Displays from printers etc.

Is there anywhere with information about displays in electronic equipment?

For example, I have a Brother DPC585CW printer in which the display works fine but the printer itself has failed. Also I have a DVD recorder and Video recorder which also have LCD displays in them.

If anyone has hacked one of these or for that matter ones taken from any device so it could be used with arduino I think it would be good to have details available to share.

I am not without knowledge of electronics but don't have a great deal of experience with interfacing these.

Any thoughts guys?

A quick search returns nothing useful. These displays are proprietary so I don't expect to find much online. Try something that comes with a data sheet. It's a shame they're probably going to waste.

Yes, that's what I thought. I just wanted to see if we could get something going to use them. I am hoping that someone must know about them and might be willing to provide information. Although proprietary I wonder if they still might communicate via SPI or I2C and it's just pinouts etc which are unusual.
This post http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,133472.0.html makes me think something could be done with them.

Keep the display somewhere. There might be use for it when more information boils upon the forum or elsewhere. I am keeping several things for the same reason :slight_smile:

You just know... the day after you throw it away, someone will write a decent library for exactly that part.

arduino library for the SPI character LCD from a Brother printer:

i think so,the day after you throw it away, someone will write a decent library for exactly that part.thank you

I pulled a text display from a Lexmark copier/scanner/printer and after looking at several types of displays on the internet I noticed that it "looked" very similar to those that used the HD44780-compatible wiring. since it was a "free" display I went ahead and connected it up as per 4-bit connections and tried it out. after a few attempts, it worked great as a second display. it only had 14 connectors (no back light) and I followed the tracings to determine which end was the V+/contrast/Gnd and work the rest out from schematics.

Is there anywhere with information about displays in electronic equipment?

The manufacturers would be the best and least helpful sources for information.

If it is a controller-less, you have a chance to figure it out. Otherwise, throw it away.