5.0" 640x480 VGA TFT LCD photo's added (back in stock!)
Bill Henning
Posts: 6,445
I wish to thank everyone who responded to my earlier survey at
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=847577
Almost everyone liked the 5.0" VGA display the best, and I liked the low cost and trivial interface to the 3.5" NTSC displays, so I imported some of each. I also received samples of the 20 pin interface 3.5" displays, but as yet have not had time to write a driver for them.
1) I received the 3.5" NTSC displays a few days ago.
They do a great job of displaying the 40 colum by 30 row colored text, and I will try Chip's graphics demo on them next. I tried the 40x30 text display first, because it is a tougher text of the display.
2) I received the 5.0" VGA displays yesterday, and today I was able to fire them up.
*** THEY ARE AMAZING! ***
I will take some photo's and post them tomorrow, but the Morpheus demo's look great on it!
(I also hooked it up to my Acer Aspire, and it did a great job of displaying Windows as well)
What surprised me was that it did an excellent job of scaling the 800x600 signal, so much so that the tiny text was still crystal clear and very readable. With my 8x12 font, that means 100x50 text on the 800x600 bitmap.
The 8x12 text on the scaled 1024x768 display was not nearly as nice, but the colors from the 256x192 256 color per pixel mode were fantastic.
Now we come to the good news / bad news:
In the survey, I said:
"1) 3.5" TFT with NTSC input, requires 12VDC. I could sell these for $55 USD"
For forum members, I can sell these displays for $50 USD + s/h, on my site they will be listed for $55+s/h.
I have four 3.5" NTSC units available for sale.
I also wrote:
"3) 5.0" TFT with 640x480 VGA and NTSC/PAL input, would get 256 colors with Morpheus. Price would probably be somewhere between $95-$120 USD (no case, 9-12VDC)"
Unfortunately my wire transfer and courier charges were significantly greater than anticipated, and I have to ammortize them over only five units, so I have to charge a bit more than anticipated, $125 USD + s/h for forum members, and $145 USD+s/h on my site. I may only end up barely breaking even with the forum price if DHL sends me a "brokerage fee" invoice.
I have four 5.0" VGA units available for sale, and I think they will go very fast.
If you want to order, email me at my email address below with your full name, address, and forum handle, so I can send you an exact shipping quite.
Approximate shipping for one display to the US would be:
$15 USD for Parcel post, insured, two to three weeks delivery
$25 USD for XpressPost, insured, trackable, 3-4 business days to major centers
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 1/18/2010 8:27:08 PM GMT
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=847577
Almost everyone liked the 5.0" VGA display the best, and I liked the low cost and trivial interface to the 3.5" NTSC displays, so I imported some of each. I also received samples of the 20 pin interface 3.5" displays, but as yet have not had time to write a driver for them.
1) I received the 3.5" NTSC displays a few days ago.
They do a great job of displaying the 40 colum by 30 row colored text, and I will try Chip's graphics demo on them next. I tried the 40x30 text display first, because it is a tougher text of the display.
2) I received the 5.0" VGA displays yesterday, and today I was able to fire them up.
*** THEY ARE AMAZING! ***
I will take some photo's and post them tomorrow, but the Morpheus demo's look great on it!
(I also hooked it up to my Acer Aspire, and it did a great job of displaying Windows as well)
What surprised me was that it did an excellent job of scaling the 800x600 signal, so much so that the tiny text was still crystal clear and very readable. With my 8x12 font, that means 100x50 text on the 800x600 bitmap.
The 8x12 text on the scaled 1024x768 display was not nearly as nice, but the colors from the 256x192 256 color per pixel mode were fantastic.
Now we come to the good news / bad news:
In the survey, I said:
"1) 3.5" TFT with NTSC input, requires 12VDC. I could sell these for $55 USD"
For forum members, I can sell these displays for $50 USD + s/h, on my site they will be listed for $55+s/h.
I have four 3.5" NTSC units available for sale.
I also wrote:
"3) 5.0" TFT with 640x480 VGA and NTSC/PAL input, would get 256 colors with Morpheus. Price would probably be somewhere between $95-$120 USD (no case, 9-12VDC)"
Unfortunately my wire transfer and courier charges were significantly greater than anticipated, and I have to ammortize them over only five units, so I have to charge a bit more than anticipated, $125 USD + s/h for forum members, and $145 USD+s/h on my site. I may only end up barely breaking even with the forum price if DHL sends me a "brokerage fee" invoice.
I have four 5.0" VGA units available for sale, and I think they will go very fast.
If you want to order, email me at my email address below with your full name, address, and forum handle, so I can send you an exact shipping quite.
Approximate shipping for one display to the US would be:
$15 USD for Parcel post, insured, two to three weeks delivery
$25 USD for XpressPost, insured, trackable, 3-4 business days to major centers
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 1/18/2010 8:27:08 PM GMT
Comments
Would the 5.0" accept VGA input from a PC?
This line is ambiguous
5.0" TFT with 640x480 VGA and NTSC/PAL input
i think the "VGA" probably refers to the resolution, not a vga input.
But if its a VGA input I'm interested (may still be interested anyway)
Yes, it accepts VGA input from a PC - I tested it with my Acer Aspire sub-notebook.
The display has a native 640x480 resolution, but it also accepts 800x600 (looks good) and 1024x768 (looks ok). It also has one composite video input.
Thanks,
Bill
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
Here are the rest:
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 11/1/2009 4:38:02 AM GMT
Very nice LCD.
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Nothing is impossible, there are only different degrees of difficulty.
For every stupid question there is at least one intelligent answer.
Don't guess - ask instead.
If you don't ask you won't know.
If your gonna construct something, make it·as simple as·possible yet as versatile as posible.
Sapieha
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
You understand correctly, the 3.5" NTSC ones are $50USD+s/h for forum members.
The 5.0" VGA ones are $125USD+s/h for forum members, and they take VGA and NTSC/PAL inputs. The display consists of a 5.0" LCD panel, an "analog" board that takes NTSC and VGA and converts it for the bare LCD panel, an RCA jack on a cable, a VGA female connector on a cable, and a 2.1mm center power jack. The display will show whichever input is active when powered up (NTSC/PAL or VGA), and it "auto adjusts" to 640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768 resolutions. The "native" resolution of the display is 640x480, but I am surprised by what a good job it does displaying 800x600.
(Sidenote: I wish *I* could buy the VGA ones for $50! I pay a LOT more than that for them, plus courier fees, brokerage and bank wire fees)
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
This is starting to realise the dream of a standalone propeller computer for a reasonable price. Coming at this from a text only consideration (Zicog), 640x480 works out at about 80x25 characters. But then if graphics and color were not much more then it gets very attractive.
What is the perfect sized display for something portable? The best price point at my local computer store is now a 22" display. Gorgeous to look at, but not very portable! At the other end of the scale are 1 to 2" displays, but my eyes start to strain looking at text on those displays (graphics are ok). Hmm - 3.5" might be a little small.
What about the 5" to 8" range. You have a price of $125 for 5". The pictures look fantastic. And they would be a similar size to the morpheus board so it would all fit nicely into a box.
I did a quick search on ebay and found this cgi.ebay.com/ETO-7-CAR-DISPLAY-STAND-ALONE-MONITOR-TFT-LCD-SCREEN_W0QQitemZ270378988121QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item3ef3d7f259 for $84 with free shipping. But it is 16:9. Is there a 16:9 display driver for the prop? Can we go better? I guess it is a matter of tapping into a mass market somehow, and portable DVD players for cars might be one of those markets. And then there is the question of reliable ongoing supplies.
All very interesting!
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www.smarthome.viviti.com/build
Post Edited (Dr_Acula) : 11/2/2009 12:03:37 AM GMT
Actually my driver renders 80x40 with the 8x12 font, and I have just finished 6x8, 8x8, 8x16 and 8x19 fonts
At 640x480 that means:
106x60 characters with 6x8 font
80x60 characters with 8x8 font
80x40 characters with 8x12 font
80x30 characters with 8x16 font
80x25 characters with 8x19 font (which I actually specifically made because of ZiCog)
I will be adding a SetFont() call to my API shortly.
I think the perfect size for a portable display depends on your application
2.5"-5.0" for one-hand holdable devices
5.0"-10" for two hand devices
standard monitors for desktop devices
Thank you for the kind words re/ the pics
Nice find on the Ebay display! That's a great price, but there are some notable differences:
- 7" vs 5" (ebay wins)
- Widescreen vs 4:3 (winner depends on application)
- 480x234 vs 640x480 (ebay loses)
- NTSC/PAL vs VGA AND NTSC/PAL (ebay loses)
- $85USD vs $125USD+s/h (ebay wins) especially at the $145+s/h non-forum price!
- $5 for Ray's used screens - no one can touch that!
But as you said, it is an apples vs. oranges comparison - and there is the matter of the ebay vendor buying a commodity product, versus buying raw panel and driver board from a manufacturers rep, and importing it (with all the hassles that entails).
My take?
The 7" display may be a better choice for a Hydra or gaming, or when only 3 pins are available for generating video.
The 5" display is better when you need VGA, higher resolution, text, and need to sell to industrial clients.
Different markets; different products; different price points. It makes sense.
I know which one I am showing to my consulting clients, and which one they would want [noparse]:)[/noparse]
FYI:
Digikey.com, the cheapest 640x480 display around 5" (actually 6.5") I could find, for a bare panel - no VGA input - is $244.11 USD
http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=73-1333-ND
Newark.com, 5.0" LCD similar to mine, with analog board is $403.37USD+s/h (3.8" one is $304.94)
http://www.newark.com/interfan/050vl-led-kit/lcd-module-kit/dp/01N4691?Ntt=AND050
25.5" Acer LCD monitor, 1920X1200 20000:1 2MS VGA DVI HDMI Speakers $319.99 CAD!!!! (I'm drooling)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=39129&vpn=VW266H&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1215
I am considering importing 7" displays later, again with an analog board taking VGA and NTSC/PAL, optional touch screen.
800x480 resolution - however I'd have to charge close to $200 for those without touch panel, so I am not sure its worth it for me to bring in - I have to order at least five, and I don't want them sitting on the shelf forever. I can also get 8", 10.4" etc... but the prices go up - a LOT.
Best Regards,
Bill
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
Just pondering your fonts, 6x8 (which I think is really 5x7 plus the extra pixel as the gap between each letter, is that right?) will fit a lot of characters in 640 wide. Hmm, even at 320 pixels wide you get 53 characters. That might be wide enough for a text editor/word processor. Ah, but then there are the dropdowns like g and p and q. What is the minimum size to fit those - is it 6x10? (ie 5x9 plus the gap pixel). Does this exist as a font? If it does, then the height is what sets the number of rows, so 480/10 = 48 rows. That is more than enough!
320x240 (QVGA?) with a 6x10 font is 53 characters wide and 24 high. Actually, that might be enough for a text editor. Just brainstorming here and going off on a tangent thinking about the minimum portable propeller system that you can write code on and compile code on itself...
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www.smarthome.viviti.com/build
Post Edited (Dr_Acula) : 11/2/2009 2:19:36 AM GMT
The reason I built the 6x8 font - with 5x7 normal characters, and descenders can use the 8th row as lowercase text rarely uses the upper row - was precisely for having a lot of text at 320x240, 512x384 and 640x480! My 6x8 font has descenders (dropdowns) for jpqy
Thank you... I did a lot of research (and hunting) before settling on this 5" VGA display [noparse]:)[/noparse] I wanted something that will blow my industrial clients away.
I have a nice little 320x240 3.5" display with a ~12 wire interface and on-board memory supporting 320x240 @ 18 bit color that I will be evaluating as soon as I have some time to write drivers... if I find them "up to snuff" I should be able to sell them for around $55USD+s/h, which is significantly less than the 5" display.
Now that I think of it... was not the old Kaypro luggable 52x24 or so in its text mode?
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
In my opinion, 5" is ideal for a portable VGA and is around the same size as the pcb, so it works out well.
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Links to other interesting threads:
· Home of the MultiBladeProps: TriBlade,·RamBlade,·SixBlade, website
· Single Board Computer:·3 Propeller ICs·and a·TriBladeProp board (ZiCog Z80 Emulator)
· Prop Tools under Development or Completed (Index)
· Emulators: CPUs Z80 etc; Micros Altair etc;· Terminals·VT100 etc; (Index) ZiCog (Z80) , MoCog (6809)
· Search the Propeller forums·(uses advanced Google search)
My cruising website is: ·www.bluemagic.biz·· MultiBladeProp is: www.bluemagic.biz/cluso.htm
I have a feeling that ebay search doesn't always find everything, so instead of keywords I went into computers/monitors/lcd only and then searched on price+shipping. Some interesting things come up if you don't put any restrictions on the size, and some of the smaller ones seem more expensive than bigger ones. Then limit the search to 'new' rather than second hand 'one-offs'.
This looks interesting cgi.ebay.com/New-3-5-Inch-2-CH-Video-Input-Digital-TFT-LCD-Monitor63_W0QQitemZ200400966284QQcmdZViewItemQQptZComputer_Monitors?hash=item2ea8d4128c. TV rather than VGA (is VGA crisper?) $31 with free shipping for 480x234. Back to searching...
Addit: I just bought one - time to do some testing!
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www.smarthome.viviti.com/build
Post Edited (Dr_Acula) : 11/2/2009 2:59:20 AM GMT
Thanks! Pretty much what I though when I found it!
Dr_Acula:
Another good find... and cheaper than I can supply an NTSC 3.5" screen - however I should note that it is likely that it is only a 160x234 screen, as they are probably counting the R, G and B stripes separately. I ran into that issue when researching LCD's - I had to dig deep into the data sheets to realize some people were quoting RGB triples as individual pixels. I will find out, I just ordered one for testing!
The 3.5" NTSC screen I sell for $50 does a great job of displaying 40x30 text - therefore it must be 320x240 (960x240 in RGB stripes) - and I plan to try it with the 6x8 font
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
640 x 480 on a 5" display does a pretty good job with graphics and sharp, easy to read fonts.
Russ
I posted some shots of the display showing the 256 color per pixel 256x192 Morpheus XGA video mode in my other thread.
See http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=818362
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
- ONLY TWO 5.0" VGA displays left...
- I got a couple of simple "service button panels" with my order; they won't sell me as many as the number of displays I buy, however they are very easy to reverse engineer, consisting only of three wires, five momentary normally open buttons, and looks like six resistors. I will be publishing a schematic of it on my site in about a week.
- The service button panel provides: Video/VGA switch, Standby switch, horiz position, vert position, "auto" setup
I think the reason they don't provide it for every display is two fold:
- it is an "OEM" display meant to be integrated into equipment
- the horiz/vert adjustments are minimal
- the display appears to auto-setup on powerup
- the active video source is automatically selected
Regardless, for the benefit of my customers I will reverse-engineer it and post a schematic
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
I've received the little ebay display and will test it tomorrow
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
The first round of 5.0" TFT with 640x480 VGA and NTSC/PAL input are now all spoken for!
I can still sell them at $125 USD + s/h for forum members, and $145 USD+s/h on my site.
A touch panel (sized for the display), including a serial controller, is available for an additional $40 for forum members, and $50 on my site. I think the s/h can cover the extra weight.
I can probably get the touch panels (resistive, 4 wire) for less without the controller - but I'd have to check.
If you want to order, email me at my email address below with your full name, address, and forum handle, so I can send you an exact shipping quote.
If I can get at least eight (paid) pre-orders, I can knock the price of the display down to $117 USD + s/h for forum members (as my costs go down) and as I am willing to stock 2 displays.
Please do realize that it would take 4-5 weeks to receive your displays after ordering them, as they have to get here on the proverbial "slow boat from china", then go through two sets of customs. I could get them faster, but the cost would go up too much.
Approximate shipping for one display to the US would be:
$16 USD for Parcel post, insured, two to three weeks delivery
$26 USD for XpressPost, insured, trackable, 3-4 business days to major centers
(I had to bump the shipping $1 to pay for the extra insurance - otherwise shipment would be under insured)
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www.mikronauts.com Please use mikronauts _at_ gmail _dot_ com to contact me off-forum, my PM is almost totally full
Morpheusdual Prop SBC w/ 512KB kit $119.95, Mem+2MB memory IO board kit $89.95, both kits $189.95
Propteus and Proteus for Propeller prototyping 6.250MHz custom Crystals run Propellers at 100MHz
Las - Large model assembler for the Propeller Largos - a feature full nano operating system for the Propeller
Post Edited (Bill Henning) : 11/25/2009 9:09:21 PM GMT