AVR-Chat

Chris,

does it really need to be a LED display ?
Noritake makes a line of VFD displays, that
need all your requirements, bit maybe more
expensive...

>- Alphanumeric display

Yes.

>- low power ideally rated 1A or below

Close to that; i measured just below 1 A at 5V.

>- large enough to be easily read from 10feet

With character sizes up to 30 mm, no problem.

>- Practical to interface to an AVR

Those are very similar to LCD modules in the
way they are connected to the MCU.

>- rugged design for land vehicle installation

I have seen VFD´s as main instrument panels in
some recent european vehicles, namely made by
Renault, and also on some older (end-80´s) Audis.

HTH
-Michael

Manufaturer´s homepage:
http://www.noritake-itron.jp/english/e_top.htm
(i have used the Gu800 Series module named
"GU256X32-800A")