How do you display digits/patterns on the 7-segment ?

Question

using PIC 18F4520 , C programming language

Answer 1

a 7 segment display consists of seven led segments

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The above has 7 lines making it a 7-segment display. Each segment is a LED which is all different LEDs, meaning every bit you activate results in a new led... To activate the LED you have to set the bits corresponding to those led sequence..

To enable and disable a bit on the led you have to apply a mask. Depending on the microcontroller each way to represent it differs.

http://www.iguanalabs.com/7segment.htm

It consists of 7 bits, a0 a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 a6. If you look at the chart in the website you could see which one is which. Within your lowlevel programming language you just mask that range with what you care about resulting on bright LEDs.

If you tell me which programming language your working with, I could tell you exactly how. Very simple...


EDIT:
Yea so just apply the mask to that bus which connects the 7seg display. Look at your display manual to know which leds are which. And just mask it(BCD ) it

Answer 2

you can also get a BCD to 7-segment display driver chip. all you do is write out the BCD number to it and the driver does the rest. example:

write out a 1 (0001) and it dislpays a 1
write out a 9 (1001) and it displays a 9