aCSE-311B: Peripheral & Interfacing Lab

Lab Report: 04
Title of the experiment: Design & Implement
a circuit to display hexadecimal digits using trainer board
parallel port cable & seven segment display.
Submitted by
Nahida Sultana
Roll No:36
Jyoti Islam
Roll No:48
Kaniz Fatema Chowdhury
Roll No:66
Group:B
11th Batch

Submitted to
Ahsan Raja Chowdhury
Lecturer
Rumana Nazmul
Lecturer
Department of CSE
University of Dhaka
Prepared by
Jyoti Islam
Roll: 48
Title of the experiment: Design & implement a circuit to
display hexadecimal digits using trainer board, parallel port cable & seven
segment display.

Objective: The objective of the experiment is to design and

implement a circuit which display hexadecimal digits in seven segment
display as output. To give input, we use data switch of the trainer board,
write a code to pass this input from trainer board to computer to seven
segment display, so that the digit will be displayed in the seven segment
display.

Introduction: Most digital equipment has some means for

displaying information in a form that can be understood readily by the user
or operator. This information is often numerical data but can also be
alphanumeric (numbers and letters). For displaying the information we need
to implement an interface between the computer and the displaying device.
We are going to do the same in this experiment. We have the purpose to
design & implement a circuit to display hexadecimal digits using trainer
board, parallel port cable & seven segment display. For this, we design a
circuit using data switch of trainer board, computer, seven segment display
and 25 pin parallel cable; write necessary code for driving the circuit and
implement it. In the following sections of this report we’ll describe the
related theory, design strategies, code, circuit and sample input/output of the
experiment.

Theory: One of the simplest and most popular methods for displaying
digits uses a seven segment display as shown in Fig.1.1. Seven-segment
displays are commonly used in electronics as a method of displaying
decimal numeric feedback on the internal operations of devices[1]. A seven
segment display, as its name indicates, is composed of seven elements.
Individually on or off, they can be combined to produce simplified
representations of the alphanumeric information.

The seven segments are identified with lower case letters from ‘a’ to ‘g’ and
most of them include a decimal point identified with ‘h’. By controlling the
 Fig. 1.1: Seven Segment Display

current through the segments, some will be light and others will be dark so
that the desired character pattern will be generated[2].For example, to
display ‘3’, the segments a, b, c, d, and g are made bright while segment ‘f’,
‘e’ and decimal point ‘h’ is dark.

Fig.1.2. Segments of seven segment display

To give input, we write a code; the data is passed from trainer board to
computer using a circuit consists of logic gates. Then this input is passed to
the seven segment display by a parallel port cable which is known as DB-25
male to male parallel port cable (Fig. 1.3). This parallel cable has 25 pins in
both sides. Pin 2 to 9 are used as data pin, pin 18 to 25 are used as ground,
pin 10 to 15 are used as status port and pin 1,14,16 and 17 are used as
control port.
 Fig. 1.3: DB-25 parallel port cable.

The pin configuration of the cable is shown in fig.1.4. To give input to the
circuit, we need to press a key of the keyboard. This value is passed to the
seven segment display by parallel port. To use the parallel port we write a
code where we call the function outportb( ) with 0x378 and the value
received from the keyboard using proper adjustment.

Fig.1.4. Pin configuration of parallel port cable (DB 25 male).

The function outportb() has two parameters. One is the port number, another
is the value passed to the port. Here, we use 0x378 as port number. The
value changes according to the input. We use a delay loop to watch the
output in seven segment display perfectly after each call of outportb( ).
To pass the input from trainer board data switches to processor, we need to
use a circuit consists of logic gates. Here we use two input OR gates for the
function. The diagram of a two input OR gate is shown in Fig. 1.5.

Fig.1.5. A 2-input OR Gate.

IC-74LS32 shown in Fig.1.6 includes 2-input OR Gate. There are four OR

Gates in this IC.

Fig.1.6. Pin configuration of IC-74LS32

Here no.1,2;4,5;10,9;and no.13,12 pins are for inputs of the gates where
no.3;6;8;10and no.11 pins are for outputs respectively [1].

Design strategies: To design the circuit, first we draw the

logic diagram of the circuit, calculate the values to be passed from trainer
board to the seven segment display, write the code to drive the circuit and
then implement it. The circuit works as an interface between the trainer
board, computer and the displaying device. The following sections describe
the design strategies of the experiment.
Logic diagram: The logic diagram of the circuit is shown in fig.
2.1.

Fig.2.1.Logic diagram of the circuit.

The connector side view of the parallel port cable is shown in fig. 2.2.

Fig.2.2. Connector side view of the parallel port cable.

Data and Analysis: To take input from trainer board data switch
to computer we use a circuit consists of OR gates. The input of a gate is the
value given from trainer board, another is 0 to keep the input unchanged. We
take this output value to computer using inportb() function. This function
has only one parameter which is the related port number. We pass decimal
values using outportb() to the displaying device using parallel port cable.
But before this, we need to adjust the value so that corresponding hex digit
is displayed. The input is converted to a decimal value to represent a hex
digit in the seven segment display.

This conversion is related with the different segments of the display. For
example, to display ‘2’ we need to light the segments ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘g’ ,’e’ and ‘d’.
For this we pass 1 to these segments and 0 to segments ‘f’, ‘c’, and ‘h’. So,
we choose the decimal value 91 to call the outportb( ) function, because its
binary equivalent is 01011011 which is exact as the values of seven segment
display for displaying 2. The value calculation is shown in Table 1.
Table 1: Input/Output of the circuit
Input Data pins of the parallel Output
cable (seven
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 segment
Segments corresponding to display)
the data pins
Values from (Decimal
trainer board values)
H g f e d c b a

A B C D
0 0 0 0 63 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0
0 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1
0 0 1 0 91 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 2
0 0 1 1 79 0 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 3
0 1 0 0 102 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 4
0 1 0 1 109 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 5
0 1 1 0 125 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 6
0 1 1 1 7 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 7
1 0 0 0 127 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8
1 0 0 1 103 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 9
1 0 1 0 119 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 A
1 0 1 1 127 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 B
1 1 0 0 57 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 C
1 1 0 1 63 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 D
1 1 1 0 121 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 E
1 1 1 1 113 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 F

Code: The code used for designing the circuit is as follows:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<conio.h>
#include<ctype.h>
#include<dos.h>

int main( )
{
clrscr();
int i;
int a[16]={63,6,91,79,102,109,125,7,127,103,119,127,57,63,121,113};

while(!kbhit())
{
i=inportb(0x378);
if(i>15)
i=0;
i=i>>3;
outportb(0x378,a[i]);
delay(1000);
}
getch();
return 0;
}
Description of the experiment: In this section,
we’ll describe the necessary equipments for the experiment, the working
procedure of it and the sample input/output.

List of equipments: In this experiment, we use several

equipments. They are as follows:

1. Computer.

2. Trainer Board.

3. 25 pin Modem Cable (male to male).

4. Seven segment display (IC-74LS432).

5. 2-input OR Gate ICs (IC-74LS32).

6. Wires.

Working procedure: Now we’ll describe the working procedure

of the experiment.

1. At first, we connect the 25 pin modem cable (male to male) with the
parallel port of the computer and the trainer board.

2. Then, we give power supply to the pc and trainer board and set up the
seven segment display IC on the breadboard of the trainer board.

3. We test the IC and modem cable to verify if they are working properly
or not. For this, we check pin no. 2 to 9 of the parallel port on the trainer
board using a LED.

4. We connect one end of a wire to pin no. 2 and the other end to the
positive end of the LED and then output 1 to parallel port which has port
no. 378h.
5. If the LED is on then pin 2 is ok and we move on to pin 3 and so on.
Then we connect pin no. 18 as ground.

6. Then, we ground pin no.3 and 8 of the seven segment display. We check
the seven segment display to find out which pin is connected with which
segment. For this, each time we connect a pin with data input pin of the
trainer board.

7. We give 1 to the pin and see the output in the seven segment display.
Thus we can identify the corresponding segment because only that
segment is turned on and others are turned off.

8. We find that, the segments ‘a’, ‘b,’ ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘e’, ‘f’, ‘g’ and ‘h’ are
connected with pin no. 2, 1, 7, 9, 10, 4, 5 and 6 respectively.

9. Then we connect the input pins of OR gates with data switches of trainer
board and give a constant zero to each of the gates. The output of the
gate is connected to the pin 10,11,12,13 and 15 no. pins of parallel port
cable respectively.

10.After that, we connect the particular pins (calculated from Table-1) of

the trainer board with the seven segment display so that data can pass
from computer to it by the modem cable. For example, we connect pin 9
of seven segment display which represent ‘d’ segment, with pin no. 5 of
parallel port.

11. After completing the circuit connections, we run the code in the
computer, the circuit takes input from data switch of trainer board and in
the seven segment display shows the digit as output.

12.Then, we check the circuit for different inputs and check the output.
Since all the output was correct, it can be said that the design and
implementation of the circuit is perfect.
Sample input/output: Now we’ll show some sample input
and their corresponding output here.

Input Output
(binary value) (seven segment display)
1000

1010

1111
Precautions: It was really very important for us to have a close
look at the following precautions for the successful implementation of our
designed circuit.

1. Faulty trainer board and breadboard should not be used.

2. All the pins of the parallel cable specially those of data port must
function properly.

3. All the segments of the segment display should work properly.

4. The wires should be with sharp head. Loose wire connection should
be avoided. The connection should be given properly so that short
circuit can’t occur in the circuit.

5. Overall, a careful visual inspection is needed when implementing the

circuit for avoiding all unexpected circumstances.

Discussion: Designing and implementing this circuit was really

very exciting for us. When designing the interface, we learn different
important things of interfacing devices with computer and sending data from
a computer to other device. We use parallel port cable for both to take input
from a device and display output in another device. Since, our designed
circuit works properly, so it can be said that we have completed our
experiment successfully.
References: During designing and implementing this circuit, we
have taken help from some books and websites. They are listed below:

Related books:
1. Ronald J. Tocci, Neal S. Widmer; Digital Systems, Prentice Hall
International, Inc. Dave Garza; Eighth edition,2002

Related websites:
2. www. wikipedia.org