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  • Author Author: fustini
  • Date Created: Date Created
  • Views 4760 views
  • Likes 2 likes
  • Comments 25 comments
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Cheap portable LCD for Raspberry Pi

fustini

I've been wanting a small portable display for the Pi.  Unfortunately, portable HDMI displays are quite expensive, and the DSI connector is not an option currently as far as I know.  Then I realized that there a large number of small composite LCDs available which are intended for use in vehicles for backup rearview cameras.  I bought this inexpensive LCD on Amazon, the 3.5 Inch TFT LCD Monitor for Car / Automobile by kingsmart for $21.48 (my order was sold by ePathDirect and fulfilled by Amazon):

imageimage

It arrived today, and I put the photos I took in a Picasa gallery.  I hooked it up to my bench power supply and simply connected it's yellow connector to the composite output on the Pi.  The monitor displayed the Pi's ouptut ok right at power on, through the boot process and beyond.  As I expected, the resolution is poor, especially for small text, given it is standard definition and connected with composite.  However, I'm intending to use this monitor to display tweets, so I can increase the font size as tweets are only 140 characters.  I think this monitor will also be handy for basic troubleshooting when ssh or serial won't suffice, and I don't want to bother with a regular sized monitor.

 

Anyone have any other ideas for inexpensive displays?

 

Cheers,

Drew

  • in reply to Former Member

    Very interesting David!

    However I do not find an Ipad Appstore app called TightVNC, but one (presumably with the same functionality) called PC Access;

    is this the one you use or can you guide me to the right one, please?

    Also, do you run a client, (and which) on the Rasberry?

    Thanks,

    Henrik

  • I used my IPad to view the Pi with two methods:

    1) Using tightVNC and the tightVNC ipad app.

    2) Plug the Pi into the sling Box and then transmit it to any client running the slingbox client.

  • in reply to GeekTinker

    Yup, I'm a big fan of the lapdock! I wrote another post Raspberry Pi laptop.  I think that unless one's project requires a smaller screen, I'd recommend people not waste money on composite LCDs and get the lapdock (while they can still be bought for cheap!).

  • It's not nearly as small, it does cost a bit more, and you have to hack a few cables, but other threads in this forum have mentioned using the Motorola Atrix 4G Laptop Dock. The upside is that the screen on this device is connected to the Raspberry Pi via HDMI, plus you get a keyboard, a trackpad, and a battery built into it.  I'm sure most people here have seen the youtube video for it from Adafruit.

     

     

  • in reply to fustini

    Thats actully really handy as the leads wired into my screen with female RCA's of each are about 8-10" long so they would easily go from the LCD Monitor to my Pi which sits on it little open side/top stand about an inch from the desk top without even moving anything around. That little coupler would save me having 2 meters of cable wound up between the 2 devices.

    Will have to order a couple.

    Thanks for the heads up, I hadn't even thought of using a coupler in place of the only RCA lead I own.