I'm not sure what the difference between them is though. I can't quite see what is attached to the touch screen, but I figure it must be for connecting the Arduino using a USB cable. Is this correct?
Also, I know I need a microcontroller so I'm looking at Arduino boards, but which one would be the best to buy for this project?
And in case, I cannot connect the Arduino via USB, then how do I do that? I am aware that I will then need to solder some wires to some of the pins. But I'm not sure what most of the pins on the breakout board do. The ground pin obviously needs to be connect to the ground on a breadboard, and 3.3V and +Vbat are also obvious. But I can't figure out if the rest of the pins also need to have wires soldered to them, or if they are already soldered to something else on the board.
Furthermore I'm not sure what the DIO, SCK and CS pins are for, nor why there are two push buttons soldered to the board. And finally, I figure that the reset pin is for resetting the graphics on the screen, but does that also need to be soldered to something, and if so then what?
It's a lot of questions I know, but I am trying to learn by doing, and I haven't been able to find anything online that could answer those questions in a way that a beginner like myself can understand. So I hope some kind souls in here will be helpful and answer some of my questions.
I don't think either of the products you mentioned have a touch screen, and although you may be able to fit an external touch screen on top, the viewing area is quite small display so you may find using a touch screen awkward.
The breakout board requires a 3.3v power supply so the
LCD shield (09363) is the better choice if you want to use this with a standard 5v arduino and want to avoid soldering. A 'Shield' is a board that plugs into connectors on a standard Arduino without needing soldering.
SparkFun do a graphic LCD with integrated touch screen ( LCD-00257) but its more complicated to connect than the shield and I am not sure there is Arduino code for it.
Do you have an application in mind, that would influence what kind of display was most suitable?
Right you are. I overlooked that neither of those are touch screens. But I also worded my post badly. For the project I have in mind, I will need a 32x32, 64x64 or 128x128 touch screen, but since I have not been able to find those, and because I'm only in an experimenting fase now, those two screens will do. Also, I didn't mean that I wanted to be able to draw on the touch screen using a finger or stylus although I see it could be understood as such, but just with writing some code to make graphics on that screen.
The only influence that the screens would have on my project, is that they must have a small size and the display size must also be small and square. But that's all. It seems that square display sized screens are hard to come by, though.
As for the power supply, I am intending to use a button cell battery in the final project, although I don't know if they can supply 5V. So what Arduino would be recommendable for this? Are there any that run on 3.3V? I'm thinking of buying the Mini since my final project is intended to be rather small (no more than 2") so I don't have to buy 2 Arduinos, but if you think there's one of the other models that are better suited for my experiment, I can always buy that instead.
So if I buy the LCD shield and an Arduino, I won't have to do any soldering at all? I can just use them directly with my breadboard? And is there anything else I will need to buy, except for of course a battery, a mini USB adapter if I buy the Arduino Mini, a voltage regulator if I go with a 5V Arduino and a programming cable?
As for all the pins on the LCD shield, do I need to worry about those? Like I said, I'm not sure which of them are connected to something on the board, and which I will need to solder or connect to the Arduino.
But most of the small square graphic LCDs you will come across need a backlight and these can require a fair amount of current. Perhaps a good choice is one of the displays designed for cell phones. The LCD color breakout fits your requirements for dimensions and it should not be difficult to connect up. But the backlight may require a larger battery than the button cells that you are considering.
Alright, I think I'm getting the hang of this now. It seems I will need to do two different setups. For experimenting I will buy the Arduino Duemilanove (Main Board on Sparkfun) and the LCD shield. For my actual project I will buy the Arduino Mini (Stamp on Sparkfun) and the USB adapter, and I already have the screen by itself.
The good thing about that LCD shield is that it actually had been constructed with backlight and that it uses a clone of the Nokia 6100 screen, so it seems like an even better choice now. Although I suspect it will be hard finding a small touch screen, if the ones made for cell phones are the best choice as you say. Only problem with this is that the USB Mini Adapter and the Arduino Mini seem to need 4 and 5 pin header adapters, which I can't find on Sparkfun, only 6 and 8 pin adapters.
However, I would of course like to save as much money on this as possible. So I'm wondering if there's a version of the Duemilanove that comes without the USB port, but which I can attach the Mini USB adapter to. Also, does the Mini (not the Pro Mini) come in a 3.3V version?
Btw, I also found this 128x128 screen, which seems pretty nice as well, since it seems I can somehow connect it to a PC although I suspect that will be pretty hard for me to figure out how to do. But what do you think of this?
Oh, and also I found out that the reset pin on the Arduino resets the Arduino itself (I guess I should've figured that out from the beginning). So since an Arduino program has a setup and loop method, that means that resetting it will make it run the setup method again, right?
You are looking at a number of different displays, each of these may require very different software to run so my advice to minimize effort and keep costs low is to do some more research so you can pick the right display for your project from the start and focus on getting the hardware and software for that working the way you want.
If a color display and minimum power consumption are primary goals than the OLED display may be a good choice.
I don't think there is a 3.3v version of the mini other than the Pro Mini
Well, for now I'm just experimenting and learning so it doesn't really matter which screen I choose. So I might as well go with the cheapest one, the LCD shield. I have already researched screens quite a bit, but the problem is that I've not been able to find more than those 2 screens that have the qualities I wish. The LCD Shield and the Breakout board both use the same screen, the Nokia 6100 clone, so it doesn't really matter which I choose, as far as the screen goes.
I appreciate your help mem, but there are many of my questions which you have left unanswered. Is this because you simply don't know the answer to them or because by asking them I stand out like a noob? If it's the last so be it, but I'm trying to learn by asking here. Hence why I ask about such things as what the reset pin does. As for the Duemilanove, do you know if it comes in a version without a USB adapter? Or for that matter, if any Arduino board that can be attached to that LCD shield, does?
I enjoy helping but I prefer to answer questions that can't be easily resolved through reading one of the many Arduino tutorials or with a google search.