Can I change the viewing angle of an LCD display?

Sep 06, 2010 15 Replies

I have a bunch of battery-operated digital clocks with LCD displays. They all look good from above, but when viewed from below, the display looks blank.



I want to be able to view it from bed when it's on the night stand.



If memory serves, the contrast input on an LCD display changes the viewing angle.



I've not taken 'em apart, but I fully expect to find a glob of epoxy covering an unpackaged clock chip and not much else.



Yes, I could build a weighted wedge to make the display face down slightly, but I'd rather just fix the display.



Ideas? Thanks, mike


On a sunny day (Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:03:16 -0700) it happened mike wrote in :

Camera on LCD + monitor above bed. Mirrors also help.

WHy not just tilt it?

and read it in the existing mirror mounted on the ceiling.

You can apply a Fresnel prism; those full-page magnifier sheets are, at the edges, suitable for bending the light so your preferred location can enjoy better contrast.

Some graphical LCDs can be configured for either viewing angle. You set a configuration parameter in the controller, and it turns the image upside-down.

If your LCDs are simple 7-segment ones, it is only a matter of swapping the segment connections around so it displays an upside-down image.

RoRo

He's not talking about inverting the characters, rather changing the viewing angle. LCDs have a limited viewing angle for maximum contrast which is often quite limited (for any contrast). Often this angle can be set with a bias voltage, though sometimes this note isn't accessible or is software controllable.

Yes, LCD module samples I'm buying recently are 6 O'clock viewing, and, they have preset LCD voltage string drive, so no adjustment (4 line by 20 char models).

Other simple ones (say 2 line by 16 chars) do have the adjustment and may change viewing angle enough, long time since I power ed on up.

I'm not sure one can turn them the other way because there's not enough custom char gen memory for the full set of characters. OTOH a dot matrix display can go either way because you control char gen in driver, only tell which dots to turn on/off.

7-segment LCDs could be turned around, and rewire the segment drive, providing they're not CoG (Chip on Glass) models. They don't have contrast adjustment as they're (usually) not multiplexed backplane.

Grant.

.krow ton did tI .ecno taht deirt I

mike

On Sep 6, 1:40=A0pm, whit3rd wrote: > On Sep 6, 1:03=A0am, mike wrote: >

Look here

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I have an Panasonic digital camara (think model is MZ-7) ? The LCD display (on the back) has an overhead shooting mode. In this mode the LCD is still visible when one holds the camera above your head (and slightly to the front) to shoot over the crowd. (about 60 degrees up is probably the optimal angle).

If in this mode the display isn't realy useable when viewed straight on. I don't know how they do it but it works.

Gerhard van den Berg

On a sunny day (Tue, 07 Sep 2010 10:49:55 +1000) it happened Grant wrote in :

Future *may* be OLEDs. But I have a 30 year old radio-alarm clock with a clock display that uses some heater in vacuum and fluorescent segments, like an analog scope screen.

30 years is not bad lifetime for that thing, it is still very bright, so much I added photo transistor to automatically reduce brightness in the dark. Cannot remember what those displays are called, those used to be in video recorders too. Ah, I remember: Vacuum fluorescent display
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A realy nice technology.

And what the heck is an "ECNALUMBA?" ;-)

Thanks, Rich

If you can't read it, it doesn't matter. ;-)

That drove me crazy until I realized you misspelled "ECNALUBMA"

Charlie

Charlie,

Are you sure ??

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h

OOpps! I guess that's egg on my face!

Thanks, Rich

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