big lcd display arduino brands

The Arduino board has a wide variety of compatible displays that you can use in your electronic projects. In most projects, it’s very useful to give the user some sort of feedback from the Arduino.

With the TFT display you can display colorful images or graphics. This module has a resolution of 480 x 320. This module includes the SD card socket and SPI FLASH circuit.

This is a tiny display with just 1 x 0.96 Inch. This display has a black background, and displays characters in white. There are other similar displays that can show the characters in other colors.

You don"t have to even use an SD card if you don"t want to. The displays I have worked with all have their own built in controller and RAM. I just mentioned this in case you were thinking of generating your own video signals with the Arduino. People have done it of course, but you run into problems with the small amount of RAM available on the Arduino.

A workable analogy for the displays is they are similar an IDE drive interface. They have their own RAM so you could just write the data to the display as it is received over WiFi.

There are dozens of examples on Youtube and if you downloaded the development software, it probably has a folder C:\arduino-1.6.2\libraries\TFT with a few examples. If you want to get down to the nuts and bolts level you can download the data sheet for a typical display chip. http://www.mcufriend.com/download/ili9327.pdf

There are a number of different kinds of displays that can be driven by a microcontroller. This repository contains examples for many of them, along with information about display technologies and some of the more popular libraries for controlling them.

Multi-Segment LED display - There are many models of multi-segment LED displays, including the classic 7-segment LEDs, alphanumeric displays, dot-matrix diplays, bar graph displays, RGB LEDs, and others. What these share in common is that they will have either a common-cathode or common-anode structure. Common cathode LEDs have multiple anodes, one for each LED segment, and one cathode for all. common anode LEDs have a single anode and multiple cathode for all the segments. Driving these displays requires a control pin for each LED segment. They are usually driven by a multiplexer or LED driver, which can provide both a common interface for all the LEDs (such as an SPI or I2C interface), and a controlled current supply for all the LEDs.

Broadcom/Avago’s HCMS-29xx display is multi-segment LED display that has several 5-7 LED matrices with a synchronous serial interface. It has the smallest visibly discrete LEDs in its display that I have encountered.

LCD - Liquid crystal display. LCDs are made up of long-chain molecules in a state between crystal and liquid. When a charge is applied, the molecules align, acting as a polarizer. When paired with a second polarizer, they can either block light or allow it to pass through, appearing either light or dark. A grid of these can form a single-color display. Liquid crystals do not emit light, so a backlight is required to light them up. They come im low-resolution, passive-matrix displays which are usually monochrome or higher-resolution, active-matrix screens which have higher resolution and are usually full color.

OLED - an OLED screen replaces the liquid crystal with a matrix of organic LEDs. This eliminates the need for a backlight, since each pixel generates its own light. For more on OLEDs, see this introduction from ehergy.gov. CNET provides this comparison of LCD vs OLED displays.

ePaper - ePaper displays use a matrix of tiny capsules which are black or colored on one side, and white on the other. Applying a charge to each capsule causes it to turn one way or the other. Unlike LCD or LED displays, ePaper displays maintain their state when powered off. ePaper displays cannot be refreshed as fast as LCD or LED, however. ePaper displays are typically not backlit, and require external lighting. eInk, the primary maker of ePaper displays, has a good FAQ on the technology. Visionect.com has a helpful illustrated explanation as well.

LCD and OLED screens drive their pixels in one of two ways. A passive matrix uses a grid of wires which control each pixel using a row-column scanning method. Voltage is applied to each column in sequence. Then the rows are scanned. If the pixel on that column at a given row should be on, then the row wire voltage is taken low to create a voltage difference, and the pixel turns on. An active matrix uses a grid of thin film transistors (TFT) instead of a row-column scanning apparatus. TFTs allow for greater pixel density and therefore sharper image quality and better response time for each pixel. Jameco offers a good explanation of passive vs. active matrix driver technology.

The oldest form of LCD display, patented in the 1980’s, is known as Twisted Nematic (TN) LCD, and has limits to its viewing angle. Newer LCD technologies such as in-plane switching (IPS) or plane-to-line switching (PLS) afford wider viewing angles and brighter screens.

There are a number of common display driver ICs on the market. Typically a driver IC will be capable of controlling many different sizes and shapes of display, if they are of the same class. For example, you’ll see many TFT displays that use Sitronix’ driver ICs, notably the ST7735 and ST7789. Ilitek’s ILI9225 chip is also common in TFTs. This means that libraries written for one vendor’s display are likely to work for displays from another vendor, if they use the same chipset. This can be convenient, as it means you can sometimes choose the library whose API you find easiest to work with.

Displays for microcontrollers use a variety of control interfaces. The most common are the ones you see for other electronic modules as well: synchronous serial interfaces like I2C and SPI, or asynchronous serial interfaces. also feature parallel interface, requires a large number of I/O pins from your controller.

BUSY - an output pin to indicate that the display controller is busy. connects to whicheve pin the microcontroller has assigned for this function. This pin is less common on TFT displays than on ePaper displays.

Hitachi HD44780 LCD display. See the Arduino LiquidCrystal library. These 2x16 character LCD displays are ubiquitous in the hobbyist market and come in many starter kits for the Uno. They are a passive-matrix LCD with a parallel interface (6 pins) that runs on 5 volts. They will typically not run on 3.3 volts. Each character is a 5x7 pixel matrix, so these are very low-resolution displays. They can usually be foung for $10-$15, which was a bargain in the early Arduino days. Nowadays, if you need an inexpensive 2-line display, some of the OLED displays like the SSD1306 are a better bargain.

There are some display modules which have an asynchronous serial (UART) interfaces. These typically have a microcontroller on the display module itself, which is interfacing with one of the types of interfaces above. These modules typically have a communications protocol that is unique to the vendor. They are convenient, but more expensive than their synchronous serial or parallel counterparts.

Finding the right display library for your Arduino or Arduino-compatible display can be challenging. Vendors who design and sell their own breakout boards tend to publish libraries that are compatible with their own boards. Smaller vendors may not make their own libraries, relying on third-party libraries instead. The Arduino site lists over 300 display-related libraries. The ease-of-use and adaptability of those libraries varies widely. The ones I’ve found most useful are Adafruit’s GFX library and Oli Kraus’ U8g2 library.

Since there is a relatively small number of driver chip manufacturers (Hitachi, Ilitek, Solomon-Systech, and Sitronix among them), different vendors’ boards often use the same driver hardware. This means that the libraries from one vendor can support the hardware from another. When you shop for displays, it’s worthwhile to check what the driver is for each one, and see if there’s a compatible library from your favorite library writer.

Adafruit_GFX is a hardware-independent graphics library written to work with all the Arduino-compatible displays that Adafruit sells. They complement this with display specific libraries like Adafruit_SSD1306 for SSD1306 OLED libraries, Adafruit_EPD for ePaper displays, Adafruit_ST7735 for some TFT libraries, and others. The advantage of the GFX library is that you get a common drawing API regardless of which display you’re using. It uses the Arduino Printable interface too, so commands like print() and println() work with this library just like they do in the serial monitor. There’s a good guide to the GFX library as well. Sparkfun’s got their own complement to the GFX library, Hyperdisplay.

u8g2 is designed as a universal library for many different displays. It supports a wider range of displays than any other I’ve used so far. It has its own graphics API which is more or less similar to Adafruit’s, and a wide font set as well. There’s also U8g2_for_Adafruit_GFX, a library which allows you to add U8g2 fonts to any Adafruit_GFX-based library.

Arduino and the various, similar single-board computers are awfully simple by nature, at least as electronics go. For that reason, we don"t have any new contenders to report, as our current list covers just about all the sizes and price ranges common to projects on these versatile and educational platforms.

We still recommend the Nextion K035 Enhancedas the best for most users, due not only to its reliable LCD panel, but also the hardware inside, which is superior to most other models. The Kuman SC3A-1, on the other hand, is less full-featured but also costs notably less. The Adafruit 1947is one with a bit of a reputation as a high-performing, lost-lasting touch screen, and the Walfront 7-Inchis one of the better large-format options around.

Arduino is an immensely interesting platform, and is a great way to create custom electronic controllers for a huge range of purposes. It"s also an excellent way for young people and other beginner engineers to get into the field. Because it"s so small and simple, low prices are somewhat of a hallmark of the category. The Nextion Enhanced models are packed with the most advanced features, and for full functionality, they"re the way to go, though they aren"t always the cheapest. Nonetheless, the 2.8- and 3.2- inch versions are great selections. For basic and more low-budget purposes, check out the Kuman, Elegoo, and HiLetGo, which are all designed to plug directly into the smallest Arduino boards. For more in-depth projects, it"s hard to beat AdaFruit and WishIOT, who offer a number of versatile and highly reliable options. And if you"re going for maximum visibility, check out the Walfront, which has a crisp and large screen, although be aware that most controllers won"t be able to achieve extremely high refresh rates at such high resolutions. Also keep in mind that there is a wide selection of projects, tutorials, and libraries for the entire Arduino family available online.

Adding a display to your Arduino can serve many purposes. Since a common use for microcontrollers is reading data from sensors, a display allows you to see this data in real-time without needing to use the serial monitor within the Arduino IDE. It also allows you to give your projects a personal touch with text, images, or even interactivity through a touch screen.

Transparent Organic Light Emitting Diode (TOLED) is a type of LED that, as you can guess, has a transparent screen. It builds on the now common OLED screens found in smartphones and TVs, but with a transparent display, offers up some new possibilities for Arduino screens.

Take for example this brilliant project that makes use of TOLED displays. By stacking 10 transparent OLED screens in parallel, creator Sean Hodgins has converted a handful of 2D screens into a solid-state volumetric display. This kind of display creates an image that has 3-dimensional depth, taking us one step closer to the neon, holographic screens we imagine in the future.

Crystalfontz has a tiny monochrome (light blue) 1.51" TOLED that has 128x56 pixels. As the technology is more recent than the following displays in this list, the cost is higher too. One of these screens can be purchased for around $26, but for certain applications, it might just be worth it.

The liquid crystal display (LCD) is the most common display to find in DIY projects and home appliances alike. This is no surprise as they are simple to operate, low-powered, and incredibly cheap.

This type of display can vary in design. Some are larger, with more character spaces and rows; some come with a backlight. Most attach directly to the board through 8 or 12 connections to the Arduino pins, making them incompatible with boards with fewer pins available. In this instance, buy a screen with an I2C adapter, allowing control using only four pins.

Available for only a few dollars (or as little as a couple of dollars on AliExpress with included I2C adapter), these simple displays can be used to give real-time feedback to any project.

The screens are capable of a large variety of preset characters which cover most use cases in a variety of languages. You can control your LCD using the Liquid Crystal Library provided by Arduino. The display() and noDisplay() methods write to the LCD, as shown in the official tutorial on the Arduino website.

Are you looking for something simple to display numbers and a few basic characters? Maybe you are looking for something with that old-school arcade feel? A seven-segment display might suit your needs.

These simple boards are made up of 7 LEDs (8 if you include the dot), and work much like normal LEDs with a common Anode or Cathode connection. This allows them to take one connection to V+ (or GND for common cathode) and be controlled from the pins of your Arduino. By combining these pins in code, you can create numbers and several letters, along with more abstract designs—anything you can dream up using the segments available!

Next on our list is the 5110 display, also affectionately known as the Nokia display due to its wide use in the beloved and nigh indestructible Nokia 3310.

These tiny LCD screens are monochrome and have a screen size of 84 x 48 pixels, but don"t let that fool you. Coming in at around $2 on AliExpress, these displays are incredibly cheap and usually come with a backlight as standard.

Depending on which library you use, the screen can display multiple lines of text in various fonts. It"s also capable of displaying images, and there is free software designed to help get your creations on screen. While the refresh rate is too slow for detailed animations, these screens are hardy enough to be included in long-term, always-on projects.

For a step up in resolution and functionality, an OLED display might be what you are looking for. At first glance, these screens look similar to the 5110 screens, but they are a significant upgrade. The standard 0.96" screens are 128 x 64 monochrome, and come with a backlight as standard.

They connect to your Arduino using I2C, meaning that alongside the V+ and GND pins, only two further pins are required to communicate with the screen. With various sizes and full color options available, these displays are incredibly versatile.

For a project to get you started with OLED displays, our Electronic D20 build will teach you everything you need to know -- and you"ll end up with the ultimate geeky digital dice for your gaming sessions!

These displays can be used in the same way as the others we have mentioned so far, but their refresh rate allows for much more ambitious projects. The basic monochrome screen is available on Amazon.

Thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal displays (TFT LCDs) are in many ways another step up in quality when it comes to options for adding a screen to your Arduino. Available with or without touchscreen functionality, they also add the ability to load bitmap files from an on-board microSD card slot.

Arduino have an official guide for setting up their non-touchscreen TFT LCD screen. For a video tutorial teaching you the basics of setting up the touchscreen version, YouTuber educ8s.tv has you covered:

With the touchscreen editions of these screens costing less than $10 on AliExpress, these displays are another great choice for when you need a nice-looking display for your project.

Looking for something a little different? An E-paper (or E-ink depending on who you ask) display might be right for you. These screens differ from the others giving a much more natural reading experience, it is no surprise that this technology is the cornerstone of almost every e-reader available.

The reason these displays look so good is down to the way they function. Each "pixel" contains charged particles between two electrodes. By switching the charge of each electrode, you can influence the negatively charged black particles to swap places with the positively charged white particles.

This is what gives e-paper such a natural feel. As a bonus, once the ink is moved to its location, it uses no power to keep it there. This makes these displays naturally low-power to operate.

This article has covered most options available for Arduino displays, though there are definitely more weird and wonderful ways to add feedback to your DIY devices.

Now that you have an idea of what is out there, why not incorporate a screen into your DIY smart home setup? If retro gaming is more your thing, why not create some retro games on Arduino?