These Custom “Starburst” LED Digits Mimic the Aesthetic of an F18 Hornet

There are a lot of options on the market when it comes time to add a display to a project. You can use an LCD, OLED, seven-segment LED displays, Nixie tubes, vacuum fluorescent display tubes, a flip-dot display, an LED matrix, and more. Each option has its own unique aesthetic, benefits, and challenges. But what if nothing out there suits your needs or the requirements of the project? If you’re willing to really get into the weeds, it is possible to make your own custom display. That’s what Mangus Tiranus did when he built these custom, daisy-chainable “Starbust” LED digit displays that are meant to mimic the display from an F18 Hornet fighter jet.

It is really uncommon to see someone develop a completely custom display component like this, because it is a lot of work. Most people just choose whichever display type fits the requirements and aesthetic of the project. Because there are so many display types out there, it usually isn’t hard to find something that fits the bill. Creating an entirely new display module is time consuming and most people won’t even notice the effort. But Tiranus was interested in a very specific aesthetic, and put the work in to bring that to life.

Each of Tiranus’ Starburst display modules is capable of showing a single alphanumeric digit. That digit is created by a total of 16 small surface-mount LEDs. Interestingly, those LEDs are not laid out in a regular grid, but a special pattern that is responsible for the unusual appearance. The LEDs are soldered to a small custom PCB, and each PCB has its own dedicated shift register to minimize wiring. Even so, each module still requires several wires. Tiranus used an Arduino Pro Mini to drive the 15 digits used in his demonstration subscriber counter, and that receives the data to display from an ESP8266. The diffuser plates were made using laser-cut acrylic filled with UV-curable resin and sanded smooth. The result is a unique display that you won’t likely see anywhere else — unless you download the files to build your own Starburst digits.