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Mobile Phone screens as displays: Suggestions?

sa-penguin

I'm hoping to design something about the size of a mobile phone, using the Sitara or similar processor.

 

Much as I like the BBB, once you put it in a case it's too fat.  I'm hoping to develop something... smaller.  Thinner.

Sacrificing the chunky Ethernet socket helps. Removing the DIP headers and moving to an FPC should allow an LCD panel to "fold out" like a clamshell or mini laptop.

Final project size will be determined by the biggest component: PCD panel.

 

Problem: finding details on the 800x480 WVGA 4.3" screens, as used in mobile phones like the HTC.

 

Has anyone connected on of these to a BBB? Do you have data sheets, code?

Heck, screens that good should become the default of ANY devkit setup. Has anyone had experience that relates?

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  • Hi Alan,

     

    If you want a TFT display, there are a few options, particularly BB-View which is available in two sizes. The displays are detachable I believe but I don't have one to try. They would be the easiest method. If you're looking for reusing a mobile phone type display (which are hard to come by except from places like ebay), then check out Linas's blog posts on the Smarter Life Challenge. I couldn't find them (hope they are not deleted - I just checked and for some reason it says "The specified item was not found" for every week - they had some code to use a HTC display). It was not connected to a BBB but some of the information would be reusable. It requires some power supplies construction and would need some driver work.

    Finally if you don't need to display as much information, there are some nice OLED displays of a lower resolution, just a millimeter or two thick - see this post for a circuit and source code and it a display that is readily available, and quite low cost. I plan to use that display or the BB-View depending on use-case.

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  • Hi Alan,

     

    If you want a TFT display, there are a few options, particularly BB-View which is available in two sizes. The displays are detachable I believe but I don't have one to try. They would be the easiest method. If you're looking for reusing a mobile phone type display (which are hard to come by except from places like ebay), then check out Linas's blog posts on the Smarter Life Challenge. I couldn't find them (hope they are not deleted - I just checked and for some reason it says "The specified item was not found" for every week - they had some code to use a HTC display). It was not connected to a BBB but some of the information would be reusable. It requires some power supplies construction and would need some driver work.

    Finally if you don't need to display as much information, there are some nice OLED displays of a lower resolution, just a millimeter or two thick - see this post for a circuit and source code and it a display that is readily available, and quite low cost. I plan to use that display or the BB-View depending on use-case.

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  • in reply to shabaz

    Linas managed to get a reference on Hackaday.com  and there's a nice video, but links to code seem to be broken. Which is a shame, because the OLED HTC screen is perfect size, with great resolution.

    If the smaller BB-View had the same resolution (800x480) I'd buy it in a flash.

     

    Sadly, my end-use has to show a fair amount of... text. I don't need much colour, but when the pixel count drops characters get "clunky" and hard to read.

    Using 6x8 font, a screen 480 pixels wide gets 80 characters per line. Jump to 800 pixels wide, and you can use an 8x12 font - easier to read.

    Sharp have a memory LCD at 2.7" (400x240) but the larger version has a lower resolution

     

    Oh well, the search continues. Thanks anyway, for your response