Connecting a 7-segment electromechanical indicator to Arduino

Question

Arduino

I got my hands on a board from a gas station column with electromechanical seven-segment indicators. To begin with, I want to connect several indicators to the Arduino, and ideally, to assemble a clock on these indicators.
Each indicator has seven mechanical segments, each of which is controlled by its own electromagnet. Switching the segment on and off is carried out by changing the polarity of the voltage supplied to the electromagnet. The operating voltage is 7-12 volts, the current consumed by switching is 300mA.
Please help me with the connection diagram of such indicators. Interested in the easiest way.

I apologize for the quality of the photo.

Answer 1

Then try 74HC595 in conjunction with ULN2003 - this should be enough to control one assembly. But actually everything is painted. easternstargeek.blogspot.com/2011/08/nifty-electro...

Answer 2

Try looking in the direction of the arduino motor driver - for example some L293D. I am almost sure that you will be able to assemble/find a multi-channel analog from the same board. Clock - I doubt it, since such indicators should be quite noisy when switching.

Answer 3

Thanks, I also thought about it, but whatever one may say, it turns out quite cumbersome.
The best implementation I've seen is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEzBqoKh2bw . It looks very simple, but I still don't understand how it works. Unfortunately, I did not find how to contact the author of the video.

Answer 4

Take 2 pieces of ULN2003. And 2-polar power supply. Perhaps it couldn't be easier. One wire of the coil is for "common" (for each segment - a separate key), and the other is to switch the ULN to "plus" or "minus". The main thing is not to turn on both at once =))
From the video, I got the impression that there are 2 coils per segment, then you can get by with a unipolar source