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Looking for a small display recommendation

colporteur

Does any member have a recommendation for a small display that is appropriate for scrolling from right to left?

After an hour culling the adafruit website with few returns, I have come to the E14 community hopefully to get a recommendation. I've been asked to build a two signs, one that scrolls "Welcome to Snow Island"  and the other "Thank you for Visiting Snow" Island. The signs will be positioned on top of a bridge on an HO scale model railroad layout.

I had hoped to use a MAX7219 Dot led Matrix MCU 8x32 but it is way to large for the foot print I have to work with. The bridge has a large flat surface about 4X4 inches to hold the sign.

Like any model railroad project cost is a factor. I don't have a big budget. I'm hoping to combine the display with an Nano Arduino to simulate a continuous text scrolling road sign to message visitors.

If your suggestions could contain the source for the part that would be great.

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  • Lots of options!

    In the category of cheap and easy displays, this display uses 6 wires to a Pico, and there is CircuitPython lcd_printtext("") function to display any text message, up to 10 characters at a time.

    It's a reasonable price, about $5. Only available at AliExpress, I've not found another source for these displays. The AliExpress search term is DM8BA10 

    The module size is 3.6" by 1". Additional displays (in case say two rows of text were needed, or displays on both side of the board) just need one extra pin on the Pico (the chip-select pin), all other pins are commoned up.

    It only comes with a blue backlight, no other options. It is viewable with the backlight off too if desired. It has a retro look, I don't know if that suits a model train environment or not.

    Some more info here, including wiring diagram and link to the CircuitPython code:  Pi Pico Display and Rotary Encoder 

    I once saw a large Lego city (it was being used to demonstrate a Smart City), where the creators needed signposts too, and they used the 16x2 LCD screens with a border created with Lego bricks. So even something as simple as a normal 16x2 display can look pretty good if it's about the right scale.

    One possible advantage of using a Pico versus the Nano that you mention, is that in future the code could be modified to accept the message to be displayed from a phone (WiFi or Bluetooth) with no extra parts needed, since the Pico comes in a Wireless version. 

  • in reply to shabaz

    Did someone say retro look ?

    How about these Lite-On LTP-305 LED matrices:

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/led-module-pair

  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Just saw these, look quite nice, just under 3.7" wide, available in many colors, and very cheap! 

    However they either work for the use-case, or don't, since the behaviour of them is only configurable to a degree (e.g. if the message needs to be changed based on train positions or something, then that's not directly possible), since it's a ready-made product with likely no easy way to adapt it. Still, at this price it could be worth experimenting with, if someone had time on their hands. It would need some modification to power it from an external supply, etc.

    image

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  • in reply to beacon_dave

    Just saw these, look quite nice, just under 3.7" wide, available in many colors, and very cheap! 

    However they either work for the use-case, or don't, since the behaviour of them is only configurable to a degree (e.g. if the message needs to be changed based on train positions or something, then that's not directly possible), since it's a ready-made product with likely no easy way to adapt it. Still, at this price it could be worth experimenting with, if someone had time on their hands. It would need some modification to power it from an external supply, etc.

    image

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