I would like to monitor several switch states as well as some other senors and have that displayed onto a display.
Because I am also looking at monitoring other sensors and would like to see that as a graph or gauge I'm guessing i need a TFT, LCD, or full color OLED ??
I see that 4D and Newhaven both offer a bundle solution for Arduino. And also offer customized software to configure your display.
Is that a good route?
And what code examples would help me get started?
Ultimately I want to see text or words with a color option to show the state of a variety of switches and some custom bar graphs.
Maybe I should also note that sunlight readable is pretty high on the property.
Thanks for any help or guidance
Joe
Only you can determine what is best for your needs. There is a swag of screens available on ebay for Arduino. The one pictured is typical and is fine for graphic and text, using a standard library. The only criterion was that it must be sensibly configured for updating every second for six minutes, i.e. 360 hence the 400 x 240 display.
It rather depends on what you mean by sunlight, but the best performer in direct sun is probably the Nokia 5110. I guess anything else is likely to need some sort of shade over it.
Which screen is that pictured?
It is a screen+shield for Mega from Cold Tears, 3.2" 16:9 400x240. It is a few years old and I don't think it is still available, but there are plenty of others just like it, and probably better. Note that the shield is sold separately, and this is typical. Don't even think of getting a screen like this until you are certain about how it is installed. The best way of ensuring this is by getting a shield specifically designed for it from the same supplier. As I said, the only thing that counted was the horizontal pixels.
From what I have read OLED would also offer the highest contrast ratio as well?
For a someone with not a lot of experience, would something like the 4D screen be a good choice?
http://www.4dsystems.com.au/product/uLCD_35DT_AR/
This one is for an LCD, but there must be a kit for an OLED as well... this is just one example.
j_dunavin:
From what I have read OLED would also offer the highest contrast ratio as well?
I believe this is correct, but I have never used one and don't know anything about them. The choice is very limited but I guess that is improving all the time.
For a someone with not a lot of experience, would something like the 4D screen be a good choice?
I had never heard of 4D but, with the eye-watering prices, and a six-page specification that tells you nothing more than the supply voltage, I would say it is a very bad choice, and just stuff for rich suckers.