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Controller chips for LCDs?

As part of a home project, I would like to add an LCD screen. The larger the screen, the better. The cheaper the screen, the better. My friend pointed me to

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I was taken aback by the price of some of the larger LCDs listed on that website (640 x 480 LCD, Color LCD - Single Scan, etc.). I figured they were being sold for those prices because they weren't being sold with the controller. Am I right, or am I totally off? Where could I find the controller chips for these LCDs? Or better yet, where can I get a cheap large LCD with a controller chip?

Thanks,

Rajiv

Reply to
Rajiv Ghanta
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Philip,

Thanks for the info, and the awesome link. It looks like I'm way in over my head. So let me ask you this (or anyone else who is reading this) - what's the easiest way for me to add a graphics LCD (however large or small, and hopefully cheap) to my project? My only experience working with LCDs is those easy-to-use character LCDs, controlled by Hitachi's HD44780 controller. I would really like to add a screen that can handle graphics to my home project.

Thanks again,

Rajiv

Reply to
Rajiv Ghanta

Check out Farnell:

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They stock several graphical LCDs designed for use by microcontrollers, meaning non-VGA. They have embedded controllers similar to the Hitachi alphanumeric controllers and just as poorly documented in most cases ;-)

Farnell typically overcharge by 50% but they should be the place where you first look for stuff. In the previous company I worked with there was a saying when it comes to electronics components: if it's not available at Farnell, it's not off-the-shelf, it must be custom.

Also, you must locate one physically since they don't do deliveries unless you are a regular customer or a company.

Reply to
slebetman

Hello Rajiv,

Some of these LCD's appear to have been intended for laptop computers, given the resolution and size these would probably have some sort of parallel interface, needing some timing signals and video data - between 4 - 8 bits per colour. 'Driver chips' may not may not be such an easy thing to find as they would have been driven by the VGA chipset on a laptop motherboard, if you could get the chip loose and wire it up you would have only ended up creating a VGA card & screen. It might be possible to 'roll your own' using an FPGA and interesting hint at that can be found here:

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Another point to note is that these screens may not come with any backlight inverter so you would need to obtain one that matched the CCFL on the panel. It might be easier and cheaper to buy an old 386, 486 laptop, then you will have a working system on which to experiment and emulate the necessary signals for the LCD. Avoid newer laptops as the LCD is likely to have an LVDS interface making it more difficult to interface form a hobbyist point of view.

hope this helps,

Philip

Reply to
Electric dabbler

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or look for some at
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Reply to
warrenphd

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may give you some alternatives

Don...

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Don McKenzie
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Reply to
Don McKenzie

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