SparkFun Forums

[mindthomas]

Dear Sparkfun members.

I have been searching the internet for a while looking for a display solution to connect to an MCU but with bigger sizes than 7".
I have previously done LCD/TFT projects using the SSD1963 controller chip from Solomon to drive a 7" display with a resolution of 800x480 pixels.
Though now my requirement in size (NOT NECESSARILY RESOLUTION) have become bigger, so I have been trying hard to find another solution.

I have been working with the following solution ideas but I would like you to comment on them or even come up with other options.

• Get a larger display, 10"-14", but with the same resolution, 800x480, so it would be possible to drive it with the SSD1963
• Find another display controller capable of driving the standard 10"-14" displays with resolutions around 1024x768
• Find a larger display with integrated display controller or with a supported display controller module next to it
• Make our own controller chip using an FPGA and some SRAM for driving the LCD lines directly

What do you think? Please come up with other ideas if possible

Thank you in advance.


Best Regards
Thomas Jespersen

[lvagasi]

Hi Thomas,

I'm not really an expert in the topic, however I have also looked for displays recently.
I found that displays above 7" usually do not have an integrated controller and the resolution is also starts about 1024x600 or above.
If you need such a "large" display I suggest you to think about a bit more powerful platform than Cortex-M3.
I have some experience with Cortex-A8 based solutions directly driving displays with parallel display interface. There are also displays available with LVDS interface.

You might have a look at http://beagleboard.org where you can find boards using TI's Cortex-A8 solutions. The latest board BeagleBone built on TI's Sitara AM335x processor. TI also provides a comprehensive driver library and examples if you do not want to run Linux in your project.
There are also links for different display solutions like this one: http://www.chalk-elec.com/

I think NXP also has released some Cortex-M4 devices recently with integrated display controller, but I did not have a look yet so I'm not sure what kind of devices are there.

Best regards,
Laszlo

[mindthomas]

Hi Thomas,

I'm not really an expert in the topic, however I have also looked for displays recently.
I found that displays above 7" usually do not have an integrated controller and the resolution is also starts about 1024x600 or above.
If you need such a "large" display I suggest you to think about a bit more powerful platform than Cortex-M3.
I have some experience with Cortex-A8 based solutions directly driving displays with parallel display interface. There are also displays available with LVDS interface.

You might have a look at http://beagleboard.org where you can find boards using TI's Cortex-A8 solutions. The latest board BeagleBone built on TI's Sitara AM335x processor. TI also provides a comprehensive driver library and examples if you do not want to run Linux in your project.
There are also links for different display solutions like this one: http://www.chalk-elec.com/

I think NXP also has released some Cortex-M4 devices recently with integrated display controller, but I did not have a look yet so I'm not sure what kind of devices are there.

Best regards,
Laszlo

Hi Laszlo.
Thank you for your suggestions.
We have thought about using some kind of more powerfull processor like the A7 or A8 family, but we thought this would be overkill too. I know we can run them with an OS, but that would be sad for them too, because they are that powerfull and meant to run an OS.

So the best thing would be if we could find some kind of Cortex-M3 or Cortex-M4 device that has an integrated display controller.
What about the LPC1788? Do you guys in here know anything about that? Do you have any experience with it and the built in display controller?

Best Regards
Thomas Jespersen

[rmteo1]

The LPC1788 (and LPC18xx and LPC43xx) feature built-in LCD controllers (for TFT and STN displays up to 1024x768 and up to 24-bit color) with dedicated DMA. These modules are documented in their respective User Manuals. Also, you get a free license to use the excellent Segger Emwin graphics library with these devices.

[mindthomas]

The LPC1788 (and LPC18xx and LPC43xx) feature built-in LCD controllers (for TFT and STN displays up to 1024x768 and up to 24-bit color) with dedicated DMA. These modules are documented in their respective User Manuals. Also, you get a free license to use the excellent Segger Emwin graphics library with these devices.

The problem about using these devices is that there is no actual development boards where the display controller is being used on larger displays. I would like to have some kind of development board that could be connected to a 7" screen or larger, using the built in display controller.
Another issue is that as far as I can read on forums, that the LPC1788 doesn't performs well when the resolution gets higher than 800x600 pixels. But please correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks