KS Project Manual
EFY april 2009
Microcontroller-Based
Moving-Message Display
L
ED-based moving-message
displays are becoming popular
for transmitting information to
large groups of people quickly. These
can be used indoors or outdoors. We
can find such displays in areas like rail-
way platforms, banks, public offices,
hotels, training institutes, nightclubs
and shops.
Compared to LEDs, liquid-crystal
displays (LCDs) are easy to interface
with a microcontroller for display-
ing information as these have many
built-in functions. But these can’t be
observed from a distance and large-
size LCDs are very costly.
LED-based displays can be of two
types: dot-matrix and segmental. If you
implement a moving-message display
with multiplexed dot-matrix LEDs, it
will be very costly for displaying 16
characters or more at a time. Moreover,
programming will require a lot of data
memory or program memory space.
An external RAM may be needed to
complement a microcontroller like
AT89C51.
However, if you use alphanumeric
(16-segment LED) displays for the
above purpose, programming burden
is reduced and also it becomes highly
cost-effective. You can make your
own display panel consisting of 16
alphanumeric characters at a much
lower cost.
The circuit presented here uses 16
common-anode, single-digit, alphanu-
meric displays to show 16 characters
at a time. Moreover, programming has
been done to make the characters move
in a beautiful manner. A message ap-
pears on the panel from the right side,
stays for a few seconds when the first
character reaches the leftmost place
and then goes out from the left side.
It displays 16 different messages to
depict different occasions, which can
be selected by the user through a DIP
switch.
Circuit description Ports P0 and P2 of the microcon-
troller have been configured to act
Fig. 1 shows the circuit of the micro-
as a common data bus for all the 16
controller-based moving-message
alphanumeric displays whose cor-
display. It comprises microcontrol-
responding data pins have been tied
ler AT89C51, three-to-eight decoder
together to make a common 16-bit
74LS138, common anode alphanumeric
data bus. Port-2 provides the higher
displays, regulator 7805 and a few dis-
byte of data, while port-0 provides
crete components.
the lower one to light up a character
At the heart of the moving-mes-
on the display. Port pins P1.2-P1.4
sage display is Atmel AT89C51 mi-
and P1.5-P1.7 of the microcontroller
crocontroller (IC1). It is a low-power,
have been used as address inputs
high-performance, 8-bit microcontrol-
for decoder IC3 and IC4 (74LS138) to
ler with 4 kB of flash programmable
enable one of the fourteen alphanu-
and erasable read-only memory
meric displays (DIS3 through DIS16)
(PEROM) used as on-chip program
at a time, respectively. However,
memory, 128 bytes of RAM used as
displays DIS1 and DIS2 are enabled
internal data memory, 32 individually
or disabled directly by port pins P1.0
programmable input/output (I/O)
and P1.1. Pins 4 and 5 are grounded
lines divided into four 8-bit ports, two
and pin 6 is made high to enable de-
16-bit programmable timers/counters,
coder 74LS138.
a five-vector two-level interrupt archi-
Fig. 2 shows the pin configuration
tecture, on-chip oscillator and clock
of the common-anode alphanumeric
circuitry.
display.
Parts List All the corresponding data pins
Dis1 through DIS16 of alphanumeric
Semiconductors:
IC1 - AT89C51 microcontroller displays have been tied together,
IC2, IC3 - 74LS138 3-to-8 decoder
IC4 - 7805 5V regulator
List of Messages
T1-T16 - BC558 pnp transistor
D1-D4 - 1N4007 rectifier diode Which can be Selected
DIS1-DIS16 - KLA51 common-anode S3S2S1S0 Message selected
alphanumeric display
LED1 - 5mm LED 0 0 0 0 Happy Birthday
Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon): 0 0 0 1 Happy New Year
R1-R16 - 2.2-kilo-ohm 0 0 1 0 *Happy Diwali*
R17-R32 - 120-ohm 0 0 1 1 Merry Christmas
R33-R37 - 10-kilo-ohm
0 1 0 0 *Happy Holi*
R38 - 220-ohm
0 1 0 1 *Eid Mubarak*
Capacitors:
0 1 1 0 Happy Dashehra
C1, C2 - 33pF ceramic disk
C3 - 2200µF, 25V electrolytic 0 1 1 1 Happy Wedding
C4 - 1µF, 16V electrolytic
1 0 0 0 Happy Janmashtmi
C5 - 10µF, 16V electrolytic
C6 - 0.1µF ceramic disk 1 0 0 1 *Happy Rakhi*
1 0 1 0 *Happy Pongal*
Miscellaneous:
X1 - 220V AC primary to 9V, 1 0 1 1 Happy Mothers Day
500mA secondary 1 1 0 0 *Happy Ramjan*
transformer
1 1 0 1 *Happy Lohri*
XTAL - 11.0592MHz crystal
S0-S3 - 4-pin DIP switch 1 1 1 0 *Happy Easter*
S4 - Push-to-‘on’ switch 1 1 1 1 Welcome to All
 EFY april 2009
KS Project Manual

Fig. 1: Circuit for microcontroller-based moving-message display

KS Project Manual
EFY april 2009

Fig. 2: Pin configuration of alphanumeric display

while the common anode of each

display is separately powered via a
BC558 transistor which switches ‘on’
or ‘off’ as required, through outputs
of 74LS138 ICs and pins P1.0 and
P1.1 of IC1. The higher nibble of
port P3 (P3.4 through P3.7) is used Fig. 3: Actual-size, single-side PCB for the microcontroller-based moving-message display circuit,
as a selection bus to select one of except alphanumeric display and associated components
the 16 previously stored messages
using the 4-bit binary value present
on these pins. This value can be
changed through a 4-pin DIP switch
(S0 through S3).
Selection pins P3.4 through P3.7
are pulled high via resistors R36
through R33, respectively. When the
switch connected to a given pin is
open the value is high (1), and when
it is closed the pin is held low and
the value becomes ‘0.’ In this way,
by using a 4-bit number you can
select any of the 16 messages shown
in the Table.
Capacitor C5 and resistor R37
form the power-‘on’ reset circuit,
while a push-to-connect switch has
been used for manual reset. An
11.0592MHz crystal generates the
basic clock frequency for the micro-
Fig. 4: Component layout for the PCB shown in Fig. 3
controller. To change the message
being displayed while the circuit is
working, first change the number regulated power supply. LED1 acts as Fig. 5 shows the PCB for displays
present at the selection bus, then the power-‘on’ indicator. DIS1 through DIS8, transistors T1
press ‘reset’ key. through T8 and resistors R17 through
The 220V AC mains is stepped Construction R24. Component layout for this PCB
down by transformer X1 to deliver Fig. 3 shows an actual-size, single- is shown in Fig. 6. You need to use an
the secondary output of 9V, 500 mA. side PCB layout for the microcontrol- additional PCB as shown in Fig. 5 for
The output of the transformer is ler-based moving-message display DIS9 through DIS16, so as to configure
rectified by a full-wave bridge recti- circuit, except displays DIS1 through 16 alphanumeric displays. For this
fier comprising diodes D1 through DIS16, transistors T1 through T16 PCB, the corresponding components
D4, filtered by capacitor C3 and then and resistors R17 through R32. Com- will be transistors T9 through T16 and
regulated by IC 7805 (IC4). Capacitor ponent layout for this PCB is shown resistors R25 through R32 in addition
C4 bypasses any ripple present in the in Fig. 4. to displays DIS9 through DIS16. Cor-

Fig. 5: Actual-size, single-side PCB for alphanumeric display
Fig. 6: Component layout for the PCB shown in Fig. 5
responding connector are provided to
make a proper connection. Connectors
CON2, CON4 and CON6 of Fig. 3 are
connected to CON2, CON4 and CON6
of Fig. 5, respectively, through external
wires to interface DIS1 through DIS9.
Connectors CON3, CON5 and CON7
of Fig. 3 are connected to CON2, CON4
and CON6 of Fig. 5, respectively,
through external cable to interface DIS9
through DIS16.
Software and its working
The source code ‘movmsg.asm’ is writ-
ten in Assembly language and assem-
bled using cross-compiler. It is well-
commented and easy to understand.
Timer 1 has been used to generate a
delay of around 1 ms for the switching
gap between two consecutive displays.
Thus, each display is enabled for 1 ms
while displaying a message. The length
of this cycle depends upon the length
of the message string. The cycle repeats
after a ‘0’ is encountered at the end of
each message stored in the look-up
table at the end of the program.
Each time, to display a character at
a given display, first two bytes (16 bits)
of data are sent to Port-2 and Port-0,
then the desired display is enabled by
sending its address to Port-1. Thereaf-
ter, a delay of 1 ms (slightly more than
that) is generated by timer 1. Upon
timer overflow, the entire display panel
is refreshed by passing ‘FFFFH’ to the
data bus. Then the next character at the
next display is passed in the similar
manner. The cycle frequency is vari-
able (depending upon the length of the
message) but always high enough so
that the message appears continuous
to the human eye.
Timer 0, with its interrupt enabled,
is used to change the starting address
of the message in cyclic manner so
that the characters scroll from left
to right with a proper gap between
each shift. Meanwhile, the interrupt
service sub-routine also checks for the
KS Project Manual
EFY april 2009
starting address of DIS16 (right-most
display). As soon as the first character
reaches DIS16, the message stays for a
longer time so that the entire message
(message length not longer than 16
characters) can be easily read. There-
after, characters again start scrolling
rightwards, so the entire message goes
out and disappears after a while to
reappear from left side.
All the messages are stored in the
form of a look-up table in the program
memory (ROM) itself. When the circuit
is switched ‘on’ (or reset), the monitor-
ing program first checks for the binary
number present at the selection bus
and according to that, the ROM ad-
dress of the starting character of the
selected message is loaded into the
data-pointer. Thereafter, on-chip ROM
reading is used to read the entire mes-
sage over there.
Note that each character is rep-
resented in the look-up table of the
source code by two bytes. For exam-
KS Project Manual
EFY april 2009
ple, ‘S’ is represented by ‘Sh’ and ‘Sl’
separated by a comma. In addition to
the alphabets, Arabic numerals and
a few special characters have been
defined in the program. For instance,
a blank space is represented by ‘bsh,
bsl.’ Thus, it is very easy to modify
the program.
Suppose you want to display
“HOUSE NO 401-H” in place of mes-
sage ‘0.’ First, open the source code in
the editor. Delete the old string and
write the new string as below:
msg0: db Hh, Hl, Oh, Ol, Uh, Ul, Sh,
Sl, Eh, El, bsh, bsl, Nh, Nl, Oh,
Ol, bsh, bsl, fourh, fourl, zeroh,
zerol, oneh, onel, msh, msl, Hh, Hl, 0
(Please note that the assembler is
case-insensitive. Still, upper and lower
cases have been used for clarity.)
Future enhancements
Many more messages would be
possible if complete Port-3 is used
for message selection. Pins RxD,
TxD, INT0 and INT1 have been
kept free, so that these can be used
for interfacing with the serial port
of the PC. Also, interrupt pins can
be used to display some message
and sound an alarm in the case of
an emergency. For example, a fire
sensor can be connected to ‘INT0’ and
a vibration detector to ‘INT1.’ These
pins can also be used to send signals
to synchronise a similar system that
displays another related message at
the same time, so a 16-character, two-
line display is made possible.

movmsg.asm
$mod51 Fl equ 0e8h Zl equ 7ch
DBH equ p2 ; Higher byte of Data
Bus GH equ 1bh ;** codes for few special characters:
DBL equ p0 ; Lower byte of Data Bus Gl equ 0e8h
ADB equ p1 ; Address Bus strh equ 0e8h ;for star sign (as-
input equ p3 ; message select input Hh equ 0c3h terisk)
Hl equ 0ebh strl equ 17h
;** codes for decimal digits are given
below: Ih equ 0ffh plsh equ 0ebh ;for ‘+’ sign
; (‘h’ refers to higher byte, ‘l’ to Il equ 9fh plsl equ 9fh
lower one)
zeroh equ 17h Jh equ 17h mnsh equ 0ebh ;minus sign
zerol equ 0e8h Jl equ 0ffh mnsl equ 0ffh

oneh equ 0d7h Kh equ 0ech _h equ 3fh ;underscore sign

onel equ 0ffh Kl equ 0ebh _l equ 0ffh

twoh equ 23h Lh equ 3fh bsh equ 0ffh ;blank space
twol equ 0ech Ll equ 0ebh bsl equ 0ffh

threeh equ 2bh Mh equ 0d5h pieh equ 0eah ;for pie
threel equ 0fch Ml equ 0e3h piel equ 7fh

fourh equ 0c3h Nh equ 0d6h mueh equ 0e3h ;for micro (mu)
fourl equ 0fbh Nl equ 0e3h muel equ 0ebh

fiveh equ 0bh Oh equ 17h org 0000h

fivel equ 0f8h Ol equ 0e8h sjmp main

sixh equ 0bh Ph equ 0e3h org 000bh ;timer0 inter-

sixl equ 0e8h Pl equ 0e8h rupt vector address
clr tr0 ;clear timer0
sevenh equ 0d7h Qh equ 06h run bit
sevenl equ 0fch Ql equ 0e8h mov tl0,#00h
mov th0,#00h ;reload timer0
eighth equ 03h Rh equ 0e2h with initial count
eightl equ 0e8h Rlw equ 0e8h djnz r7,a1
mov r7,#46
nineh equ 03h Sh equ 0bh cjne r1,#60h,a5 ;check to again
ninel equ 0f8h Sl equ 0f8h start entering from left-side
sjmp a4
;** codes for alphabets are given Th equ 0ffh a5: cjne r1,#50h,a2 ;check for display
below: Tl equ 9ch to stay on reaching display-16
sjmp a3
Ah equ 0c3h Uh equ 17h a2: inc r1
Al equ 0e8h Ul equ 0ebh sjmp a1
a3: djnz r6,a1
Bh equ 0bh Vh equ 0fdh inc r1
Bl equ 0ebh Vl equ 6bh sjmp a1
a4: mov r6,#10
Ch equ 3fh Wh equ 17h mov r1,#41h
Cl equ 0e8h Wl equ 0abh a1: setb tr0 ;set timer0 run
bit
Dh equ 03h Xh equ 0fch reti ;return from
Dl equ 0efh Xl equ 77h timer0 ISR and clear tf0

Eh equ 2bh Yh equ 0e3h main: mov ie,#00h

El equ 0e8h Yl equ 0bbh setb ea ;set global
interrupt bit
Fh equ 0ebh Zh equ 3dh setb et0 ;enable
 KS Project Manual
EFY april 2009
timer0 interrupt chk2: cjne a,#2fh,chk3 timer1
mov tmod,#01h ;timer0 con- mov dptr,#msg2 mov th1,#0fch ;FC66H will gen-
figured in mode 1 sjmp read erate a delay of 1ms with 11.0592MHz
mov tcon,#00h Xtal
mov tl0,#00h chk3: cjne a,#3fh,chk4 mov tl1,#66h
mov th0,#00h ;set initial mov dptr,#msg3 setb tr1
count to 0000H sjmp read jnb tf1,$ ;wait until timer1
mov r7,#46 ;provides gap overflows
between each shift chk4: cjne a,#4fh,chk5 clr tr1
mov r6,#10 ; mov dptr,#msg4 clr tf1
sjmp read mov DBH,#0ffh
mov r0,#60h mov DBL,#0ffh
blank: mov @r0,#0ffh ;initialize the chk5: cjne a,#5fh,chk6 ret
pointed location by null address mov dptr,#msg5
dec r0 sjmp read ;** look-up table starts from here:
cjne r0,#2fh,blank msg0: db Hh,Hl,Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh
mov r1,#41h ;load address- chk6: cjne a,#6fh,chk7 ,Yl,bsh,bsl,Bh,Bl,Ih,Il,Rh,Rlw,Th,Tl,Hh
pointer with initial address mov dptr,#msg6 ,Hl,bsh,bsl,Dh,Dl,Ah,Al,Yh,Yl,0
sjmp read msg1: db Hh,Hl,Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Y
h,Yl,bsh,bsl,Nh,Nl,Eh,El,Wh,Wl,bsh,bsl,
mov 50h,#0dfh ;address for 16th chk7: cjne a,#7fh,chk8 Yh,Yl,Eh,El,Ah,Al,Rh,Rlw,0
Display (rightmost) mov dptr,#msg7 msg2: db strh,strl,bsh,bsl,Hh,Hl,
mov 4fh,#0bfh ;address for 15th sjmp read Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh,Yl,bsh,bsl,Dh,Dl,
Display Ih,Il,Wh,Wl,Ah,Al,Lh,Ll,Ih,Il,bsh,bsl,
mov 4eh,#9fh ;address for 14th chk8: cjne a,#8fh,chk9 strh,strl,0
Display mov dptr,#msg8 msg3: db Mh,Ml,Eh,El,Rh,Rlw,Rh,Rlw,
mov 4dh,#7fh ;address for 13th sjmp read Yh,Yl,bsh,bsl,Ch,Cl,Hh,Hl,Rh,Rlw,Ih,Il,
Display Sh,Sl,Th,Tl,Mh,Ml,Ah,Al,Sh,Sl,0
mov 4ch,#5fh ;address for 12th chk9: cjne a,#9fh,chk10 msg4: db strh,strl,bsh,bsl,Hh,Hl,Ah
Display mov dptr,#msg9 ,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh,Yl,bsh,bsl,Hh,Hl,Oh,O
mov 4bh,#3fh ;address for 11th sjmp read l,Lh,Ll,Ih,Il,bsh,bsl,strh,strl,0
Display msg5: db strh,strl,bsh,bsl,Eh,El,
mov 4ah,#1fh ;address for 10th chk10: cjne a,#0afh,chk11 Ih,Il,Dh,Dl,bsh,bsl,Mh,Ml,Uh,Ul,Bh,Bl,
Display mov dptr,#msg10 Ah,Al,Rh,Rlw,Ah,Al,Kh,Kl,bsh,bsl,strh,
mov 49h,#0fbh ;address for 9th sjmp read strl,0
Display msg6: db Hh,Hl,Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Y
mov 48h,#0f7h ;address for 8th chk11: cjne a,#0bfh,chk12 h,Yl,bsh,bsl,Dh,Dl,Ah,Al,Sh,Sl,Hh,Hl,Eh
Display mov dptr,#msg11 ,El,Hh,Hl,Rh,Rlw,Ah,Al,0
mov 47h,#0f3h ;address for 7th sjmp read msg7: db Hh,Hl,Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Y
Display h,Yl,bsh,bsl,Wh,Wl,Eh,El,Dh,Dl,Dh,Dl,Ih
mov 46h,#0efh ;address for 6th chk12: cjne a,#0cfh,chk13 ,Il,Nh,Nl,Gh,Gl,0
Display mov dptr,#msg12 msg8: db Hh,Hl,Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh
mov 45h,#0ebh ;address for 5th sjmp read ,Yl,bsh,bsl,Jh,Jl,Ah,Al,Nh,Nl,Mh,Ml,Ah,A
Display l,Sh,Sl,Hh,Hl,Th,Tl,Mh,Ml,Ih,Il,0
mov 44h,#0e7h ;address for 4th chk13: cjne a,#0dfh,chk14 msg9: db strh,strl,bsh,bsl,Hh,Hl,
Display mov dptr,#msg13 Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh,Yl,bsh,bsl,Rh,Rlw
mov 43h,#0e3h ;address for 3rd sjmp read ,Ah,Al,Kh,Kl,Hh,Hl,Ih,Il,bsh,bsl,strh,
Display strl,0
mov 42h,#0fdh ;address for 2nd chk14: mov dptr,#msg14 msg10: db strh,strl,bsh,bsl,Hh,Hl,
Display sjmp read Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh,Yl,bsh,bsl,Ph,Pl,
mov 41h,#0feh ;address for 1st Oh,Ol,Nh,Nl,Gh,Gl,Ah,Al,Lh,Ll,bsh,bsl,
Display (leftmost) read: mov r3,dph strh,strl,0
mov r2,dpl msg11: db Hh,Hl,Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh
chk: mov a,input ;load accumulator setb tr0 ,Yl,bsh,bsl,Mh,Ml,Oh,Ol,Th,Tl,Hh,Hl,Eh,E
with value at P3 rd1: mov r0,01h l,Rh,Rlw,Sh,Sl,Dh,Dl,Ah,Al,Yh,Yl,0
orl a,#0fh ;mask lower nible rd2: clr a msg12: db strh,strl,bsh,bsl,Hh,Hl,
to get selection bus value movc a,@a+dptr Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh,Yl,bsh,bsl,Rh,Rlw
cjne a,#0ffh,chk0 jz down ,Ah,Al,Mh,Ml,Jh,Jl,Ah,Al,Nh,Nl,bsh,bsl
mov dptr,#default ;load dptr mov DBH,a ,strh,strl,0
with starting address of defalt message clr a msg13: db strh,strl,bsh,bsl,Hh,Hl,
sjmp read ; now start inc dptr Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh,Yl,bsh,bsl,Lh,Ll,
reading movc a,@a+dptr Oh,Ol,Hh,Hl,Rh,Rlw,Ih,Il,bsh,bsl,strh,
mov DBL,a strl,0
chk0: cjne a,#0fh,chk1 mov ADB,@r0 msg14: db strh,strl,bsh,bsl,Hh,Hl,
mov dptr,#msg0 ;load dptr with acall timer Ah,Al,Ph,Pl,Ph,Pl,Yh,Yl,bsh,bsl,Eh,El,
starting address of msg0 dec r0 Ah,Al,Sh,Sl,Th,Tl,Eh,El,Rh,Rlw,bsh,bsl
sjmp read ; now start inc dptr ,strh,strl,0
reading sjmp rd2 default: db Wh,Wl,Eh,El,Lh,Ll,Ch,Cl,O
down: mov dph,r3 ;reload dph h,Ol,Mh,Ml,Eh,El,bsh,bsl,Th,Tl,Oh,Ol,bs
chk1: cjne a,#1fh,chk2 mov dpl,r2 ;reload dpl h,bsl,Ah,Al,Lh,Ll,Lh,Ll,0
mov dptr,#msg1 sjmp rd1 end
sjmp read 
timer: mov tmod,#10h ;set mode 1 for