I have two LCD shields for the Arduino. A 2x16 and a Nokia 3310. Both work as they should. However what I am searching for is something similar to the Nokia 3310 but bigger. Not higher resolution, just bigger.
Preferably as a shield but I would take any display. So the requirements are basically:
roughly 7x14 characters,, graphics OK but not really needed
6 lines or 8 lines would be OK as well, 12-16 characters would be OK as well
monochrome sufficient, color acceptable
somewhat bigger than 3310, roughly 30-60% in each direction
relatively simple to connect with Arduino, shield prefered
Theres a 204 version (not quite 6 lines ) of the 162 HD44780 compatible LCD generally available. Uses the same interface and library as its smaller sibling. Wouldn't be too difficult to make the backlight software controlled. Don't know of a shield using it. It fits the common, cheap,bigger and simple categorys.
You can always look into getting something like the 6610, you can fit the text to your own size, color, boxes, all kinds of uber shit!
I'm using it right now, really simple to hook up and they have an example sketch to go with it. You can control the contrast, and brightness with code, sending the various commands.
It cost $40 after shipping, but well worth it if you want an uber color LCD!
Found it even cheaper on Ebay. Would fit, but the graphics give me a little concern. How fast can I update the display? That is how much time does it take to refresh the screen and/or to scroll everything one line up? Do you have any experience with this display? Is it feasible to reach update times below 0.1 or even 0.05s ?
Well you can find it cheaper on EBAY, but you need to keep in mind, the one I pointed out is able to use 3.3v or 5v without the need for a voltage booster.
Most of the LCDs you'll purchase from EBAY using the 6610, require some external components to boost the 5v up to 7v for the backlight, or 3.3v to 7v. Not extremely hard.. but kind of a hassle if you're looking to get it done quick.
It's the same LCD they use in some of the just-getting-out-of-the-market cell-phones. So it's video-capable, can do very nice pictures.. but that's all going to depend on the board you're putting it on.
I'm not really sure about the update rate.. I've used it updating every time the program loops without any issues. I've used the LCD for quite a few simple projects, but the bad thing about the library for it, is you've got to put in the line for every line of text. It doesn't move to the next row automatically when it fills up.
I'm sure somebody could write some code to do just that, but a bit out of my league!
But .1 ms is feasible I believe, whatever the loop time is for a normal loop just updating a potentiometer value and printing it to the screen.
I'm not sure why they had problems getting the right color.. all my colors were perfect as soon as I uploaded the code. I'm just stuck with making the text bigger, and using Arrays to show Pictures.. but first things first.
By now I found what I want. Just if somebody is curious: http://www.crystalfontz.com/. They have a really wide variety. I will order one of the 128*64 monochrome displays
It is not a shield but by now I have a Boarduino, so this is acceptable. Speed of the benchmark is about 5 FPS. Not really great (I would have prefered >10FPS) but sufficient.
However it uses up a lot of pins. Seems I will have to order a Sanguino or to design my own Sanguino clone to fix this
) of the 162 HD44780 compatible LCD generally available. Uses the same interface and library as its smaller sibling. Wouldn't be too difficult to make the backlight software controlled. Don't know of a shield using it. It fits the common, cheap,bigger and simple categorys.