I have always been fascinated with the “alien” font multi-segment EL digits from the former USSR since I first saw them on eBay. These are basically 7 segment type displays with non standard layout (and more segments) I assume this is better support Russian text, however the result is very interesting looking. Also EL (electroluminescent) displays are rarely used in this type of display. VFDs or LCDs or LEDs are the norm. I would be fascinated to know what these were designed for. I could not really find an info.
However when I finally got around to thinking I would like to have a few of these I found the prices on eBay had become absurd, there only seems to be a few left for sale, so supply and demand... But the urge to tinker remain, fortunately one of the things that has gotten better in recent years is cheap rapid prototyping. So I made my own PCB with LEDs laid out exactly as in the original. JLCPCB is alarming me cheap, this was only about $10 all inclusive. It is insane they can make and ship the board for that, let alone parts and assembly!
I then developed a font. This was the fun part, you can do better than 7-segment displays, but it is still hard to render some characters. But frankly that is the selling point here; the display are interesting because the text ends up looking funny, hence the “alien” nickname.
In the end I am pretty happy with the result. I couldn't easily get a picture without a little glare from the LEDs. I would have liked the real ones, but I am too cheap to pay for them, and this scratched my itch to play with these. This blog’s tagline is “shouting into the void”. Yell is close enough for 4 digits. If I think of a good use I may come up with some more elegant wiring and a 3d printed case, but for now I will leave it here, another interesting trinket for my dragon’s hoard of dubiously useful items.