Hey, everyone. First time posting here, tracking Ben from his highlights on HackADay and continuing on his show.
A question about Episode 5's coverage of the XBox build. What LCD did Ben use to test the XBox build? It looks small enough for many other items, and if it gets video, it's worth trying to hook it up to a Ybox2 from Adafruit.
That said, I do have a challenge. I go to alot of anthropomorphic conventions, and many times you get not only the usual badge (like in anime/sci fi/etc conventions) but also a personalized badge with your known character on it. The problem is, over time, you get a TON of badges. How would you get all of them on one shirt... or even a lab coat (like the Mad Scientist Union lab coats from Pegasus Publishing or Soft Wear and Tees)?
The solution is to make an LCD badge.
The concept is well tested: people have iPhones, iPod touches, or even PSPs hanging off their necks with a slide show of them. Building one is more likely cheaper. I've made a test-of-concept one by combining a 4D Systems OLED screen, a Adafruit Mintyboost, a Sparkfun LiPoly inline charger (although Adafruit has one now), and a 3-cell 6 amp LiPoly battery... but no enclosure. With all the wiring and whatnot, I'm wondering if there's a way of making it simpler.
So, some specs and goals:
- The screen needs to be at least 3.5" to be visible. It can be a QVGA (240x320) screen.
- The battery life must be at least 16 hours (thus my choice of LiPoly).
- It should not need a special app to put images on it. Having it read NetPBM Raw PPM format pictures from a MicroSD card is probably the lowest common denomonator (I did that with my juryrigged setup above). I doubt GIF/JPG/PNG would be a stretch unless we extend it into Embedded Linux territory (gumstik anyone?)
- It should be clippable onto that labcoat pocket or hangable like a regular badge, so it needs a thin enclosure.
Sounds like something Ben could take up?