# Source: https://learn.adafruit.com/delorean-time-circuit/background.md

# DeLorean Time Circuit

## Background

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/001/305/medium800/lcds___displays_Finished.jpg?1396770847)

Getting the big question right out of the way: no, we&nbsp;_won’t_&nbsp;be selling these. Legally, we&nbsp;_can’t,_&nbsp;for trademark reasons.&nbsp;But it’s generally okay for anyone to create replica props&nbsp;_for their own personal use_, so we hope this writeup will inspire some cool projects among our customers…

![](https://cdn-learn.adafruit.com/assets/assets/000/001/306/medium800/lcds___displays_Display.jpg?1396770853)

From the moment&nbsp;[these](http://www.adafruit.com/products/878)&nbsp;[LED](http://www.adafruit.com/products/880)&nbsp;[displays](http://www.adafruit.com/products/879)&nbsp;made an appearance on our weekly&nbsp;[Ask an Engineer](http://www.adafruit.com/chat/)&nbsp;show, comparisons were being made to the DeLorean&nbsp;time circuit from the&nbsp;_Back to the Future_&nbsp;films. It was a moral imperative then to make a demo! If you’re handy with Arduino and some shop tools, you should be able to pull off something similar (better, even), or adapt the ideas&nbsp;to other projects.&nbsp;This was quickly built in fun, so please don’t expect the same level of polish as a finished product tutorial.

- [Next Page](https://learn.adafruit.com/delorean-time-circuit/design-liberties.md)

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What's better than a single LED? Lots of LEDs! A fun way to make a small display is to use an [8x8 matrix](https://www.adafruit.com/category/37_88) or a [4-digit 7-segment display](https://www.adafruit.com/category/37_103). Matrices like these are...

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What's better than a single LED? Lots of LEDs! A fun way to make a small display is to use an [8x8 matrix](https://www.adafruit.com/category/37_88) or a [4-digit 7-segment display](https://www.adafruit.com/category/37_103). Matrices like these are...

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