Displays and consoles: LED displays, consoles, circuit boards

A chip that quietly regulates away is handy – but you want to see what it does. The small display on the IC housing is enough for one value. For a status board with pressure, temperature and battery level there are LED displays, consoles with circuit boards and the computer.

The three LED displays#

Display	Width	Kits	normal digit display up to
LED Display (Small)	0.5 m, one cell	1	99,999
LED Display (Medium)	1 m, two cells	2	99,999
LED Display (Large)	1.5 m, three cells	3	99,999,999

All three are built from the Kit (Console), draw 50 W each and have one shared port for power and data. A larger display costs as many kits as it takes cells.

They are controlled through four values:

• Setting – the number shown (read and write),
• Mode – the unit behind it,
• Color – the colour of the digits,
• On – switch on and off.

A worked example on the digit count: normal air pressure is 101,325 Pa. That is six digits and so more than the small and medium displays show normally. In kPa (101.3) the value fits easily, the large display can even take the pascal number.

Mode: the unit#

Number	Name	Number	Name
0	Default	9	Days
1	Percent	10	String
2	Power	11	Fahrenheit
3	Kelvin	12	Litres
4	Celsius	13	Mol
5	Meters	14	Pa
6	Credits	15	Newtons
7	Seconds	16	Degrees
8	Minutes

In a program you may write the name instead of the number, for example DisplayMode.Celsius for 4.

Color: the colour#

Number	Colour	Number	Colour	Number	Colour
0	Blue	4	Red	8	Brown
1	Gray	5	Yellow	9	Khaki
2	Green	6	White	10	Pink
3	Orange	7	Black	11	Purple

Names exist here too: Color.Green is 2, Color.Red is 4.

Text instead of a number#

Since September 2025 LED displays also show text sent by a chip. Set Mode to 10 (String) and write a value from STR("…") into Setting. STR packs up to six ASCII characters into one number and, like HASH, is replaced when the script is saved – so it may also sit behind define. “ALARM” fits, “TEMPERATURE” does not.

A program: temperature with colour and status#

Two small displays hang side by side. “Temp Display” shows the room temperature in °C, “Status Display” a word. Below 18 °C both turn blue, above 26 °C red, in between green.

# Room temperature with colour and status text
define SENSOR -1252983604      # Gas Sensor (StructureGasSensor)
define LED -815193061          # LED Display (Small) (StructureConsoleLED5)
define NSENSOR HASH("Living Sensor")      # name of the sensor
define NNUMBER HASH("Temp Display")       # display for the number
define NTEXT HASH("Status Display")       # display for the text
define CELSIUSOFFSET 273.15    # kelvin minus 273.15 = degrees Celsius
define COLD 18                 # degrees Celsius, blue below
define WARM 26                 # degrees Celsius, red above
define MCELSIUS DisplayMode.Celsius  # only appends deg C
define MTEXT DisplayMode.String      # shows text from STR
define BLUE Color.Blue         # colour when cold
define GREEN Color.Green       # colour when normal
define RED Color.Red           # colour when warm or on error
define TCOLD STR("COLD")       # status words, at most 6 characters
define TOK STR("OK")
define TWARM STR("WARM")
define TMISS STR("NOSENS")
alias kelvin r0
alias degrees r1
alias colour r2
alias text r3
alias tmp r4

start:
yield
lbn kelvin SENSOR NSENSOR Temperature 0
bnan kelvin nosensor           # NaN: sensor missing
sub degrees kelvin CELSIUSOFFSET
move colour GREEN
move text TOK
slt tmp degrees COLD
select colour tmp BLUE colour
select text tmp TCOLD text
sgt tmp degrees WARM
select colour tmp RED colour
select text tmp TWARM text
sbn LED NNUMBER Mode MCELSIUS
sbn LED NNUMBER Color colour
sbn LED NNUMBER Setting degrees
sbn LED NTEXT Mode MTEXT
sbn LED NTEXT Color colour
sbn LED NTEXT Setting text
j start

nosensor:
sbn LED NTEXT Mode MTEXT
sbn LED NTEXT Color RED
sbn LED NTEXT Setting TMISS
j start

With 296.15 K from the sensor the chip calculates 296.15 − 273.15 = 23. That lies between 18 and 26: the number display reads “23 °C” in green, next to it “OK”.

The define lines with Color., DisplayMode. and STR are allowed because each of them yields a number directly. A define that points to another define, on the other hand, would be NaN.

As for power: two displays at 50 W each plus the housing at 50 W make 150 W.

Consoles and circuit boards#

The Console is a wall-mounted control panel with one slot for a circuit board. Only the board decides what the console does. It is built from the same console kit, a glass sheet goes on in the second step. It draws 50 W. There are three forms:

• Console – one shared port for power and data,
• Console Dual – power and data separate,
• Console Monitor – power and data shared, deeper casing.

Circuit boards come from the Electronics Printer. According to the game data they include Air Control, Airlock, Advanced Airlock, Door Control, Gas Display, Graph Display, Hash Display, Mode Control, Power Control and Solar Control.

Many boards follow the same pattern: the screen lists every device on the console's data network as a button, and you click to link the devices the board should work with. On the airlock board the first door becomes the outer one and the second the inner one; vents, gas sensors and, if you like, warning lamps and speakers are added the same way.

Interesting for logic: the Mode of the inserted board is writable through the slot logic (slot 0, Mode). The hash display, for example, knows the modes Prefab and GasLiquid.

The computer#

The Computer (Modern) is bigger, stands on the floor and draws 200 W. It has two slots for data disks and one slot for a motherboard. As with the console, the inserted part decides the job: with the IC Editor Motherboard you write programs, the Logic Motherboard and the Sorter Motherboard are further options. The logic motherboard is a sequence control without code: you create states, each with conditions (“pressure below 1”) and actions (“open door”), and decide which state follows when all conditions are met – and which one otherwise.

Typical mistakes#

• The display stays dark: check power and On. A display that is switched off shows nothing, whatever is in Setting.
• “293.15 °C”: the Celsius mode does not convert.
• A cryptic number instead of text: Mode is not set to 10 (String).
• The code cannot be saved: more than six characters or non-ASCII letters in STR are an error.
• Every display shows the same: they all share one name. Give each display its own.

Next steps#

• IC10: your first chip – the way to the first program
• Sensors: gas, daylight, motion, occupancy – where the readings come from
• Light and alarm: lamps, flashing light, klaxon – when a value should not just be shown but reported
• Academy: LED displays, constants and namespaces, building a status panel