The aim of this project was to display user friendly message on a P10 dot matrix LED display according to simple digital input received from another system. This second system has 16 output lines, zero, one or more lines can be active (in high state) at any given time. Status of these lines indicate some kind of error in the system. The aim is to display this error condition in form of a message in big LED dot matrix display. If more than one error is present at the same time they are shown one after another. Basically it is converting a fault code to a human readable message that can be shown on big display suitable for industrial use.
Design was made using a common ATmega32 microcontroller that is available as a 40 pin IC. This MCU has enough resources like Flash, RAM and i/o ports required for this project. This MCU commands P10 based single colour display panels. Single p10 display has 32x16 pixel resolution and 1 feet length. To make 3 feel long display three such panels are used. These panels are waterproof and visible even in full bright daylight also.
