Making large numeric displays

[Tony Duell]

> 
> 
> I got to wondering how to make a large numeric display (a few inches high) for 
> a potential project. I've only seen 7-segment displays up to about an inch in 
> height, plus I quite fancy something with more rounded numerals anyway (all of 
> this came about from thinking about Nixies :)
> 
> Building something from individual LEDs looks to be cost-prohibitive, not to 
> mention power-hungry; I think I figured on over about 125 LEDs per digit.

Velleman sell/sold kits for large 7 segment displays. Each 'segment' was 
a number of LEDs in seires with the appropraite drier electronics. I 
forget how expensive the kits were, but IIRC, it was OK if you wanted, 
say, 4 digits for a clock, but too expensive to think of buying many more.

LEDs are not that expemive (at least not red ones) if you buy them in 
quantity.

-tony