I have had some help on the coding forums but I have also had a few rebukes for not being a genius! Certainly don’t feel as “at home” as I do on here. Thanks for the replies, makes me feel less thick if nothing else.

Hi Bazyle, that’s the path I am on at the moment, though less complicated than your example. Good to know I’m going in the right direction at least.

Actually Roger it is a display that started this recent flurry of programming. I had made a project using a larger 4×7 segment display and an off shoot of that was finding a sketch online for testing these displays. It didnt use a shift register and looked quite simple. To cut a long story short it worked except that it did not light up the decimal points of the display. Several of the Arduino forum fellas queried the library and I tried installing different ones and many other dodges but no luck. The opinion on the forum was that I would be better scrapping the sketch and starting afresh taking small steps and testing them out as I went – much along the lines many of you chaps have suggested. So that is what I am doing at the moment. Thanks again to all for your inputs, much appreciated!

I have successfully used LCD displays in the past, but wanted a larger 7 segment display for the clock project. It’s the failing eyesight you know!

Code part 1

// tests a 4×7 seg. disp. with modified blink sketch. displays 0000 1111 2222 3333 etc. with decimal points after all digits.

#define seg //output pins to 7 segment display
#define Don 1000 //delay setting the ON time of segments
#define Doff 250 //delay setting the OFF time of segments

void setup() {
// put your setup code here, to run once:
pinMode(2, OUTPUT); // A segment of display
pinMode(3, OUTPUT); // B segment of display
pinMode(4, OUTPUT); // C segment of display
pinMode(5, OUTPUT); // D segment of display
pinMode(6, OUTPUT); // E segment of display
pinMode(7, OUTPUT); // F segment of display
pinMode(8, OUTPUT); // G segment of display
pinMode(9, OUTPUT); // Decimal Point segment of display
pinMode(10, OUTPUT); // D1 cathode of display
pinMode(11, OUTPUT); // D2 cathode of display
pinMode(12, OUTPUT); // D3 cathode of display
pinMode(13, OUTPUT); // D4 cathode of display
}

void loop()

{

digitalWrite(2, HIGH); // turn the following LEDs (segments) on to display the number 0.
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);

delay(Don); // wait for a second.

digitalWrite(2, LOW); //turn the following LEDs (segments)off.
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
digitalWrite(5, LOW);
digitalWrite(6, LOW);
digitalWrite(7, LOW);
digitalWrite(9, LOW);

//delay(Doff); // wait for a second.

digitalWrite(3, HIGH); // turn the following LEDs (segnments)on to display the number 1.
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);

delay(Don); // wait for a second

digitalWrite(3, LOW); //turn the following LEDs (segments)off.
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
digitalWrite(9, LOW);

// delay(Doff); // wait for a second

digitalWrite(2, HIGH); // turn the following LEDs (segnments)on to display the number 2.
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
digitalWrite(8, HIGH);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);

delay(Don); // wait for a second

digitalWrite(2, LOW); //turn the following LEDs (segments)off.
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
digitalWrite(5, LOW);
digitalWrite(6, LOW);
digitalWrite(8, LOW);
digitalWrite(9, LOW);

//delay(Doff); // wait for a second

digitalWrite(2, HIGH); // turn the following LEDs (segnments)on to display the number 3.
digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
digitalWrite(8, HIGH);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);

delay(Don); // wait for a second

digitalWrite(2,LOW); //turn the following LEDs (segments)off.
digitalWrite(3, LOW);
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
digitalWrite(5, LOW);
digitalWrite(8, LOW);
digitalWrite(9, LOW);

//delay(Doff); // wait for a second

digitalWrite(3, HIGH); // turn the following LEDs (segnments)on to display the number 4.
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
digitalWrite(8, HIGH);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);

delay(Don); // wait for a second

digitalWrite(3,LOW); //turn the following LEDs (segments)off.
digitalWrite(4, LOW);
digitalWrite(7, LOW);
digitalWrite(8, LOW);
digitalWrite(9, LOW);

// delay(Doff); // wait for a second

digitalWrite(2, HIGH); // turn the following LEDs (segnments)on to display the number 5.
digitalWrite(4, HIGH);
digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
digitalWrite(8, HIGH);
digitalWrite(9, HIGH);

delay(Don); // wait for a second