uC control of Blackberry 7100 display

[3v0]

Atomsoft's thread on the Nokia 7110 has me thinking about other displays. The blackberry 7100 display can be found for $12 "Bright and clear, the screen supports a good resolution of 240 x 260 pixel."

Blackberry 7100 7100g 7100i 7100t OEM LCD display - eBay (item 250327480181 end time May-24-09 07:37:56 PDT)

Has anyone seen information on using this display with a uC? I know you are not going to do it with an 8 bit. Would guess it is along the line of attempting to use a laptop display.

I would like to use them as IO for a home control system. Maybe just reprogram blackberry and screw the entire unit to the wall. Too bad that bluetooth has such a short range.

 

[AtomSoft]

I found some info but nothing huge:

Graphical_subsystem
Display:Type: 	color transmissive TFT display
Display:Color-Depth: 	16 bit/pixel (65536 scales)
Display_Diagonal: 	2.4 " (60 millimetres)
Display-Resolution: 	260 x 240 (62400 pixels)
Viewable-Display+Size: 	1.74 " x 1.6 " (44.09 x 40.7 millimetres)
Dot_Pitch: 	149.8 pixel/inch (0.16957 millimetre/pixel)

 

[DirtyLude]

If you want a larger alternative to the Nokia 6100 colour LCD you could go for the Siemens S65. There's info out there on drivers, and it's about $10 on E-Bay. Only about half the size, though. 132x176 with 16bit colour.

I keep getting tempted to try a controller for the PSP screen. They're only $20 on dealextreme, refurbed.

 

[AtomSoft]

AWESOME!!!!

Sparkfun has em new for $70 which since im a hobby dude dont want to spend if i might break it fast lol

 

[3v0]

I would like to go larger rather then smaller if possible.
I was just looking as at PSP display on Sparkfun.

This fellow has one up with an FPGA but no tech info.
YouTube - On demand, my final year project showing Juliana Paes.

 

[DirtyLude]

The PSP screen needs a lot of horsepower to run it, and a good amount of available memory for screen images. It is very cool, the only thing holding me back is that I can't think of anything practical to actually use it for.

EDIT: The datasheet is pretty complete for the Sharp PSP screen. You don't need much more tech info than that to get the basics going.

 

[Sceadwian]

He's got a myspace page, but if he used an FPGA to drive it I wouldn't get too hopeful of being able to do it on a micro.

 

[3v0]

He's got a myspace page, but if he used an FPGA to drive it I wouldn't get too hopeful of being able to do it on a micro.

I have been looking for an excuse to get into FPGAs.

 

[DirtyLude]

Lets leave the speculation in the ****-chat forum. It's biggest limitation is the 9Mhz clock rate. There's no reason why this can't be done with an ARM7. I don't use the LPC's, but the LPC2478 has a built in LCD hardware block that can handle much bigger direct TFT displays than this one.

 

[DirtyLude]

These guys have hardware for it, but their purpose is mainly connecting to PC. I can't find any details or specs on the hardware anywhere.

LCDInfo.com | USB 4.3" 480x272 TFT LCD display

 

[AtomSoft]

you can surely controll it with a pic32. Im sure i could. I bet if i get that screen ill controll it with a 18F pic and some port expanders and a SD card interface.

 

[Sceadwian]

If you're looking for an excuse to get into FPGA's try driving a full VGA LCD, they're approximately equivalent in complexity.

 

[AtomSoft]

SparkFun Electronics - Color 24-Bit LCD 4.3" PSP 480x272

It says:

Data interface is 24-bit so start looking for a powerful controller (ARM7, ARM9, FPGA, etc).

So safe to assume ARM7 is ok LPC2148 or LPC2138 should be PERFECT.

 

[Sceadwian]

Depends on the LCD itself, does it have a frame buffer? If it does the speed of the driving controller is irrelevant as long as it meets the read/write cycle time limits, it really depends on how much data you need to push it how fast. For static or slowly changing displays a PIC or AVR will work just fine. You have to work the numbers out on how much data needs to be sent for what you want to do and what you have that can send it. Nothing wrong with using an FPJA but why bother if something cheaper smaller and simpler will do?