Hello,
I am working on my first embedded project (hobbyist) where I would like to interface an AVR to a small touch screen lcd. I have an ATMega8535 on hand that I have been training to do simple tricks like flash LEDs and whatnot. I have also ordered a 240x160 touchscreen LCD (Microtips MTG-F24160BFWHSEB-18A). This LCD does not incorporate a controller, just the segment drivers (NT7701/NT7702). It uses 4-bit data transfer. The link to the datasheet is included below:
As I understand it, controlling this LCD directly with the AVR would be difficult at best, and wouldn't leave much capability in the AVR for the rest of what I want to do. I've started looking for controllers, and I've located an Epson S1D13700 (F01) LCD controller available in small quantities.
Would anyone be willing to offer up an opinion as to whether this chip would effectively tie the AVR to the LCD? Better yet, are there any examples? My circuit design skills are extremely limited, so I hoping for a simple solution not requiring a lot of glue. I hope that the fact that this chip has the SRAM on-board makes simplicity a reality. The touch screen stuff looks fairly straight forward using 4 of the ADC-capable pins of the AVR - plenty of examples out there of how to do it. Cost wise, the controller and LCD combo costs about $60, which is quite a bit less than I've been able to find comparably sized T6963 based touchpanels.
Any hardware pointers would be much appreciated. My day job is structural engineering and my electronics design experience/knowledge is limited to 3 semesters of EE at college and what I can Google for. I have written the low level Linux kernel driver bits for a MotionJPEG video capture card, so I am fairly confident in the software side of things. My eventual goal is to use this project as a platform to create a controller that monitors several temperature sensors (thermocouples) and adjusts a process accordingly - basically a homebrewed PLC/HMI.
Thanks for any help, Matt