display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Display module 2 LED element 3 LED board 4 Control board 41 Character ROM 14 Low driver 17 Column driver

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An LED unit in which a plurality of LED elements are mounted in a predetermined arrangement state, and a plurality of types of images to be displayed in the LED unit are stored as a dot pattern, and any one of them is designated by specifying an address. storage means One of the dot pattern can be read out, the display image designation signal for designating an image to be displayed in the LED unit is inputted from the outside, address Viewing image specifying signal this on SL storage means Give as display
An image designation signal input unit; and a drive unit for selectively driving an LED element of the LED unit based on the dot pattern read from the storage unit. The LED unit, the storage unit, and the display image designation signal input part Oyo <br/> beauty driving means is constituted as one unit, the display image designation signal the storage hands inputted from the external
Directly indicate the address of the image data stored in the column
To select images without the need for a CPU.
LED display device which is characterized in that-option displayed.