Arduino with rotary encoder and 7 segment display

This topic shows how to connect Arduino UNO with rotary encoder and 7-segment display. Here the rotary encoder is an input device and the 7-segment display is an output device.
The 7-segment display prints the values of the rotary encoder (positive or negative) on 4 digits where the first digit (most left) is used for the minus sign ( -).

To see how to connect Arduino with 7-segment display visit the following post:
Interfacing Arduino with 7-segment display | 4-Digit counter example

To see how the rotary encoder works and how to interface it with Arduino in order to control a DC motor speed, take a look at the project below:
DC Motor control with rotary encoder and Arduino

Parts Required:

  • Arduino UNO board   —> ATmega328P datasheet
  • 4-Digit common anode 7-segment display
  • 4 x PNP transistor (2SA10152S90152N3906 …)
  • Rotary encoder
  • 7 x 100 ohm resistor
  • 4 x 4.7k ohm resistor
  • Breadboard
  • Jumper wires

Arduino UNO with rotary encoder and 7 segment display

Arduino with rotary encoder and 7-segment display circuit:
The image below shows example circuit schematic diagram.

Arduino with rotary encoder and 7 segment display

The rotary encoder board has 5 pins: GND, + , SW, DT (pin B or data pin) and CLK (pin A or clock pin) where:
GND is connected to Arduino GND pin
+ is connected to Arduino 5V pin
SW is push button pin, not used in this example
DT is connected to Arduino analog pin 5 (A5)
CLK is connected to Arduino analog pin 4 (A4)

The 4 transistors are of the same type (PNP).

Arduino with rotary encoder and 7 segment display code:
The Arduino code below doesn’t use any library for the 7-segment display.

The rotary encoder pin A (CLK) and pin B (DT) are connected to Arduino UNO pins A4 and A5 respectively. Both pins can be used to interrupt the Arduino microcontroller (ATmega328P) whenever there is a change in the state of at least one pin. The following lines are used to enable interrupt-on-change for pins A4 (PCINT12) and A5 (PCINT13):

Since the 4 digits are multiplexed we need to refresh the display very quickly (display one digit at a time, others are off). For that I used Timer1 module interrupt with the following configuration:

With the above configuration Timer1 module overflows every 4096 microseconds (4096 = 65536/16).

Note that Timer1 module is 16-bit timer, prescaler = 1 (TCCR1B = 1) and Arduino UNO clock = 16MHz.

Full Arduino code:

The following small video shows a test circuit of this project:


Discover more from Simple Circuit

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

3 thoughts on “Arduino with rotary encoder and 7 segment display”

  1. Daniel Fernandes

    I didn’t get the answer to one question and I’m already asking another: How do I make the colon blink?

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Scroll to Top