what type of LCD is this?

Hey guys,

In my car's rear view mirror it displays a compass reading, either N, S, E, W etc... Or i can get it to display the temp.

I can't tell what type of LCD display this. Or of it's even an LCD at all.

Here it is from the outside:

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Once i got access to it, i noticed there was a purple-ish colored tinted film over the top.

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Here is the mysterious device. It appears it's vacuum sealed in there. Weird wires running across and some weird honeycomb mesh under that.

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When turned on, the digits illuminate a white/blue color.

Does anyone know what type of device this is ? it doesn't look like any old average LCD or LED display unit. The purple tint doesn't seem to be polarized or anything.

Any input is appreciated!

CD

From what I see I would imagine it to be a LED display, what are you trying to do with it?. I have the same camera

That is called a VFD (Vacuum Flourescent Display) It's actually a type of vacuum tube, It uses higher voltages than led's or lcd's.

Ah, never heard of this before...

Is there a way to convert this to an LCD? Meaning, buy an LCD and wire it up so the LCD would work correctly?

The other display screens in my car (the info screen and clock) are LCD's and i've inverted them. Meaning, they used to have white digits on a black background, but i replaced the polarized lenses so that the digits are black on a white background. I'd like to do the same for this display but i'm pretty sure i can't convert this weird type that way. So if i could replace this VFD with an LCD i could invert it to match the others.

Thanks guys!

cduluk said:

Ah, never heard of this before...

Is there a way to convert this to an LCD? Meaning, buy an LCD and wire it up so the LCD would work correctly?

The other display screens in my car (the info screen and clock) are LCD's and i've inverted them. Meaning, they used to have white digits on a black background, but i replaced the polarized lenses so that the digits are black on a white background. I'd like to do the same for this display but i'm pretty sure i can't convert this weird type that way. So if i could replace this VFD with an LCD i could invert it to match the others.

Click to expand...

A VFD is a type of valve, it requires a heater voltage and fairly high drive voltages, you can't swap it for an LCD.