Cellphone LCDs (color) - again

Check out Kopin's CyberDisplays:

These are the right size but higher resolution than you're looking for.

to

Damn! Last time I saw Kopin's stuff was at SID in San Jose in 1999. At the time it was impossible to get samples. I'm glad to see they've loosened up now - thanks for pointing me that way.

Unfortunately, microdisplays including Kopin's are not the answer for my current problem - besides optical difficulties, they require a complicated drive signal and don't qualify as "on-module controller".

I'm looking to wrist-mount this display, for direct view without intervening optics.

The frustrating thing is, I KNOW the parts I want exist. It's just a matter of finding them.

Lewin, there are several local companies that rebuild cell phones, and at least one wholesaler who sells the replacement displays for pagers and cell phones.

I think it is: Crystal Exchange Inc.

7365 Southwest 38th Street, Ocala, FL 34474 (352) 291-1222

I can call them tuesday, and verify it for you, if you want me to. I have to spend Monday driving to and from the Gainsville VA hospital, so I won't have much free time on Monday.

RMS

4551 Northwest 44th Avenue, Ocala, FL 34482 (352) 671-6707

This is the company that does wholesale pager and cell phone repairs.

is a list of some other companies that deal with cell phone repairs, etc.

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Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Hi Michael,

Great, the question being - do they have data on the LCDs? :) There's no problem finding people who sell LCDs, but you simply tell them a cellphone model and they ship you an LCD in a box. I need to know that the LCD in question has an integral controller, and what chip it is, so I can get the datasheet and have a hope of programming the thing.

(The reason it needs to have an on-chip controller is because I'm controlling it from an 8-bit MCU without LCD controller).

I'll try to find out, next week. From what I understand, they have service data on the phones, and I think I still know someone who works there. I was offered a job there last year but I can't handle mandatory overtime, so I had to turn it down

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Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

If by complete COG you mean the display with the scanning controller, I don't think you will be able to find it. Don't take my word for that though. As for gray levels in passive displays, I have learned this trick is performed by a kind of time based modulation on pixels similar to PWM in wich one keeps the pixel on a number of scans out of

1. Same with colour passives. So I don't think it's pratical having more than 4bpp for passives.

Have you considered a CPLD to performe this video function? I had to build one for a Z180 based legacy design and it took me longer to learn VHDL than to implement the design itself though only 1 bit per pixel. I don't think extending to 4bpp. As long as you know VHDL, it won't take too long to have the thing running.

Regards.

Elder.

Hi,

some

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I think you're wrong on this. The monochrome LCDs certainly have integral scanning controller. In some cases they even use a serial interface (Ericsson LX588, LX788, related GSM models, etc).

For experiment's sake I opened my Nokia 3595 (96x64 color, pretty much exactly the device I want) and scoped the signals to the LCD. There doesn't seem to be a regular line or frame pulse. There are intermittent signals on several lines, which is probably the phone updating its time display. If I could find out what controller is on the LCD, I could probably reverse-engineer the pinout.

Right, FRM (or at least that's what Epson calls it). On the grayscale model, I need either 4 or 8 grays; e.g. black, 66%, 33%, white. Not 4 or 8 _bits_ of grayscale resolution :)

The common CSTN cellphone LCDs are 4K colors (4 bits per color component), which is perfect for me.

It's not feasible. I don't have time budgeted for developing this function, and this is a black-box prototype that will have no relationship to the real hardware, so I'm unwilling to spend lots of time inventing wheels that will be discarded. Plus, I don't have much experience with VHDL (most of the projects I've done with CPLDs have been with schematic-entry packages).

The real product would probably use an ASIC/ASSP with a 65C02 or 65C816 core and on-chip LCD controller, with a custom LCD. But that is not my problem; I will provide technical advice to the customer and that's *it* - I'm not getting roped into writing the actual code for the real product, because they would probably want to pay me on a royalty basis, and I don't believe this product will be cheap enough to enjoy widespread sales. They want a QCIF color CMOS image sensor, a color LCD, IrDA connectivity and 1Mb of internal flash memory for a retail price of $30. I don't believe they will be able to sell it for less than $100.

I gave the customer an estimate based on the assumption of being able to source LCDs with on-board controllers. If that turns out to be an invalid assumption, I'll just cancel the contract. It means throwing away some R&D time, but that's just a risk of doing business. Hantronics does sell a color LCD with on-board Epson controller, but it's a bit large for my needs.

This is perhaps a reach, but for the prototype, you might consider IR'ing images to one of those wrist cameras:

John

A wrist camera is the product I'm prototyping ;) I don't believe they will cost it down to their target, even with a crappier LCD.

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-- Lewin A.R.W. Edwards

Learn how to develop high-end embedded systems on a tight budget!

"Lewin A.R.W. Edwards" wrote in message news:...

Perhap this is what you need:

SAN JOSE, CA, September 23, 2003 . . . Atmel® Corporation (Nasdaq: ATML) announced today the introduction of a new family of digital camera processors that cover the entire market for Digital Still Cameras (DSC). The AT76C113 family of products integrate all the functions required to implement digital cameras on to a single chip. The device performs the functions of capturing, processing, compressing, displaying, and storing images in flash cards, as well as controlling camera functionality through the use of an integrated ARM7TDMI™ processor. In addition, the ARM processor is responsible for analysis of a scene, through hardware assist, and for the fine-tuning of image processing algorithms that enable consumers to take exceptional pictures. AT76C113 devices support all flash card interfaces including Secure Digital, MMC Multimedia Card, Memorystick™, Smartmedia™, CompactFlash™, and Atmel Dataflash® cards. AT76C113 has a direct interface to NAND-flash devices that allows program code as well as captured media to be stored in on-board NAND-flash. This potentially eliminates the need for shipping removable flash cards with a digital camera, which in turn would reduce end-product cost. In addition, all necessary peripherals including TV video output, USB, UART and SPI, digital audio interfaces, and direct interfaces to popular LCDs have been integrated to minimize the total system cost. Analog to digital and digital to analog converters have also been integrated to detect, measure, and recharge batteries, to capture and playback audio without the need of external components, and to control lens motors. Certain parts also contain USB hosting is also available on allows cameras to directly print pictures to photo printers.

All AT76C113 devices support MPEG video multiplexed and synchronized with MPEG audio at a resolution of 30fps quarter-VGA resolution. They can also decompress audio files, including MP3, through a high-resolution digital audio interface. The unparalleled image processing performance- of 55ms per megapixel, and the compression speed of 75ms per megapixel, combined with the high transfer rates to flash cards, can achieve capturing, processing, compression, and storing of six megapixel images in less than one second with minimal power consumption. A two-megapixel AT76C113-powered camera can take over 600 pictures using a pair of regular size Photolithium-type batteries with strobe and zooming for every shot. Typical camera use can exceed 1000 pictures per battery.

The family of AT76C113 contains products for low-end cameras limited to three megapixels and products for high-end cameras from four to six megapixels. Both low and high-end products are available with and without USB hosting capability.

Production samples, evaluation boards, software libraries, as well as full application software are available now. Production is ramping up now in support of several digital camera manufacturers.

Pricing will be under $8 for quantities of 50,000 parts

Yeah.... good luck trying to prototype anything around this part, though. I don't even know who the financial backer of the project is, but I am pretty sure the idea isn't coming from one of the big names in toys.