LCD ideas 4-6"?

TJHJ

So I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas for an LCD screen that might work well with the prop simply.....

So I was thinking of something in the 4-6 inch range, it must be graphical, color or greyscale. Any suggestions? If its a raw screen what driver would you recommend?

One thought I saw was the PSP screen by sparkfun, but I am way out of my league here, I dont even know where to begin, to start making a driver for it( Get a chip? Go Software?)

[url=http:// http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8335] http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8335[/url]

Also mind you cost is an issue, I have found some great color ones for $500-600, but I can afford that, so cheaper is better.

Ideas, suggestions, corrections, and links are always appreciated.

Thank you again,
TJ

Dr_Acula

I haven't found the perfect answer yet either. But in a general sense, it helps to tap into commercial products in some way as that brings the price down. Eg portable DVD players often come with 2 screens, and you can use one of those and use the TV output circuit for a prop to drive that. Small VGA screens don't really exist. But there are a myriad of toys/portable games/mobile phones that all have screens. OLEDs are coming down in price. Colour LCDs are sometimes cheaper than grey scale or black and white ones. There are often 'one off' colour displays for a bargain - but when you go to make a second one the bargain has gone. And then you have to find one that is either TV or VGA or has an onboard micro that uses the standard graphic commands. For many years TVs and computer monitors got bigger and bigger, but suddenly small is cool again. There must be displays from the little notebook laptops that are around. If you are happy with 320x240 or lower there are lots of displays. But up at 640x480 the price goes up a lot.

mctrivia

how high resolution do you want? I have designed and built a 60x14 pixel LED screen. Cost is about $130 fully assembled. It is a grey scale display(well i am using red leds so red scale). About 6 inches wide and 2 tall. Requires 10mA to run though.

TJHJ

Im thinking more in the good graphics resolution, able to display some generic graphics, and text, 320x240 is doable, but 620x480 would be better. if possible.

TJ

Ale

640x240 is doable (I did it!, using the propeller as the controller) The only problem is to get some displays. I used a 640x480 dual scan display (to test) and only used the upper part. Later I modified the driver to use 4 pixels together to reduce the resolution to 320x240. The pixels where really small so this way they looked better and did not used that much memory (It was a 5.6" display). I published a photo and everything.
A driver for a LCD is a piece of cake, once you understand the signals and there are not that many of them. The driver is the least of your problems. Getting a good LCD of a resolution you can handle is the hurdle at a reasonable price. (I got mine in ebay for 1 € each).

Here is the thread with the photo:

www.mikrocontroller.net/topic/100136

Here is the photo:
www.mikrocontroller.net/attachment/36007/SANY0078r.JPG

Rayman

This one's not bad:

http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/3rdPartyHardware/3rdPartyHardware.htm

kwinn

I am a bit surprised and disappointed that some of the older 12.1 inch 640x480 color lcd's used in laptops and monitors have not been re purposed for industrial/commercial display use. The production lines were already set up and running so it should have made a very nice relatively inexpensive display option.

Forrest

Here's a 5.6 LCD monitor with composite video input and 320 x 240 resolution for $37.99 www.bgmicro.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=12900

I've been looking and haven't found any inexpensive 3-6 inch VGA (640 x 480) screens

Rayman

I like that 5.6" LCD!

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Reading the specs, though, the contrast ratio (250:1) and response time (35ms) suggest it's STM instead of TFT. Usually when an LCD is TFT, the seller brags about it. I don't see that here.

-Phil

SRLM

I presume that TFT is better than STM?

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Yes. TFT (thin-film transistor) displays have a separate trsnsistor for each pixel to hold its state. STM (super-twisted nematic) displays are multiplexed. TFT displays are brighter, show more contrast and color saturation, and respond more quickly to changes. Virtually all laptop and computer flat panel displays are TFTs. STMs are still used for LCD character displays, like the 16x2 and 20x4 units that are so common.

-Phil