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Any advice on small (7" or smaller) VGA monitors for Prop debug use? — Parallax Forums

Any advice on small (7" or smaller) VGA monitors for Prop debug use?

base2designbase2design Posts: 78
edited 2015-03-10 13:12 in Propeller 1
I have a small 7" NTSC LCD monitor with composite inputs but the quality of the text at "high" resolution is pretty bad.

I've seen 7" TFT LCD monitors on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/271384686057) with VGA inputs but don't know if the display will be "crisp" or not.

Any advice from y'all on a small-ish VGA capable monitor that would show text/graphics at 640x480 or greater with decent display quality?

While I know there are other non-VGA options available, in my case VGA is a necessity so I can use with work on other platforms as well.

As always, thanks in advance for the help.

Comments

  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2015-02-28 13:51
    For my projects I imported a pile of OEM 7" bare LCD modules with VGA driver boards a couple of years ago.

    I get a very crisp 800x480 display from them.

    Thanks for the link - that is cheaper than what I paid for the displays in bulk!
    base2design wrote: »
    I have a small 7" NTSC LCD monitor with composite inputs but the quality of the text at "high" resolution is pretty bad.

    I've seen 7" TFT LCD monitors on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/271384686057) with VGA inputs but don't know if the display will be "crisp" or not.

    Any advice from y'all on a small-ish VGA capable monitor that would show text/graphics at 640x480 or greater with decent display quality?

    While I know there are other non-VGA options available, in my case VGA is a necessity so I can use with work on other platforms as well.

    As always, thanks in advance for the help.
  • base2designbase2design Posts: 78
    edited 2015-02-28 13:56
    Good feedback Bill... I'll just order one as a guinea pig and report my experience here.
  • base2designbase2design Posts: 78
    edited 2015-02-28 14:17
    I was looking at my existing 9" monitor... it has an ATSC tuner in it and while the external input is composite, I do wonder if there's already a digital input somewhere on it.

    It's a Sylvania SRT902A that I picked up for less than 80$ a few years ago. Googling this hints that this might be some OEM generic thing with custom silkscreens on the outside.

    Another project for a rainy day to look inside it.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,934
    edited 2015-02-28 15:26
    I bought one of these from Adafruit: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1931

    Has HDMI, VGA, and NTSC so it works for anything on the Propeller as well as my Raspberry PIs. Even though I have had it almost a year, I have yet to lasercut a mount for it so I use it laying in the box.
  • base2designbase2design Posts: 78
    edited 2015-02-28 16:07
    Cool. Higher price and resolution than I'm looking for but good to get your feedback.
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2015-02-28 16:16
    Thanks, it will be interesting to find out how well that display works - it has a great price.
    base2design wrote: »
    Good feedback Bill... I'll just order one as a guinea pig and report my experience here.
  • Bill HenningBill Henning Posts: 6,445
    edited 2015-02-28 16:17
    I recently received a couple of extremely similar 7" display / driver boards, so I am curious how the Adafruit one will do. I'll post about the ones I got after I had a chance to try them.
    WBA Consulting wrote: »
    I bought one of these from Adafruit: http://www.adafruit.com/products/1931

    Has HDMI, VGA, and NTSC so it works for anything on the Propeller as well as my Raspberry PIs. Even though I have had it almost a year, I have yet to lasercut a mount for it so I use it laying in the box.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,451
    edited 2015-02-28 18:45
    For self-contained units that aren't bare circuit boards, the usual sale channel for these little monitors is "headrest displays" meant to be mounted in cars, and you can usually get them locally at car audio outlets. VGA capable units tend to be very expensive though for some reason. The ones we've been using are over $300 each. I suppose the manufacturers don't enjoy the economies of scale that the manufacturers of larger monitors do.
  • Brian FairchildBrian Fairchild Posts: 549
    edited 2015-03-01 00:28
    Has anyone played with any 7" VGA-capable units with a built-in touchscreen?
  • base2designbase2design Posts: 78
    edited 2015-03-01 13:38
    I have not. I suspect there are some folks at Adafruit or their forums who have though. I lurked there after Andrew pointed out their offerings.
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    edited 2015-03-02 00:10
    Brian Fairchild wrote: »
    Has anyone played with any 7" VGA-capable units with a built-in touchscreen?

    I have one here, but they are not especially cheap, and the touch screen seems to default to USB only.
    Even tho Microchip have a part that can do USB or TTL-232 the Chinese seem to chose something else.

    Smartest of all, would be a Touch panel that used i2c over the VGA Pins, but I've yet to see any do that
  • Brian FairchildBrian Fairchild Posts: 549
    edited 2015-03-02 00:37
    A 7" VGA capable display, with a 5-wire resistive touchscreen, can be had on eBay for around 36GBP. They seems to come with a separate PCB for the touchscreen which has USB out but I'm thinking that it didn't ought to be difficult to do a touchscreen controller in a COG.

    So with a P1 driving the VGA display and handling the touchscreen you'd have spare COGs to make an intelligent display running it's own customisable GUI. The advantage over off-the-shelf non-VGA displays it that a lot of the display processing and GUI could be moved from the application processor, which could be anything, onto the display subsystem.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2015-03-02 17:10
    I'd bet someone could hack something like this to make it work: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-7-LED-LCD-Touch-Monitor-Kit-Out-Door-Industrail-Grade-Sunlight-Viewable-/110923590251?
  • blittledblittled Posts: 681
    edited 2015-03-02 18:09
    I have the 7" monitor http://www.ebay.com/itm/271384686057 and the display is pretty crisp and you also get two composite inputs. There is no sound and you need a 12V 1 Amp adapter for it. OBC has more info on this monitor on his website http://propellerpowered.com/forum/index.php?topic=801.msg5534.
  • base2designbase2design Posts: 78
    edited 2015-03-10 11:10
    I just received the VGA monitor from http://www.ebay.com/itm/271384686057 (yes blittled, this is the same one OBC mentioned on his forum back in November... once again proving that everyone else here is at least 4 months ahead of me).

    I don't have it in the same room as my Prop, but a couple of early observations:

    Shipping was from San Jose, UPS Ground. I ordered it on Feb 28 and it arrived Mar 10.
    Packaging was adequate. No box picture here.
    You'll need a male-to-male VGA cable to connect it to anything, as the the VGA cable attached to the monitor is female.
    You'll need a 12VDC power supply. blittled's posting says 1000mA but the ebay site says 500mA. I had a 1500mA and that seems fine. Power goes into the red connector in the cable in my attached picture: center plug is positive, outer sleeve is negative.

    The first picture shows what's in the box, the second is a picture of "Windows Photo Viewer" displaying on the monitor. The picture quality is much better in person than what my phone camera is capable of relaying.

    It might be the weekend before I can connect to the Prop, but I'll post more pictures when I do.

    TFT color monitor 1.jpg


    TFT color monitor 2.jpg
    TFT color monitor 1.jpg
    941 x 711 - 332K
    TFT color monitor 2.jpg
    917 x 649 - 306K
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    edited 2015-03-10 12:40
    base2design wrote: »
    You'll need a male-to-male VGA cable to connect it to anything, as the the VGA cable attached to the monitor is female.

    Or, search eBay for
    15 Pin D-Sub DB15 HD15 VGA Male to Male Gender Changer Adapter Converter
    finds starting at 99c, [ FREE Economy Int'l Shipping] ?!
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2015-03-10 13:12
    Don't know if this has been posted yet:


    http://www.mcmelectronics.com/product/83-15138

    nice price.
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