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What is my best approach at this? a computer driven gauge

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giaviv

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Hey guys,

I am in need of developing a computer driven gauge, displayed on a dot matrix LCD.

Basically, my dot matrix LCD will be driven by a controller that pushes pixel information to it.
The gauge needs to simulate a car's speed gauge.

I was looking at some lcd panels out there, and none of them seem to be square (since this is a round gauge, and there is no round lcd, I figured I'd need a square panel). I as looking for a 128*128 LCD dot matrix board, but the dimension does't seem to exist.

Also, I can't seem to find any red single color lcd panels / multicolor panels.
It would be nice if I could have 2, 3, 4 or more color to display. Does any board like that exist?

I am specifically not going toward small TFT screens - I need to be able to control the board pixel by pixel. I am an experienced programmer and have done chip development in the past. Which controller / lcd screen should I be looking at?

Thanks!
 
Since what you're looking for doesn't seem to exist, but rectangular ones are available, couldn't you orient the display in a "portrait" format and use the extra pixels at the bottom to display the units of measure, ie. "MPH" or "km/h"?
 
Hey - thanks for you response.

I spent quite some time doing research on the web and I realized
that I am probably looking at some sort of 32*32 / 64*64 display.

I already started programming my gauge "graphics" for a square matrix.
Now, the question is which direction should I go with the hardware?

A 64*64 LED dot matrix doesn't seem to be "dense" enough (I need the
LEDs to be close, so that the board will be about 5"). Color LED board are
expensive ($150+). In light of this, what would be my best solution?
An LED board? LCD?
Thanks!
 
I think a graphic LCD panel is your best bet.

An LED matrix with 64x64 pixels won't be easy to design considering the size you want it to be. To fit that many into a 5"x5" matrix, each LED will have to be about 0.075" diameter (1.9mm) on 0.075" centers. Then, there's the problem of the drive circuitry. It's going to take quite a few drivers to control that many LED's (4096 of them) and it's going to be power-hungry, especially if it needs to be viewed in bright daylight.

Overall, I don't think designing this will be a trivial task.
 
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