SparkFun Forums

[robodude666]

Hey guys,

I been trying to pick out an LCD and the uLCD (and ezlcd but that one is TOO expensive) has caught my attention. The uLCD, or microLCD, has a bunch of neat features and has 1MB of flash which can be used to store images. It also has a lot of wonderful abilities (such as draw line, box, dot, draw image, animate images, etc). However, the LCD costs about $76 and is a bit expensive.

I was wondering if anyone knows of any LCDs that are similar but not as expensive. My current requirements are:
Less than 1.6" in height
Less than 4" in width
Color & Graphic
Touchscreen is a plus
Can be controlled by a micro w/ Rx/Tx communication or I2C (Planning to use a PIC18F series micro)

I saw the 20$ Sony LCD but that one is rather big. Do the OLED and knock-off LCDs SF carry have similar abilities?

After looking at pictures of the uLCD-OLED it seems to me it uses the same OLED screen as the one sold by SF. Is it just me or is it true?

Also, as far as I understand all you need for a "smart" LCD is an LCD, a LCD driver which takes incoming commands and does whatever with them to generate the picture on the screen and some memory to save images onto. Is this correct? How hard would it be to make your own?

Thanks in advance,
-roboude666

[KamPutty]

You know, writing the support for line drawings, boxes, images etc. are not that bad to write. If you can draw a single pixel in any color, then with that you can make lines, boxes,images etc.

As you learn more about the processor you can stubb out you're own code with the "correct" way of doing it , whatever that means. It comes down to the build vs. buy decision. Do I build it or should I buy it...if it comes down to cost, build the thing, I'd guess the cost of a larger PIC (memory wise) is still cheaper then a smarter display.

~Kam (^8*

[robodude666]

Yea, I know what you mean. Thanks for the reply and help over email. I decided to get the OLED from SF and their carrier board. Then after I get my functions sorted out I will build a custom, smaller carrier board. I will probably get a 1MB EEPROM to use for storing images.