anyone know anything about a cherry display

[irv6744]

i built an old digitalclock in the 70's or 80's andf have a question
about the display which needs to be replaces.

it is a cherry w06-0001 gas discharge display which is burning out
after many years of usage.
i like this clock so i would like to keep it going even though the
technology is ancient.

so my questions are:

1: does anyone have a spec sheet or pinout for this display. i can
trace digits and segments but there is a bunch of other stuff i don't
understand yet.

2. what about a pin compatible or almost pin compatible replacement
display. i bought a pinball display but it has more pins and there is
no pin out similarity in the two displays.

3. does anyone know how to convert a gas discharge display to an led
display. i pretty much figure that the power supply needs to be
changed to a 12 volt supply and that the driver ic's also need to be
changed. but not sure of anything of that. the clock ic am mk50252
doesn't care what it is driving.

i realize this a really old display with no current support on the web
or from the successors of cherry so whatever info i get here, if any,
is my last stop.

thanks

[Nick]

Hi - Welcome to the group.

If you view the group in the "New Google Groups" (see the menu bar on
the right) you can attach photos to a posting - that would really
help, especially if you include a ruler in the photos. Should be a 6
digit, 7 segment display with the pins along one edge in a "panaplex"
style:

W06-0001
Seven-Segment Gas-Discharge-Plasma Display - 7-Seg-6 Digit Clock
Display
Cherry Semiconductor Displays
Package Style (Basic)=1-Edge no
Color=Orange
Number of Digits=6
Character Height (mm)=13
P(D)seg Max.(W) Power Dissp.=3.5
Vsup Nom.(V) Supply Voltage=155
Iseg (A) Segment Forward Cur.=2.3m
@Vsup (V) TEST CONDITION=155
Status=Discontinued
Package=1-Edge no

Many manufacturers re-badged generic parts - its possible that even if
your Cherry-branded part is not easily located, someone here may have
a directly compatible part. Cherry did many pin-ball displays and many
of those are still available - there are members here who are pin-ball
experts (you know who you are!)

Nick

[Quixotic Nixotic]

I agree with Nick, a picture would help. Does your display have colon separators? 6 digit pinball displays have neither colons nor commas.

On the pinball displays there are a bunch of pins in the middle that are not used or redundant or doubled up with other pins. Sometimes these pins are cut short or simply not there. Pin 1 is the HV on these displays. There will be six digit driver pins which need multiplexing and seven segment pins.

Segments are on pins 2,4,6,34,36,40,38
Digits selects are on pins 9,8,7,6,5,4 with 9 being 100,000s and 4 being units.

In addition there is a keep alive anode pin on pin 35 tied to HV and cathode on pin 32 fed via a resistor (240k).  You can usually see where this keep alive dot is, it will be along the bottom somewhere, normally just outside the visible display area, behind a mask on the front glass.

Also there is an SKA pin tied low via a 39k resistor on pin 12. Not sure what this is for but the -KA suggests another keep alive.

I would have thought, if you don't have any colons to worry about, you could hack a pinball display to work if it is of similar dimensions and fits your case.

John S

[Quixotic Nixotic]

I said: Digits selects are on pins 9,8,7,6,5,4 with 9 being 100,000s and 4 being units.

I got that wrong of course. Read the wrong connector.

100,000s on pins 37 & 39
10,000s on pins 31 & 33
1,000s on pins 25 & 27
100s on pins 15 & 17
10s on pins 13 & 9
1s on pins 3 & 5

[irv6744]

Yeah, my cherry display has 6 digits with a colon between hours and minutes, with 7 segments and pins along one edge.

the seconds digits are smaller.  

there are also am / pm indicators which are pretty burned up and which i don't expect to duplicate in a new display.

the segments are burning out especially on the hrs digit.

i did get a pinball display  (sp-492 on a board that i had to desolder - display looks to be same size as my cherry.) but none of the 39 pins matched up and it would have been a major hack job plus i would have to drill new holes in my board for the extra 4 pins.

on my display if i am counting from the right direction on my 35 pins, digits are 1&2, 6&7, 13&14, 17,18, & 20, 23 & 24, and 28.

the segments are 9, 10, 22,19,21 and 11.

i have no connections on pins 3,8,12,15,25,26,27 and 29 and 30

there is light around the outer edge of the display just as it merges with the frame so that is probably the ka stuff.

i have to check for the resistors mentioned by Quixotic Nixotic and see if i have similar values anywhere.

i have resistors that are probably used for the colon and am/pm but i haven't checked the values.

my clock ic mk50252.

i know i probably won't find a perfect match but i hope to get a 35 pins that has some pins in common.

with a pinball display, i give up the colon and am'pm as well as the smaller digits for seconds.

of course that is acceptable.

i dealt with Tim in Minnesota for the sp-492 display but he said all his displays are for pinballs and are pretty much pin compatible.

hopefully, someone, somewhere has an old display they aren't using that helps me.

[irv6744]

i managed to score a cherry catalog on ebay and it has the cherry display pinout.

now i am going to try to use a williams pinball display in place of the cherry.

i have all the pins figured out now but the cherry doesn't have a stay alive anode or cathode so i don't know how the williams will work since it has those connections.

should be interesting.