TM1638 Display Module

8 Bits, 8 keys, 8 LEDs, 8 digital tubes, common cathode LED digital tube. With TM1638 Chip, this module gather more than three common SCM peripheral circuits. The advantage is only three IO ports will be occupied when it drives. SCM doesn't need to work for scaning display and key scaning. It only need to read the relevant register to send display data or test button so it save MCU resources effectively. Keys are sensitive and display effectively.

Product Video

Quick Spec

• Chipset TM1638
• Supply Voltage: 5V DC
• Display: 8 x LED's and 8 x 7 Segment Displays
• Input: 8 x Push To Make Switches
• The board has just 3 control pins, Strobe, Clock and Data
• Size: 75 x 48mm

How does the board Function

The board has just 3 control pins plus power and ground. The control pins are strobe, clock and data. The strobe and clock pins are only OUTPUT while the data pin can be both OUTPUT and INPUT. The strobe pin is used when sending data to the board – you set the strobe pin to LOW before you start sending data – one or more bytes – and then set the strobe pin back to HIGH. Note that there is just one data pin which means the data is being sent 1 bit at a time. This is where the clock pin comes into play.

When sending data you set the clock pin to LOW then you set the data pin and set the clock pin back to HIGH to commit the bit value. You are probably already familiar with this pattern (if not take a look at this post) – it is the standard way of sending data with shift registers and therefore we can just use the standard shiftOut function to send 8 bits of data with just one line of code.

The board has 4 functions

• Activate/deactivate board and initialize display
• Write a byte at specific address
• Write bytes starting from specific address
• Read buttons

Resources

• Code Examples
• Example by ArduinoLearning
• Arduino TM1638 Library
• GitHub
• Datasheet
• Additional Information

Shipping List

• 1 x LED display module
• 5 x Dupont line connectors