Quote Originally Posted by irving2008 View Post
Umm.. the first way is correct - the resistor and zener are interchangeable in this diagram, just different ways to drop the volts.

The second is unnecessary as uses two components when one will do. LED doesn't need regulated supply so the zener is unnecessary.
The second provides a solid voltage on the zener regardless of the load, which is different to a standard resistor divider. I'll go with the first one, it's 36p for the Zener vs. 9p for a resistor but as you said before minimum order quantity is 10 (doesn't really matter as I need to go over £5 for the order anyway).

Those 7seg displays are pretty neat considering the voltage range on them. I'll have to stick with a small LED indicator as I'm tight on space as it is.

T.