3.5-6 inch TFT display with touch screen

Look at this one:

LCD Board, 4.3 inch TFT 480x272:

Quote: "...

*Resistive touch screen *Board includes TSC2046 touch screen controller (from TI) with SPI interface ..."

/Glenn

I'm also looking for a screen though it doesn't have to be as large or high resolution. Screens like this from reputable suppliers are expensive when compared to other sources.

Example:

I have talked to some Asian suppliers (not this one) and they do seem interested in maintaining a supply of screens if your numbers are large enough.

Its a shame there aren't local distributors that can supply a generic display and maintain interconnect and physical dimensions etc, at an affordable price.

--
Mike Perkins 
Video Solutions Ltd 
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Usually 2K pcs minimum. But you almost have to go with a custom enclosure, which only make sense with 5k+. Enclosure tooling is USD5K+.

Can I advise against using Google groups as it's broken and puts extra lines in quoted posts?

I do understand the cost of tooling. However, I don't understand why manufacturers don't come up with generic solutions specially for lower volume customer requirements. When smaller customers like myself are added together, I can't believe it's not worthwhile.

--
Mike Perkins 
Video Solutions Ltd 
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Perhaps Google is forcing us to minimize and edit quotes.

Manufacturer A's solution is the generic solution. Manufacturer B's soluti on is also the generic solution. Unfortunately, the generic solutions are not always the same. I have 3 LCDs using the same chip, but three differen t FPC interface: 20 pins 0.5mm, 28 pins 0.5mm and 28 pins 0.8mm. The 20 pi ns chip is the newer version, but with less capacitors.

In another word, you are locked into the supplier no matter what. It's a s imple business decision for them.

Android tablet?

--
Tim Wescott 
Control system and signal processing consulting 
www.wescottdesign.com

Where I used to work we had a thing like that custom built, in qty much lower than 5K+, but I guess it was pretty expensive for what it was. If someone were doing that project today I'd have suggested using a consumer Android tablet wrapped in some kind of kiosk enclosure.

Tablets are the obvious choice. If you won't be using the wireless capabilities, you can find a few vendors who will have most of the drivers available for you (assuming you are not willing to run under the native OS).

Your quantity sits in that large "bad spot" between "just a few" (that you could scrounge from other applications) and "a good size run" (that a larger vendor would be willing to produce economically).

There are, also, some "surplus" vendors you can approach for one time buys (i.e., they probably will *never* have the same particular model available again) -- but, you're stuck with whatever they happen to have on hand at the time.

Here (prototype quantities), I opted for some surplus PDAs to fit that role (4" dia) with BT & WiFi to give me the connectivity I needed (I wanted a handheld solution).

You might also consider non-visual interaction (I opted for haptic and speech) as this is often less expensive and more "available".

Which is the wrong radio for us. We need the third radio (802.15.4: de facto standard for metering).

We also want handheld, but with charging more like a cordless phone. Basically, something that can just drop in a wall-mounted box for charging.

I know that archos.com can make customized android and similar hardware. I don't know what quantities they require. I have couple of their consumer products and they are nice, but I haven't dealt with the company any other way.

We don't need Android, just a PIC32 with 512K flash. We are currently using a 132x32 LCD with physical keypad, but might also use bigger LCD with touchpad.

In my case, the "display" is talking to "The System" -- so, I can opt for any convenient means of connecting the two. As I already use BT, this was a much better choice than, e.g., ZigBee.

Yes, you can charge these in a "cradle" -- which is how they are typically used when *not* being held in the hand (i.e., like a very small "console" on a desktop, counter, etc. -- that just

*happens* to also be portable so you can lift it out of the cradle and walk around while interacting with it).

Of course, if you are *actively* walking around, then a visual interface is less than desirable... (you need your eyes to see where you are walking!)

The problem is that people always imagine their specific requirements are generic without reference to precisely how many other "generic" size/form factor/resolution/colour/touch system etc combinations there are that could be considered equally generic.

Look through the catalogues of any of the larger distributors and you'll find tens of pages of different "generic" switches and a similar quantity of various connectors. How many times have you still found yourself thinking "Hmm, none of those are quite what I'm looking for, surely _someone_ makes an off the shelf switch with X, Y and Z..."?

--
Andrew Smallshaw 
andrews@sdf.lonestar.org

I do see your point, but at the same time I can probably second source a number of switches that have the same footprint and the same action.

Likewise, I can also find a number of sources for DDR memory that behave in much the same way. In other words I will accept the interface a generic item will give me, even if it doesn't quite suit my need.

I will design around the items I can find, rather than specifying and having manufactured what is ideal. For example there are a number of LCD driver ICs. I would be happy to accept any screen with a common physical and electric interface if I could determine what the driver IC was and drive the display accordingly.

Yes I know I'm dreaming :-)

--
Mike Perkins 
Video Solutions Ltd 
www.videosolutions.ltd.uk

Common signal interfaces, YES. Common physical/electrical interfaces, NO.

For example, i found 3 different (in sizes) LCD using ST7565, but 3 different FPC interfaces. Two with same physical connectors, but different pin assignments. Unfortunately, there is no standard at all.

Il giorno sabato 14 settembre 2013 18:32:14 UTC+2, Don Y ha scritto:

Could you give me some links of manufacturers of those kind of tablets? I can find Android tablet, but I don't want to give so much flexibility to my users, I'd like a "closed" interface (no app to install, no icons customization, ...)

Ok, I'll try to make some search in this direction, even if I don't need wireless connectivity.

Il giorno sabato 14 settembre 2013 20:51:40 UTC+2, snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com ha scritto:

What is the LCD you are using? Is there a LCD controller and RAM embedded? How does PIC32 manage the display (SPI, parallel bus, ...)?

If you have access to the source, you can "lock" the device (disable upgrades). You could also lock the device with hardware hacks -- i.e., close off any interfaces that could be used to install software, etc.

Kindle Fire's source is (was?) available:

You can undoubtedly find others. Usually, the biggest problem is subsystems like "wireless" are only supported via a "BLOB" (no real source available so you use it "as is" or not at all!).

In my case, I deliberately wanted device(s) that were reasonably commonplace. I.e., I could install a compatible "app" on a smartphone instead of forcing people to buy I happened to use (or, worse yet, having to *manufacture* something for them!)

You can always NOT use a feature! :>

Good luck!

--don

?

One working LCD is from orientlcd.com (the Jazz series). It uses the ST756

7 controller. There is a small display ram on the controller. But for ser ious graphics, you would need to manage it from the controller. The PIC32 has 128K SRAM to do so. There are both SPI and 8 bits parallel. We use pa rallel.

To simplify interface, we build flash table of single (5x7) and some double (10x14) characters. The main counter (9 digits) in this picture is double size.

http://173.224.223.62/rf/remote.jpg