Controller chips for LCDs?

[Rajiv Ghanta]

As part of a home project, I would like to add an LCD screen. The
larger the screen, the better. The cheaper the screen, the better. My
friend pointed me to http://www.timeline-inc.com. I was taken aback by
the price of some of the larger LCDs listed on that website (640 x 480
LCD, Color LCD - Single Scan, etc.). I figured they were being sold
for those prices because they weren't being sold with the controller.
Am I right, or am I totally off? Where could I find the controller
chips for these LCDs? Or better yet, where can I get a cheap large LCD
with a controller chip?

Thanks,

Rajiv

 

[Electric dabbler]

As part of a home project, I would like to add an LCD screen. The
larger the screen, the better. The cheaper the screen, the better. My
friend pointed me to http://www.timeline-inc.com. I was taken aback by
the price of some of the larger LCDs listed on that website (640 x 480
LCD, Color LCD - Single Scan, etc.). I figured they were being sold
for those prices because they weren't being sold with the controller.
Am I right, or am I totally off? Where could I find the controller
chips for these LCDs? Or better yet, where can I get a cheap large LCD
with a controller chip?

Thanks,

Rajiv

Hello Rajiv,

Some of these LCD's appear to have been intended for laptop computers, given
the resolution and size these would probably have some sort of parallel
interface, needing some timing signals and video data - between 4 - 8 bits
per colour. 'Driver chips' may not may not be such an easy thing to find as
they would have been driven by the VGA chipset on a laptop motherboard, if
you could get the chip loose and wire it up you would have only ended up
creating a VGA card & screen. It might be possible to 'roll your own' using
an FPGA and interesting hint at that can be found here:
http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/ektapro.html

Another point to note is that these screens may not come with any backlight
inverter so you would need to obtain one that matched the CCFL on the panel.
It might be easier and cheaper to buy an old 386, 486 laptop, then you will
have a working system on which to experiment and emulate the necessary
signals for the LCD. Avoid newer laptops as the LCD is likely to have an
LVDS interface making it more difficult to interface form a hobbyist point
of view.

hope this helps,

Philip

 

[Don McKenzie]

As part of a home project, I would like to add an LCD screen. The
larger the screen, the better. The cheaper the screen, the better. My
friend pointed me to http://www.timeline-inc.com. I was taken aback by
the price of some of the larger LCDs listed on that website (640 x 480
LCD, Color LCD - Single Scan, etc.). I figured they were being sold
for those prices because they weren't being sold with the controller.
Am I right, or am I totally off? Where could I find the controller
chips for these LCDs? Or better yet, where can I get a cheap large LCD
with a controller chip?

Thanks,

Rajiv

http://www.dontronics.com/micro-lcd.html
http://www.dontronics.com/micro-vga.html
may give you some alternatives

Don...


--
Don McKenzie
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/e-mail.html

Micro,TTL,USB to 1.5" color LCD http://www.dontronics.com/micro-lcd.html
USB,RS232 or TTL to VGA Monitor http://www.dontronics.com/micro-vga.html
World's smallest USB 2 TTL Conv http://www.dontronics.com/micro-usb.html

 

[Rajiv Ghanta]

Philip,

Thanks for the info, and the awesome link. It looks like I'm way in
over my head. So let me ask you this (or anyone else who is reading
this) - what's the easiest way for me to add a graphics LCD (however
large or small, and hopefully cheap) to my project? My only experience
working with LCDs is those easy-to-use character LCDs, controlled by
Hitachi's HD44780 controller. I would really like to add a screen that
can handle graphics to my home project.

Thanks again,

Rajiv

 

[[email protected]]

As part of a home project, I would like to add an LCD screen. The
larger the screen, the better. The cheaper the screen, the better. My
friend pointed me to http://www.timeline-inc.com. I was taken aback by
the price of some of the larger LCDs listed on that website (640 x 480
LCD, Color LCD - Single Scan, etc.). I figured they were being sold
for those prices because they weren't being sold with the controller.
Am I right, or am I totally off? Where could I find the controller
chips for these LCDs? Or better yet, where can I get a cheap large LCD
with a controller chip?

Thanks,

Rajiv

Check out Farnell: www.farnell.com

They stock several graphical LCDs designed for use by microcontrollers,
meaning non-VGA. They have embedded controllers similar to the Hitachi
alphanumeric controllers and just as poorly documented in most cases
;-)

Farnell typically overcharge by 50% but they should be the place where
you first look for stuff. In the previous company I worked with there
was a saying when it comes to electronics components: if it's not
available at Farnell, it's not off-the-shelf, it must be custom.

Also, you must locate one physically since they don't do deliveries
unless you are a regular customer or a company.

 

[[email protected]]

www.azdisplays.com or look for some at www.digi-key.com