Arduino and 256(min) color display

Hello,
I want to create a color information display using the arduino.
The specific is that I want a big image background and other small pictures to represent a band, for example water.
Arduino Is capable of this? What screen do I need? If I dismantled one of these Chinese navigation, can I use its screen?

Arduino Is capable of this?

Possibly not. It has very little memory so the amount it can display is very limited. You need a display that has it's own memory, even then it is probably more limited than you think.

There are some tiny OLED displays that sport a controller and memory. They will accept serial commands for drawing character or geometric elements, also BMP like bit patters. You might use an SD card to read these image patters and push them on that screen. That is slow but feasible.

However those displays are not cheap by itself, and contain a microcontroller a little bit more powerful than an Arduino. And they are still tiny...

Try one of the 4dsystems (4D Systems – Making Human Intelligence Smarter) displays, they look very easy to control with serial commands or alternatively you can program the on-board controller using their native language in which case you don't even need an Arduino.

I am quite astonished that they are closer to $50 than to $100. Although they say: "Arduino software is under development", it is not difiicult to DIY. Note the integrated SD card!
http://shop.4dsystems.com.au/44-arduino-shields

Note the integrated SD card!

Yeah, you can blat a graphic from SD to screen I think. I'll be getting one soon to play with.

You can blat a graphic from SD to screen. Even faster than sending it to the screen directly by serial.

The µOLED-160-G1 with serial firmware i have is very easy to work with. Even i managed to make it work. :slight_smile: Note on the sd-card interfave. There are no FAT filesystem commands. That could be made to work with one of the filesystem libraries.

Jeroen

edit: I personally would not get the shield. It looks nice but i don't like the way it is wired and there are missing parts for sound.