[Daniel] put together an explanation about the use of 4511 BCD 7-segment drivers. These chips take binary data in and output decimal data to a 7-segment LED display.

[Fran] demonstrates the display running with a CD4511B BCD-to-7-segment decoder, hooked up with a bunch of 3904 power transistors to get the chip working with filament bulbs instead of LEDs.

The visible brightness of an LED display can be continuously varied by applying a pulsed-signal and varying its duty cycle. Usually, almost all 7-segment decoder ICs have a blanking input (RBI) ...