sunlight readable display (higher resolution)

Other Hardware Displays
1

Hey guys,

i'm well into my first ambitious project (I'm new to programing)

I'm building a controller for my boat. it'll handle ipod control, hydrofoil angle, ballast pumps and a few other goodies. The issue i'm having is finding a decent sunlight readable (transflective or reflective) screen that has decent resolution. I'd like a largish display that would be touchscreen friendly (either built in or compatible with the resistive nintendo ds touchscreen -- 2.2 x 2.75")

of course, i can't get anything too advanced since i'm a very rookie programmer, but i would like to have something with a bit higher resolution then what i have now:

i've tried a few others. one had a poor image in a well lit room (washed out) and poor viewing angle:

and the other was a nicer oled screen. but the resolution and screen size was WAY to small.

here is what i have so far in v1.0:

as you may be able to see, refresh rate isn't THAT important to me as i wont have a lot of animating graphics.

The kent display at sparkfun is an option but i'm not that excited about the display:
Kent Display - 240x160x2.9 - LCD-09560 - SparkFun Electronics.

so i'm looking to you guys for some suggestions.

my requirements are:
touchscreen friendly size
sunlight readable
arduino/noob friendly
b/w or color
arduino mega adk compatible

thanks in advance

scott

2

@sunlight readable screen

Give it a sunshade, the pixels are absorbing any light frequency except for their own, this reflected light is far more intense than the pixel illumination and is unavoidable as an illuminated pixel is not the same colour as what is being reflected.

Turning off the backlight may help as the pixels are usually sunken behind a glass screen, I'd assume this would only benefit side pixels.

Check out e-bay, you could probably get 4 different displays to test for the same price as one of the sparkfun displays.

3

that is a good suggestion but not very practical in this application. the screen will be installed in the instrument cluster on a boat. the sun can come in from more angles then; say, in a car where there is a lot of metal blocking light.

4

Maybe invert the colours if you use b/w screen.

Or find a non-shiny/matte clear plastic cover to put on it, probably will look slightly blurred but may reflect less sunlight, or maybe reflect too much...

If mounting on a boat, consider buying a cheap second hand eee-pc or something similar ( small like the 701 ) and connect the arduino to that. Nice huge screen easy to see, mine has a matte finish and is fine in sunlight.

5

checkout newhavendisplay.com, they have a ton of displays and may have something that can meet your needs.

6

pYro_65:
Maybe invert the colours if you use b/w screen.

Or find a non-shiny/matte clear plastic cover to put on it, probably will look slightly blurred but may reflect less sunlight, or maybe reflect too much...

If mounting on a boat, consider buying a cheap second hand eee-pc or something similar ( small like the 701 ) and connect the arduino to that. Nice huge screen easy to see, mine has a matte finish and is fine in sunlight.

thanks again for the suggestion. but I'm trying to stay away from a complicated system (i.e. a computer) My previous version of this project uses a motion computing cl900 tablet running win7. the monitor is viewable in most outdoor situations except for direct sunlight. The interface is awesome and looks great. but it's not as reliable, simple or as instant (i.e. boot time) as the arduino based setup. I appreciate all your input, but i want to try to keep on point of the original question. which is to find a screen that will fit this project. The screen i'm working with now will work... but the resolution is just disappointing/limiting

CrossRoads:
checkout newhavendisplay.com, they have a ton of displays and may have something that can meet your needs.

Thanks for this. they have a few screens with twice the resolution.

this one could work since it uses the S1D13700 controller:

http://www.newhavendisplay.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=21_107&products_id=603
with this:
http://www.newhavendisplay.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=91_120&products_id=2695

i did get the following response from smartgpu:

Dear Scott:

Our SmartGPU has a high resolution LCD display with high brightness, however we think is not at 100% sunlight readable, it's about 80% sunlight readable.

However, the "SmartGPU" is a graphic chip processor, that it is connected to our LCD. So you can design with this processor by now, and later on just connect it to a sunlight readable LCD instead of ours, the Smart GPU is compatible with any 8/16 bit parallel LCD. We don't offer our SmartGPU board connected to a sunlight readable LCD because as you know, cost would increase a lot, and we want to keep it low cost.

Some people has bought the SmartGPU board to develop their application, and later on, they buy us just the Graphics processor chip and they connect it to their custom LCD(bigger size, Sunlight readable, different resolution, etc).

Actually what we sell it's the SmartGPU chip processor and it's technology, but to demostrate the performance and characteristics of it, we offer the SmartGPU development board connected to a normal TFT LCD.

Hope this can help you, feel free to ask us anything else!

Best Regards
David Sullivan

which is promising as well. but i can't find a source for transflective modules that fit that parameter.