tiny serial LCDs

[evandude]

I am just wondering how much interest there would be in tiny (1 inch by 1.5 inch, 2 line, 8 character) serial LCDs.

so... how many people might be interested in these if i ever did it? and how much would you be willing to pay?

This isn't a sales pitch, i'm just probing for a market so i know whether or not it's a good idea to go spending the money to buy a bunch of the LCDs. just don't want to get stuck with a ton of LCDs and a bunch of debt :?

they would use inverted polarity TTL signals, which means they could be used directly with a MAX232 or a PIC.

thanks in advance...

 

[jrz126]

not much interest I guess, If you did buy them, I'm sure you could pawn them off on ebay and recover the funds.

 

[evandude]

yeah, that's what i'm figuring. Oh well. Seems to me like the PERFECT way to debug a program on a PIC, having it output relevant info to the LCD with very little code overhead... definitely wish i'd had these a year ago during some of my more frustrating programming experiences :wink:

 

[jrz126]

Well If you did have some and the price was right, I'd take one off your hands. never know when I might be able to use it. I'm working on a project right now that I could probably use it on since it has very low i/o requirements

 

[evandude]

well i was thinking somewhere in the realm of $15 each... possibly less (maybe as low as $10?)

it depends entirely on how much effort it takes me to make each one. I'm working on new ways all the time to streamline my board etching process. I've got a new etching chemical and a bubble tank setup that I have to try out. if it works well then my cost per display is likely to be lower. I guess I will know either tonight or tomorrow, as i plan to etch up a board since my first 2 LCDs came in.

 

[evandude]

**broken link removed**
etched up the first board today. still have to solder on the SMD PIC and try it out, but figured these were good shots to show the overall size.

bottom scale on ruler in pics is metric; the unit is 4cm wide, 3cm tall (board only, 3.5cm with mounting tabs) and a little over 1cm thick with the serial board on there.

 

[jrz126]

Wow, those look pretty cool, I thought they were 4 inches wide, but I reread it and they are 4cm :shock: . Do they have any sort of backlight on them? Also, is that just a standard 14 pin LCD that you are converting to serial? How much could you let one of them go for without the serial conversion?


On a side note, I see that you are etching your own boards. Which etchant are you using, and where did you get it from? I'm going to be etching some boards in a little bit, and I'm in need of a cheap supplier of etchant.

 

[evandude]

no backlight, but curiously enough, on the side of the unit, the metal frame around the screen has a gap in it, and there is a bit of a bulge on the side of the glass there. it looks like it is meant to be a spreader lens. that means you can have a backlight merely by gluing a square-lens LED to the side.

yes, they are standard 14-pin LCDs. conveniently enough they even have HD44780 controllers, like 90% of the other LCDs out there.

I am willing to sell them without serial "backpacks". I was thinking $6 including shipping in the US. That would be the LCD, wrapped in a couple layers of paper (or bubble wrap if i picked some up) in a bubble envelope, shipped regular mail. If you wanted a more protective shipping method i could do that as well, for say $5 for the LCD plus shipping cost... I don't want to sell huge numbers of them this way as i'd rather sell more with the serial backpacks. I learned my lesson with that a while back, selling single items for $5 that i purchased in bulk... turned out to be way more effort than it was worth. But I would be willing to sell them here and there. At this point i have only received the two "trial" units i bought a while back, but I have 50 on the way, due to arrive monday. So let me know.

Actually i just switched etchants. I was using ferric chloride but i always hated it, due to it having all the characteristics of iodine and being acidic to boot... I am now using sodium persulphate ($17 for 1kg/2.2lb at web-tronics.com) it is really nice. since it's a powder i can mix just what i need, and it's clear so i can watch the board etching progress. and it turns windex blue as it etches. I use 4 teaspoons of powder with 1/3 cup hot water in a ziplock baggie. makes it nice because i can agitate the board with my hands as it etches, and see it easily. i hear it's not as fast as ferric chloride, i haven't exactly timed either method, but personally i don't care that much because the other benefits outweigh it.

 

[Timmymna]

Have you got a final price for the LCDs with the 'backpack' I would be interested in some and possibly one or two without.

 

[evandude]

I was thinking $15.

I'm about to etch up a programming board so i can actually program the SMD PIC that i need for the board. if all goes well i'll have it working tonight.

 

[evandude]

it works! it took me a few days to get the bootloader working (a third-party one, not something I made, so it took some head-scratching)

but that means that the software on the LCD controllers will be easily updatable via the serial link, no need to connect to the ICSP pins or anything.
which is also great because this way i can release firmware upgrades and easily do custom versions for people who might want some specific feature.

I also added backlight on/off control functionality. these LCDs do not have backlights, but on the metal shield surrounding the screen, there's a gap on one side with a small clear blob that acts as a little lens so an LED can be positioned there for a backlight.

 

[williB]

what kind of PIC info could you display on these displays?

 

[evandude]

anything you want...

it's just a serial display... whatever you send to it via serial, it displays...

uses i was thinking of for my own projects are displaying the value of a certain variable, or in the case of a project of mine that interfaced with a PS/2 mouse, having it echo each data packet received to the LCD, so i could verify that they were being received properly...

 

[Optikon]

no backlight, but curiously enough, on the side of the unit, the metal frame around the screen has a gap in it, and there is a bit of a bulge on the side of the glass there. it looks like it is meant to be a spreader lens. that means you can have a backlight merely by gluing a square-lens LED to the side.

yes, they are standard 14-pin LCDs. conveniently enough they even have HD44780 controllers, like 90% of the other LCDs out there.

I am willing to sell them without serial "backpacks". I was thinking $6 including shipping in the US. That would be the LCD, wrapped in a couple layers of paper (or bubble wrap if i picked some up) in a bubble envelope, shipped regular mail. If you wanted a more protective shipping method i could do that as well, for say $5 for the LCD plus shipping cost... I don't want to sell huge numbers of them this way as i'd rather sell more with the serial backpacks. I learned my lesson with that a while back, selling single items for $5 that i purchased in bulk... turned out to be way more effort than it was worth. But I would be willing to sell them here and there. At this point i have only received the two "trial" units i bought a while back, but I have 50 on the way, due to arrive monday. So let me know.

Actually i just switched etchants. I was using ferric chloride but i always hated it, due to it having all the characteristics of iodine and being acidic to boot... I am now using sodium persulphate ($17 for 1kg/2.2lb at web-tronics.com) it is really nice. since it's a powder i can mix just what i need, and it's clear so i can watch the board etching progress. and it turns windex blue as it etches. I use 4 teaspoons of powder with 1/3 cup hot water in a ziplock baggie. makes it nice because i can agitate the board with my hands as it etches, and see it easily. i hear it's not as fast as ferric chloride, i haven't exactly timed either method, but personally i don't care that much because the other benefits outweigh it.

I'd be interested in a handful of em for $6 a pop.. Ive been casually keeping my eye out for a small easy to use (read serial) LCD that is low cost. I think $6 is very reasonable.

 

[evandude]

As i said in what you quoted... $6 would be WITHOUT the serial module, as some people had requested. I would be losing money if i sold them WITH the serial modules for that price...

without the serial module they are standard 14-pin parallel LCDs.

 

[samcheetah]

i agree with Optikon. if its going to be around $5-$6 i would be interested on these LCDs. i wouldnt even worry about the shipping (to pakistan) costs if u lower the price.

 

[evandude]

okay, in response to the second post on this... to repeat myself... $6 would be WITHOUT the serial module, as some people had requested. I would be losing money if i sold them WITH the serial modules for that price...

without the serial module they are standard 14-pin parallel LCDs.

sorry for the mix-up... but you have to consider that it costs almost $5 JUST for the 16F88!! that doesn't include the LCD and other components. And there's also the fact that etching circuit boards takes a good chunk of time, which, as a student, i don't have that much of; if i were to get them made professionally, that would probably easily add a few dollars to the price of each module.

 

[Optikon]

As i said in what you quoted... $6 would be WITHOUT the serial module, as some people had requested. I would be losing money if i sold them WITH the serial modules for that price...

without the serial module they are standard 14-pin parallel LCDs.

ya ya ya... can't lose money... I hear ya, JJ!

Thats ok.. I dont care what the interface is actually..
So, the thing you would sell has the LCD and just the driver chip on it eh?
$6 still isnt bad.

 

[evandude]

yeah. without the serial backpack it is a standard HD44780 parallel LCD, which is by far the most common kind of character LCD... a wealth of info is available all over the net.