I am building a dashboard for my wheel loader. What is a (color) display which works well in the sunlight ?
Also what is the best way to have it water proof ? The machine stands and works outside so rain can come to it 
Probably one with a decent shade over it.
joer00:
I am building a dashboard for my wheel loader. What is a (color) display which works well in the sunlight ?Also what is the best way to have it water proof ? The machine stands and works outside so rain can come to it
What is it you are wanting to display?
there is a good reason most tractors and forklifts still have mechanical gauges, they are visible in sunlight.
you would have to have a really good size shade over the cab of your wheel loader for any LCD display to be visible. It would be far less expensive to put the wheel loader in a shed of some type. a Shed-in-a-box or a-garage-in-a-box type would work. a waterproof tarp would work when you are not using it.
waterproofing the dashboard and allowing the electronics dissipate heat are not something the average person is able to accomplish.
I have a bobcat ct335, a kubota and a bobcat skid loader. they are either in a shed or covered with a water resistant trap.
given the work they do I would not attempt to put an LCD display on any of them. The vibration and just bouncing around would probably kill any LCD display.
Vibration etc is not an issue for the right display, jet fighters are using it which have much more forces than a construction machine.
Also water is no issue if handled correctly as many outside units/machines use screens.
Biggest challenge is indeed the light. However most cars today use screens, even convertibles, so I was hoping someone ones a good brand but I guess I will have to do research myself.
joer00:
Vibration etc is not an issue for the right display, jet fighters are using it which have much more forces than a construction machine.
What do you mean by "it"?
Also, keep in mind that force and vibration are not the same thing.
You have not provided enough information to get any sort of reasonable feedback.
For example you omitted many details like:
Type of display. (numeric 7 segment displays, text only, graphical)
physical size,
If color is required, then do the individual segments/pixels have to colored or can just the background be colored or can the segments (in the case of 7 segment LEDs) be colored?
Temperature range. (min & max)
Some LCD displays can freeze.
Max cost.
Max power available to run it.
Some displays can be very bright but use lots of power. If this is battery powered, power can be an issue.
This is likely to be a case where you need to carefully separate out the true "needs" (requirements) from the "wants' (nice to have).
Then try to pick a display that meets all the needs and as many wants as you can within the budget.
--- bill
If there was colour screen available (at reasonable cost) that was visible in direct sunlight, then you would expect them to be available for modern mobile phones.
But there not, wonder why that could be ?
joer00:
Vibration etc is not an issue for the right display, jet fighters are using it which have much more forces than a construction machine.Also water is no issue if handled correctly as many outside units/machines use screens.
Biggest challenge is indeed the light. However most cars today use screens, even convertibles, so I was hoping someone ones a good brand but I guess I will have to do research myself.
You did not answer two questions asked of you?
My question of "What is it you want to display?"
and bperrybap's questions.
This will boil down to how much Time & Money you are willing to spend on this project.
Outside of the military equipment, I know of no LCD/LED display that is visible in direct sunlight.
It is strictly a matter of Physics. The light coming from the display has to have more Lumens then the sunlight on the screen. It has to be many more Lumens over the sunlight. That type of display would cost serious Money. There is not a big enough demand for such a Display to make it Cost-Effective.
... or a display that uses a combination of reflection and transmission, such as outdoor GPS displays, such as my Garmin eTrex touch 35.
One affordable high brightness display I know of is Good Display : Product Name: 5.6" high brightness LCD Display - GTI056TN52-U
artisticforge:
Outside of the military equipment, I know of no LCD/LED display that is visible in direct sunlight.
It is strictly a matter of Physics. The light coming from the display has to have more Lumens then the sunlight on the screen. It has to be many more Lumens over the sunlight. That type of display would cost serious Money. There is not a big enough demand for such a Display to make it Cost-Effective.
That is assuming a backlit display.
There are other types of displays.
Pixel Qi had some nice displays that did not require a backlight and were not expensive.
For some reason it never took off.
There is also the digital/electronic ink type displays which are used in many e-book readers.
Those are nice in that they don't need a backlight and only user power to change the pixels.
They use zero power to maintain the display.
They are not that expensive and surplus displays are available at low cost.
There are even shields available for Arduino.
However, they are mostly black and white and they are not very fast at changing pixels, so if the display needs to rapidly change often they are not a good option.
However, we still don't know any requirements or which arduino is being used to be able to make any sort of recommendations.
--- bill
bperrybap:
That is assuming a backlit display.
There are other types of displays.
Pixel Qi had some nice displays that did not require a backlight and were not expensive.
For some reason it never took off..
However, we still don't know any requirements or which arduino is being used to be able to make any sort of recommendations.
--- bill
This is true. It would be nice to know any requirements.
Old post - but a new (to me) product. Newhaven has a 4.3 inch sunlight viewable arduino shield - retails for about 85 bucks. I just got one, and took it outside in full sun. Was about 4 times more readable than my 1000 laptop - and I could pretty much read it unless the sun was literally glaring off of it straight into my eyes. A bit pricey compared to most displays, but SO MUCH BETTER.
For others, who might come across here, one keyword is "reflective display".
There is a nice summery about display types here:
And of course, this has been discussed before, e.g. here: Best display for outdoor / sunlight - Displays - Arduino Forum
Oliver