diy alternatives to lcd displays free sample

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?

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The marketing world concurs; that paper is in the past, all is now digital, and digital signage is everywhere. From the landmark Piccadilly Lights, revamped in 2017 with a state-of-the-art 4K LED screen and running cutting-edge digital signage software, to the iconic Times Square digital screens. Digital signage is all around us.

If you are a business owner or a marketing manager, finding a digital signage solution is a must. 70% of U.S. residents aged 12 or older have seen a digital video display in a public venue in the past month. That is a huge audience you need to make sure you are taking advantage of.

That’s why we’ve put together a list of some of the best digital signage software tools around, to help you make the most out of your digital displays. No matter what your requirements are there is a solution for your needs.

With this digital signage solution, you get the ability to create and schedule playlists on a single interface. This allows you to put multiple pieces of content together and set the displays to cycle through a playlist, instead of having to schedule each piece of content.

Screenly also offers you the ability to display 1080p Full HD images, videos, and live web pages. Usefully, the software automatically detects your TV and monitor dimensions to render your signage in the highest resolution available.

You can use Screenly OSE for free, however, if you want key features such as the ability to manage multiple screens from a single account and cloud-based storage, you’ll need a subscription. A yearly subscription to the Business plan costs $17 a month per screen.

This digital signage software is ideal for a variety of purposes, from displaying business metrics on a dashboard to digital menu boards in a restaurant. For QSRs, an effective digital menu board is particularly important as 29.5% of customers find digital menus influential for the purchase of a product.

Marketing themselves as the first company to offer advanced digital signage to everyone for free, DigitalSignage.com is a browser-based solution that allows you to easily create an amazing digital presentation on your PC. You can then share this to an unlimited number of remote screens. This is the major selling point of DigitaSignage.com, as most options require you to pay for their subscription service to unlock additional screen support. For example, you could have a monitor close to your point of sale and an advertising kiosk, such as the LamasaTech Guida kiosk shown below, as another screen closer to the entrance. Both would be able to display your digital signage content.

The Enterprise edition is DigitalSignage.com’s subscription offering which starts at $49 per month. With this, you gain access to more advanced features such as multi-user management and the advertising manager.

To access all of the features DigitalSignage.com offers you’ll need the Enterprise subscription. However, the free version offers you enough core features to be able to create and display your content.

As for support, DigitalSignage.com provides a wide coverage of help for their users including a live chat available on their website, along with webinars and tutorials.

Concerto is a web-based signage system that is among the most popular. It is praised for its user-friendly and easy-to-use interface. Concerto offers support across multiple platforms, you just need access to a browser. You’ll need a database and server that can run Ruby on Rails (ROR) web applications too.

Features such as content scheduling and multi-screen support are available with this software. You can set what your displays are showing, allowing you to more directly engage with your community via graphical, video and text-based messages.

Part of the reason for its popularity comes from the fact that this convenient tool is open-source, which means the service is free to use and deploy. To run your digital signage software with Concerto you just need to pay for the hardware, such as a freestanding advertising display.

PeakSignage gives you the ability to launch your messaging and monitor your screens from an online dashboard that can be accessed from anywhere in the world via any modern browser.

One of the stand-out features of PeakSignage is the drag-and-drop layout editor. You simply select which element or widget you want to add to your content, then drop it where you’d like it to appear. No set zones for these elements means you have complete flexibility when it comes to designing your digital signage.

PeakSignage also allows you to group your screens, meaning you can easily align the messages on your devices. For example, if you have a window display, like the one shown below, and a few freestanding kiosks in your reception, you could group all of these and have them display your welcome messages. This saves you valuable time, as you only have to create your content once and then push it to the group rather than having to create duplicates for each screen.

A bonus here is that you can use these grouped screens to clearly communicate with your employees as well as customers. Using PeakSignage, you can display useful information such as a calendar of meetings or current targets on your screens. This will improve your internal communications, which can result in a 25% increase in productivity from your staff.

Another useful feature is the Emergency Override. This lets you create an alert, which could include fire exit locations and meeting points, that will be displayed on your screens in the event of an emergency. You can activate the emergency mode from the PeakSignage dashboard and your screens will immediately update to display your alert message. This lets you provide the safety information your customers and staff will need quickly and clearly, helping to improve your on-site safety.

Like with many of the other options listed in this article, Yodeck is a cloud-based digital signage platform. Although Yodeck offers a “free” version, that only includes a single screen and you are required to purchase a Yodeck Player. This means to take full advantage of what Yodeck offers you’ll need to sign up for one of their subscription plans. These are very reasonably priced, which is what makes Yodeck a popular choice. The plans you can choose from are:

In terms of the user interface, Yodeck has a straightforward dashboard making it easy to navigate quickly. Your media files can be pushed to a screen directly from the upload page, so your content can be displayed right away with no downtime. Free templates are also included to help you get started with creating your digital signage.

For the lower price point, Yodeck provides a quick and easy-to-use digital signage solution, however, you will find that the more advanced features that help you organise your content, such as PeakSignage’s alerts, are not here.

ScreenCloud markets itself as a “barrier-free” digital signage solution. This is definitely the case when it comes to connecting the app to your screens, as any media player or even “smart TV” can be used as your screen.

ScreenCloud is designed to be used on any hardware letting you focus on your digital signage content and not finding a compatible device. If your hardware is a “smart device” and is capable of downloading apps, you can download the ScreenCloud app directly onto that device. If it isn’t able to do this, you would need a media player. For commercial use, it is suggested that you use the media player option as this will provide you with a more advanced operating system designed for commercial digital signage.

Sharing dashboards between users securely is also a big part of ScreenCloud’s “barrier-free” aim. Your credentials and details are stored in the cloud and not on any local devices. With this security, you can confidently share your dashboards with other users allowing you each to reflect on real-time data and make changes accordingly. This will help you to increase the speed of your decision-making process.

If you find yourself stuck or unsure how to get started, ScreenCloud provides a range of useful video tutorials to help you. Also, you’ll find further resources and guides on their website if you’re having trouble. These can save you time, especially when you first start, as you can learn exactly how to create and manage your content without having to learn through the time-consuming trial-and-error method.

OptiSigns functions in a similar way to ScreenCloud, as it is an app that can be installed on an Amazon Fire stick to show your digital signage on any TV screen. It can also show content on a video wall if you have a video wall controller, like the one shown below. To learn more about video wall controllers click here.

Once you have connected your screen and added it to your account, you can use the web portal to start assigning content. As with many of the other solutions in this article, you can manage your screens and assign content remotely.

Creating content is done by uploading your images or videos and placing them on the canvas, where they can be positioned and resized. To add more life to your digital signage, OptiSign offers a set of widgets such as date, time and weather, that will alter depending on the location of your screen. The stand-out widget though is the Apps widget. OptiSign has a range of apps that you can link to your content and display, these include:

If you are unsure how to lay out your first design, like with the other solutions mentioned above, OptiSign provides ready-to-use templates to help you create your content. There are more than 500 to choose from, so using the search function provided to narrow down what you are looking for can help save you some time.

OptiSigns subscriptions start at $10 per screen per month. This gives you the basic features you’ll need to create your digital signage. Custom fonts, a feature that helps give your digital signage a more unique look, are unlocked in the Pro plan for $12.50 per screen per month. While you’ll need the Pro Plus plan to access more security features, as well as alerts if your screens are down.

Never underestimate the importance of signs. They are a crucial part of your overall marketing plan and can communicate vital information to customers that can drive sales and improve levels of customer satisfaction. Digital signs are here to stay and could be vitally important to your company.

At LamasaTech we provide solutions that seamlessly combine digital signage software and hardware to meet your exact requirements. To find out more, get in touch with a member of our expert team for a free consultation.

It is not difficult for a sighted person to imagine how being blind or visually impaired could make using a computer difficult. Just close your eyes and you will instantly experience that even processing text is impossible – or impossible without additional software at least. Now a range of software is available that can help to make using a computer an easier, more enjoyable and more productive experience for blind or visually impaired users.

A screen reader is an essential piece of software for a blind or visually impaired person. Simply put, a screen reader transmits whatever text is displayed on the computer screen into a form that a visually impaired user can process (usually tactile, auditory or a combination of both). While the most basic screen readers will not help blind users navigate a computer, those with additional features can give people with visual impairment much more independence.

Whilst most screen readers work by having a synthetic voice that reads text aloud, others can also communicate data via a refreshable braille display. Such screen readers make use of crystals that can expand when exposed to particular voltage levels (thanks to a phenomenon known as the Piezo Effect), allowing visually impaired users to use their fingers to read the text that is displayed on screen. But while screen-reading software can be affordable, such hardware is usually very expensive.

Apple VoiceOver includes options to magnify, keyboard control and verbal descriptions in English to describe what is happening on screen. It also reads aloud file content as well as web pages, E-mail messages and word processing files whilst providing a relatively accurate narrative of the user’s workspace. This covers a wide array of keyboard commands that enable user

ORCA is a Linux based screen reader which has also been evolving for the past number of years. Although it is not the sole Linux-based screen reader, ORCA is definitely the most popular. Recently it has been included with the Ubuntu installation CD, and with a couple of initial key presses it allows blind people to have audible interaction during the installation process.

BRLTTY is a background process (daemon) which provides access to the Linux/Unix console (when in text mode) for a blind person using a refreshable braille display. It drives the braille display, and provides complete screen review functionality. Some speech capability has also been incorporated.

Emacspeak is a free speech interface and that allows visually impaired users to interact independently and efficiently with the computer. Its technology enables it to produce rich aural representation of electronic information. Emacspeak offers audible interface of the different aspects of the Internet such as browsing and messaging as well as local and remote information via a consistent and well-integrated user interface.

WebAnywhere is a web-based screen reader for the web. It requires no special software to be installed on the client machine and, therefore, enables blind people to access the web from any computer they happen to have access to that has a sound card

Spoken-Web is a Web portal, managing a wide range of online data-intensive content like news updates, weather, travel and business articles for computer users who are blind or visually impaired. The site provides a simple, easy-to-use interface for navigating between the different sections and articles. Using the keyboard to navigate, a person who is blind or who has a visual impairment can hear the full range of an article content provided in a logical, clear, and understandable manner.

Such software is essential for blind users to read the content of web pages or communicate with friends and colleagues. As more sophisticated software has been made available to a larger audience, people have begun turning their attention to developing leisure programs that are designed with accessibility in mind. For example, the website blindsoftware.com has an accessible mp3 player to download and a selection of games.

When it comes to universal access, several people with hearing or visual impairments or illnesses have found that it can become a barrier to using traditional software. The goal is to remove those perceived barriers and help them be able to achieve results beyond their imagination. This is why it is important that developers continue to work on making software as accessible as they can for a wide range of people, so everyone can benefit from the powerful tools computers offer.

If you’d like to brush up on Accessibility and get practical skills on the subject, then consider to take the online course on Accessibility. If, on the other hand, you want to go over the basics of UX and Usability, you could take the online course on User Experience. Good luck on your learning journey!

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String lights make everything a little better. So try using them to display the people and places that add a little light to your life. If you get a little creative with how you string them up, you"ll have multiple ways to display photos from just this one idea. (Pro tip: If you want diagonal prints like the example, rotate your images 45 degrees on your phone editor before printing.)

You don’t need a frame to hang it on the wall in an elevated way. A print hanger gives you all the sophistication of a frame plus unique minimalist appeal that can make the space. Just pick a large photo print that you love and slip it into the hanger.

Add a bit of string and tape to turn that fallen branch you found on your hike into unique decor. It’s the perfect way to bring in a natural element amongst your other photo display ideas. (Note: You can also use a hole puncher to string through holes in your prints... your call!)

If you’re looking for a simple solution to a clean look, consider binder clips your new best friend. Find clips with a metallic finish to get a better look and match other decor you might have in your space.

Need new ways to display photos on a table or desk? Easel does it. A small easel can be the perfect alternative to a tabletop frame and makes it simple to swap photos. Just place a stack of your favorite prints on the ledge and change the feature print periodically.

Your walls will thank you for this one. Skip the nail holes for colorful borders by using washi tape to create makeshift frames. By leaving a little space between the prints and tape, you can give it a gallery effect and keep your prints from getting damaged. (This is where the poster tape comes in.)

Have a lot of prints to display? The more photos, the better the grid! We recommend using a ruler to space out your prints to keep your grid clean and consistent. Not to say you can’t also experiment with angles and spacing a bit to produce a more creative photo display. Just make sure you use poster tape so that you don’t damage your wall or prints.

Fencing makes the perfect blank canvas for a unique photo display. Plus, with a little bit of spray paint, you can customize to create an upscale look. A little gold goes a long way! (Pro tip: We used simple fencing from the hardware store to create the display in the photo.)

A Wooden Photo Ledge is a sturdy solution for unique photo display, and still simple to secure to a wall. Don"t want to hang it up? Placing it on the mantle works just as well. Either way, mixing and matching different print sizes can keep things from becoming too uniform. (Hint: Use multiple ledges like the photo above to make the most of your wall.)

Don’t throw out that old wooden ladder sitting in the garage — it’s your ticket to a multi-tier photo display. Tying a string across each rung will give you a line to hang photos. Or, you can choose to punch holes in your prints and tie each photo to the rung. For a little variation, alternate between photos and other items on different rungs.

Have a small space on a mantel or shelf that’s perfect for a print? Use a photo block stand to make it happen with minimal effort. It’s subtle, sleek, lets you easily switch out photos, and gives more stability than standing prints up against other items. Plus, you can put it just about anywhere. (Bonus: Ours is made from reclaimed Colorado black walnut.)

We’re saying no to the stigma against tape. When used the right way, it’s a simple, tasteful shortcut to getting those prints up on the wall. You can use accent tape to add a little color or parchment tape to keep things classic.

Change things up a bit with a welcome twist on the classic tabletop frame. This display box lets you stand your photos up on any surface and store additional prints for easy rotation. Keep a stack of your favorite prints inside the back slot and swap the feature photo out as often as you’d like. (Pro tip: It also makes the perfect bookend.)

Whether it’s a holiday meal or a wedding rehearsal, prints make the perfect table place setting to let your favorite people know exactly where to go. Because a special occasion calls for that little something extra to make guests feel right at home.

These creative ways to display photos without frames are just a start. We"d love to see how you use any of them in your space. Don"t forget to tag us on instagram (@artifactuprising) with your own spin.

About: I"m a High Voltage Electrical Engineer by trade, but I"ve been involved in computers and electronics since my teens. My experience and knowledge ranges from the world of 5V DC up to the world of 132,000V AC. …

I"ve been working on a project that used a 16x2 LCD display and wanted a nice finish that also allowed me to seal against water and other liquids. I also needed impact resistance, low cost and the ability to be changed easily if worn or broken.

2) A small piece of perspex over a cut hole in the enclosure. Cheaper but not so nice finish, showing the full LCD through and any rough enclosure cutting.

3) Looking for access to a laser cutter to make a profiled perspex window that sits through the enclosure hole to sit flush with surface. Difficult tolerances and no depth control with a laser.

So, eventually I tried something else and ended up with what I think is a nice professional finish that is easy to do, cheap, and results in an iPhone type black glass frame style, with a clear window exactly the right size to show the display properly. It can also be easily adapted to any other type or size of display.

Since I"ve been getting more proficient with CADSoft Eagle, I simply used a blank BRD file with mm grid to create my drawing and print at scale on to some card.

I took the original dimensions of the 16x2 LCD display I had and drew it up, including the stand-off holes. I then added an additional 5mm surround to give my bezel additional strength around the fixing holes, and also to make it look better since the holes wouldn"t be right on the edge.

A fine tip permanent pen like a Sharpie or Write-4-All works well on the acrylic. I used 1.5mm clear acrylic sheet for a glass-like finish. You could use different colour acrylic or thicker/thinner to suit your requirements.

For the 16x2 LCD the display area is approx 15mm x 65mm. I made my window 14mm x 64mm so there is a slight overlap to the display so no edges can be seen.

To do this we simply want a piece of tape stuck to this area so that it does not get painted. I used electrical insulation tape as it cuts and peels easily and leaves no residue.

Use a sharp knife to score lightly along the inside edges of the window area. Pay careful attention to meeting up in the corners so that our tape has a continuous rectangular cut.

These correspond exactly to the stand-off holes in the LCD PCB. This means we can use a single metal or plastic bolt to mount both our bezel and the LCD when finished.

Lay the piece on top of a scrap piece of timber. I used a bit of 1/4" ply. I also put a piece of the protective film underneath to stop the acrylic picking up any dust and fibres as much as possible.

Remove the template and then re-drill with the correct sized drill bit. I used a 3.5mm bit to give me a slight play to offset any error due to manual drilling.

We now want to spray paint the area that will be the bezel outer border. Choose your colour for this, although I used black and found it produced a lovely black glass type finish.

Use some of the insulation tape doubled back on itself to act as double sided tape and mount the acrylic piece to some backing paper or card. The masking tape applied already should be FACE UP.

Mounting the piece is to make sure it doesn"t get blown around by the force of the spray can, as we don"t want overspray onto the other side of the acrylic.

EDIT: On making one for a 64x128 1.8" TFT display it occurred to me that we can simply mask the back side of the acrylic completely. This ensures 100% that you don"t get any overspray on what will become the top face. When everything is dry just peel off the masking on the other side too.

Take the piece into a well ventilated area before spraying. Outdoors is best, or a garage with open door. The paint has quite an odour until fully dry.

Apply a generous coating of spray paint from a distance of 15-25cm minimum. DO light coats and repeat as necessary. Take care to also paint the acrylic edges if you want this, although these will appear coloured anyway.

You now have clear acrylic top face with a painted underside. The top is nice and shiny and the coloured finish cannot be marked or worn away as it will be face down on your enclosure.

You can now mount the bezel to your enclosure, using the mounting holes and some 3mm bolts. The same bolts can be used to mount the LCD behind. I found 3mm x 20mm bolts are ideal. You can also use nylon ones that are used for PCB stand-offs.

This is the first instructable I have made so please take a moment to leave feedback on anything you think could be improved, or if this helped you in any way.

Awesome idea! I"m just starting on an Arduino based chess timer project with a small VFD display and a couple of those big "arcade" style microswitch buttons for my son and was thinking about how to make a decent looking hole / bezel for the display. Your instructable solved my problem elegantly! Thanks and thumbs up for you!

P.S. An easy way to cut plastic sheet is to use a metal ruler / straight edge. Apply a piece of double sided tape to it. Then mark the sheet where it is to be cut and stick the ruler to the sheet, aligned with the marks. The area you WANT should be under the ruler and the "scrap" area exposed.

Then use a new, sharp razor blade or X-acto knife and score a line into the plastic. Make at least 10 to 15 passes, half one direction and half the other. Press firmly down, but not TOO hard. While still stuck to the ruler, carefully bend the free part of the plastic sheet and bend it AWAY from the score line.

This is similar to cutting glass. You create a stress concentration point and the sheet breaks at that point. Maybe I should make an Instructable of the technique! LOL!0

The types of flathead countersunk hex head bolts in the attached picture are great for such projects, especially the black bolts. I"ve used them a lot for such panels and also for mounting black items like IEC mains input sockets. They provide a fantastic finish, you just have to be careful and precise with your countersinking. Available on eBay from various sources. I use the M3 type most often but other sizes are available. I"d avoid pan-heads of a different colour on the outside as they don"t look nearly as professional as the countersunk flatheads. If you don"t want to countersink then use the button head ones, they look much nicer than the pan heads.

I"ve used the milled edge rebate technique in the past to produce a flush finish and it works great ... IF you can get someone to do the milling for you. I was lucky, I did. You don"t NEED a CNC machine but a plain old milling machine IS required for a really good accurate finish. If you have a decent pillar drill, you can use a simple cross feed milling table to do the milling with your drill. eBay has a great one for under £50 that I"m planning on getting.

However, you CAN achieve the effect by taking advantage of the ability of true perspex to be acetone welded invisibly and you build the total from the top piece that fits exactly into the cutout hole (very accurate cutting, filing and trimming is needed. Then before black painting the reverse, acetone weld a complete piece over the top piece like a layer cake. the second layer is larger than the first so provides the rebate step. It"s tricky but can be very successful. You can then black mask the rear as before.

Another trick is to use stand-offs behind the front panel, bolted to the front panel via countersunk holes at the front with the relevant bolts, then mount the operstional display etc to the stand-offs. The front bezel can then be applied OVER the countersunk bolts using double-sided adhesive or using a silicone bead as it should never need to come off again. I am using this process currently for a frequency meter display.

Nice design. How did you get round the paint being peeling off when you remove the tape? I"d have thought you"d need to score exactly on the edge of the tape before you remove it!0

In a canvas app, add a calendar screen that shows users upcoming events from their Office 365 Outlook accounts. Users can select a date from a calendar and scroll through a list of that day"s events. You can change which details appear in the list, add a second screen that shows more details about each event, show a list of attendees for each event, and make other customizations.

You can also add other template-based screens that show different data from Office 365, such as email, people in an organization, and availability of people users might want to invite to a meeting.

The following steps assume that you"ve added only one calendar screen to the app. If you"ve added more than one, control names (such as iconCalendar1) will end with a different number, and you"ll need to adjust the formulas accordingly.

If the calendar screen isn"t the default screen, add a button that navigates from the default screen to the calendar screen so that you can test the app.

By default, the gallery under the calendar, named CalendarEventsGallery, shows the start time, the duration, the subject, and the location of each event. You can configure the gallery to show any field (such as the organizer) that the Office 365 connector supports.

In many offices, team members send meeting requests to notify each other when they"ll be away from the office. To avoid blocking everyone"s schedules, the person sending the request sets its availability to Free. You can hide these events from the calendar and the gallery by updating a couple of properties.

In this formula, the Filter function hides not only those events that are scheduled for a date other than the one selected but also events for which the availability is set to Free.

This formula contains the same filters as the previous formula. Therefore, the event-indicator circle appears under a date only if it has one or more events that are on the selected date and for which the availability isn"t set to Free.

The calendar screen is a powerful bundle of controls in its own right, but it usually performs best as part of a larger, more versatile app. You can integrate this screen into a larger app in a number of ways, including adding these options:

This formula creates a gallery of dynamic data that"s set to the field values of _selectedCalendarEvent, which is set every time the user selects an event in the CalendarEventsGallery control. You can extend this gallery to include more fields by adding more labels to it, but this set provides a good starting point.

With the gallery items in place, set the Text property of the Label control to ThisItem.Title, and the HtmlText property of the HTML text control to ThisItem.Value.

To retrieve the Office 365 profiles of the meeting attendees, set the OnSelect property of the Title control in the CalendarEventsGallery to this formula:

This formula concatenates the required and optional attendees into a single string and then splits that string into individual addresses at each semicolon. The formula then filters out blank values from that set and adds the other values into a collection named AttendeeEmailsTemp.

This formula roughly determines whether an attendee is in your organization. The definition of _userDomain is simply the domain URL in the email address of the person who"s running the app. This line creates an additional true/false column, named InOrg, in the AttendeeEmailsTemp collection. This column contains true if userDomain is equivalent to the domain URL of the email address in that particular row of AttendeeEmailsTemp.

This approach isn"t always accurate, but it gets pretty close. For example, certain attendees in your org might have an email address like Jane@OnContoso.com, whereas _userDomain is Contoso.com. The app user and Jane might work at the same company but have slight variations in their email addresses. For cases such as these, you might want to use this formula:

However, this formula matches email addresses like Jane@NotTheContosoCompany.com with a _userDomain like Contoso.com, and those people don"t work at the same company.

To retrieve Office 365 profiles, you must use the Office365Users.UserProfile or Office365Users.UserProfileV2 operation. These operations first gather all the Office 365 profiles for attendees who are in the user"s org. Then the operations add a few fields for attendees from outside the organization. You separated these two items into distinct operations because the ForAll loop doesn"t guarantee order. Therefore, ForAll might collect an attendee from outside the organization first. In this case, the schema for MyPeople contains only DisplayName, Id, JobTitle, and UserPrincipalName. However, the UserProfile operations retrieve much richer data than that. So you force the MyPeople collection to add Office 365 profiles before the other profiles.

In the OnSelect property of the Title control in the CalendarEventsGallery, add a Navigate function to the screen that you created in the previous step.

You can do verification measurements to assess the display chain"s (display profile - video card and the calibration curves in its gamma table - monitor) fit to the measured data, or to find out about the soft proofing capabilities of the display chain. You can also do a profile or device link (3D LUT) self check without having to take any further measurements by holding the “alt” key on your keyboard.

To check the fit to the measurement data, you have to select a CGATS testchart file containing device values (RGB). The measured values are then compared to the values obtained by feeding the device RGB numbers through the display profile (measured vs expected values). The default verification chart contains 26 patches and can be used, for example, to check if a display needs to be re-profiled. If a RGB testchart with gray patches (R=G=B) is measured, like the default and extended verification charts, you also have the option to evaluate the graybalance through the calibration only, by placing a check in the corresponding box on the report.

To perform a check on the soft proofing capabilities, you have to provide a CGATS reference file containing XYZ or L*a*b* data, or a combination of simulation profile and testchart file, which will be fed through the display profile to lookup corresponding device (RGB) values, and then be sent to the display and measured. Afterwards, the measured values are compared to the original XYZ or L*a*b* values, which can give a hint how suitable (or unsuitable) the display is for softproofing to the colorspace indicated by the reference.

The profile that is to be evaluated can be chosen freely. You can select it in DisplayCAL"s main window under “settings”. The report files generated after the verification measurements are plain HTML with some embedded JavaScript, and are fully self-contained. They also contain the reference and measurement data, which consists of device RGB numbers, original measured XYZ values, and D50-adapted L*a*b* values computed from the XYZ numbers, and which can be examined as plain text directly from the report at the click of a button.

Select the profile you want to evaluate under “Settings” (for evaluating 3D LUTs and DeviceLink profiles, this setting has significance for a Rec. 1886 or custom gamma tone response curve, because they depend on the black level).

There are two sets of default verification charts in different sizes, one for general use and one for Rec. 709 video. The “small” and “extended” versions can be used for a quick to moderate check to see if a display should be re-profiled, or if the used profile/3D LUT is any good to begin with. The “large” and “xl” versions can be used for a more thorough check. Also, you can create your own customized verification charts with the testchart editor.

In this case, you want to use a testchart with RGB device values and no simulation profile. Select a suitable file under “testchart or reference” and disable “simulation profile”. Other settings that do not apply in this case will be grayed out.

or use a combination of testchart with RGB or CMYK device values and an RGB or CMYK simulation profile (for an RGB testchart, it will only allow you to use an RGB simulation profile and vice versa, and equally a CMYK testchart needs to be used with a CMYK simulation profile)

Whitepoint simulation. If you are using a reference file that contains device white (100% RGB or 0% CMYK), or if you use a combination of testchart and simulation profile, you can choose if you want whitepoint simulation of the reference or simulation profile, and if so, if you want the whitepoint simulated relative to the display profile whitepoint. To explain the latter option: Let"s assume a reference has a whitepoint that is slightly blueish (compared to D50), and a display profile has a whitepoint that is more blueish (compared to D50). If you do not choose to simulate the reference white relative to the display profile whitepoint, and the display profile"s gamut is large and accurate enough to accomodate the reference white, then that is exactly what you will get. Depending on the adaptation state of your eyes though, it may be reasonable to assume that you are to a large extent adapted to the display profile whitepoint (assuming it is valid for the device), and the simulated whitepoint will look a little yellowish compared to the display profile whitepoint. In this case, choosing to simulate the whitepoint relative to that of the display profile may give you a better visual match e.g. in a softproofing scenario where you compare to a hardcopy proof under a certain illuminant, that is close to but not quite D50, and the display whitepoint has been matched to that illuminant. It will “add” the simulated whitepoint “on top” of the display profile whitepoint, so in our example the simulated whitepoint will be even more blueish than that of the display profile alone.

Using the simulation profile as display profile will override the profile set under “Settings”. Whitepoint simulation does not apply here because color management will not be used and the display device is expected to be in the state described by the simulation profile. This may be accomplished in several ways, for example the display may be calibrated internally or externally, by a 3D LUT or device link profile. If this setting is enabled, a few other options will be available:

Enable 3D LUT (if using the madVR display device/madTPG under Windows, or a Prisma video processor). This allows you to check how well the 3D LUT transforms the simulation colorspace to the display colorspace. Note this setting can not be used together with a DeviceLink profile.

DeviceLink profile. This allows you to check how well the DeviceLink transforms the simulation colorspace to the display colorspace. Note this setting can not be used together with the “Enable 3D LUT” setting.

Tone response curve. If you are evaluating a 3D LUT or DeviceLink profile, choose the same settings here as during 3D LUT/DeviceLink creation (and also make sure the same display profile is set, because it is used to map the blackpoint).

To check a display that does not have an associated profile (e.g. “Untethered”), set the verification tone curve to “Unmodified”. In case you want to verify against a different tone response curve instead, you need to create a synthetic profile for this purpose (“Tools” menu).

The nominal tolerances, with the whitepoint, average, maximum and gray balance Delta E CIE 1976 aim values stemming from UGRA/Fogra Media Wedge and UDACT, are pretty generous, so I"ve included somewhat stricter “recommended” numbers which I"ve chosen more or less arbitrarily to provide a bit “extra safety margin”.

For reports generated from reference files that contain CMYK numbers in addition to L*a*b* or XYZ values, you can also select the official Fogra Media Wedge V3 or IDEAlliance Control Strip aim values for paper white, CMYK solids and CMY grey, if the chart contains the right CMYK combinations.

This depends on the chart that was measured. The explanation in the first paragraph sums it up pretty well: If you have calibrated and profiled your display, and want to check how well the profile fits a set of measurements (profile accuracy), or if you want to know if your display has drifted and needs to be re-calibrated/re-profiled, you select a chart containing RGB numbers for the verification. Note that directly after profiling, accuracy can be expected to be high if the profile characterizes the display well, which will usually be the case if the display behaviour is not very non-linear, in which case creating a LUT profile instead of a “Curves + matrix” one, or increasing the number of measured patches for LUT profiles, can help.

If you want to know how well your profile can simulate another colorspace (softproofing), select a reference file containing L*a*b* or XYZ values, like one of the Fogra Media Wedge subsets, or a combination of a simulation profile and testchart. Be warned though, only wide-gamut displays will handle a larger offset printing colorspace like FOGRA39 or similar well enough.

In both cases, you should check that atleast the nominal tolerances are not exceeded. For a bit “extra safety margin”, look at the recommended values instead.

Note that both tests are “closed-loop” and will not tell you an “absolute” truth in terms of “color quality” or “color accuracy” as they may not show if your instrument is faulty/measures wrong (a profile created from repeatable wrong measurements will usually still verify well against other wrong measurements from the same instrument if they don"t fluctuate too much) or does not cope with your display well (which is especially true for colorimeters and wide-gamut screens, as such combinations need a correction in hardware or software to obtain accurate results), or if colors on your screen match an actual colored object next to it (like a print). It is perfectly possible to obtain good verification results but the actual visual performance being sub-par. It is always wise to combine such measurements with a test of the actual visual appearance via a “known good” reference, like a print or proof (although it should not be forgotten that those also have tolerances, and illumination also plays a big role when assessing visual results). Keep all that in mind when admiring (or pulling your hair out over) verification results :)

Different softwares use different methods (which are not always disclosed in detail) to compare and evaluate measurements. This section aims to give interested users a better insight how DisplayCAL"s profile verification feature works “under the hood”.

There are currently two slightly different paths depending if a testchart or reference file is used for the verification measurements, as outlined above. In both cases, Argyll"s xicclu utility is run behind the scenes and the values of the testchart or reference file are fed relative colorimetrically (if no whitepoint simualtion is used) or absolute colorimetrically (if whitepoint simulation is used) through the profile that is tested to obtain corresponding L*a*b* (in the case of RGB testcharts) or device RGB numbers (in the case of XYZ or L*a*b* reference files or a combination of simulation profile and testchart). If a combination of simulation profile and testchart is used as reference, the reference L*a*b* values are calculated by feeding the device numbers from the testchart through the simulation profile absolute colorimetrically if whitepoint simulation is enabled (which will be the default if the simulation profile is a printer profile) and relative colorimetrically if whitepoint simulation is disabled (which will be the default if the simulation profile is a display profile, like most RGB working spaces). Then, the original RGB values from the testchart, or the looked up RGB values for a reference are sent to the display through the calibration curves of the profile that is going to be evaluated. A reference white of D50 (ICC default) and complete chromatic adaption of the viewer to the display"s whitepoint is assumed if “simulate whitepoint relative to display profile whitepoint” is used, so the measured XYZ values are adapted to D50 (with the measured whitepoint as source reference white) using the Bradford transform (see Chromatic Adaption on Bruce Lindbloom"s website for the formula and matrix that is used by DisplayCAL) or with the adaption matrix from the profile in the case of profiles with "chad" chromatic adaption tag, and converted to L*a*b*. The L*a*b* values are then compared by the generated dynamic report, with user-selectable critera and ΔE (delta E) formula.

In a report, the correlated color temperature and assumed target whitepoint, as well as the whitepoint ΔE, do warrant some further explanations: The whitepoint ΔE is calculated as difference between the measured whitepoint"s and the assumed target whitepoint"s normalized XYZ values, which are first converted to L*a*b*. The assumed target whitepoint color temperature shown is simply the rounded correlated color temparature (100K threshold) calculated from the measured XYZ values. The XYZ values for the assumed target whitepoint are obtained by calculating the chromaticity (xy) coordinates of a CIE D (daylight) or blackbody illuminant of that color temperature and converting them to XYZ. You can find all the used formulas on Bruce Lindbloom"s website and on Wikipedia.

The gray balance “range” uses a combined delta a/delta b absolute deviation (e.g. if max delta a = -0.5 and max delta b = 0.7, the range is 1.2). Because results in the extreme darks can be problematic due to lack of instrument accuracy and other effects like a black point which has a different chromaticity than the whitepoint, the gray balance check in DisplayCAL only takes into account gray patches with a minimum measured luminance of 1% (i.e. if the white luminance = 120 cd/m², then only patches with at least 1.2 cd/m² will be taken into account).

It sets the nominal (target) L* value to the measured L* value and a*=b*=0, so the profile is effectively ignored and only the calibration (if any) will influence the results of the gray balance checks. Note that this option will not make a difference for a “Single curve + matrix” profile, as the single curve effectively already achieves a similar thing (the L* values can be different, but they are ignored for the gray balance checks and only influence the overall result).

If you enable “Use absolute values” on a report, the chromatic adaptation to D50 is undone (but the refrence white for the XYZ to L*a*b* conversion stays D50). This mode is useful when checking softproofing results using a CMYK simulation profile, and will be automatically enabled if you used whitepoint simulation during verification setup without enabling whitepoint simulation relative to the profile whitepoint (true absolute colorimetric mode). If you enable “Use display profile whitepoint as reference white”, then the reference white used for the XYZ to L*a*b* conversion will be that of the display profile, which is useful when verifying video calibrations where the target is usually some standard color space like Rec. 709 with a D65 equivalent whitepoint.

From Figure 3 above we can see that the DDRAM controller should have a memory map of 104 bytes (00H to 67H = 68H = 104D), but the location that can be used is only 80 bytes 00H-27H (40 bytes) and 40H-67H (40 bytes); Note that the 28H-3FH address (24 location) is not visible.

LCD connected to this controller will adjust itself to the memory map of this DDRAM controller; each location on the LCD will take 1 DDRAM address on the controller. Because we use 2 × 16 type LCD, the first line of the LCD will take the location of the 00H-0FH addresses and the second line will take the 40H-4FH addresses of the controller DDRAM; so neither the addresses of the 10H-27H on the first line or the addresses of the 50H-67H on the second line on DDRAM is used.

To be able to display a character on the first line of the LCD, we must provide written instructions (80h + DDRAM address where our character is to be displayed on the first line) in the Instruction Register-IR and then followed by writing the ASCII code of the character or address of the character stored on the CGROM or CGRAM on the LCD controller data register, as well as to display characters in the second row we must provide written instructions (C0H + DDRAM address where our character to be displayed on the second line) in the Instructions Register-IR and then followed by writing the ASCII code or address of the character on CGROM or CGRAM on the LCD controller data register.

As mentioned above, to display a character (ASCII) you want to show on the LCD, you need to send the ASCII code to the LCD controller data register-DR. For characters from CGROM and CGRAM we only need to send the address of the character where the character is stored; unlike the character of the ASCII code, we must write the ASCII code of the character we want to display on the LCD controller data register to display it. For special characters stored on CGRAM, one must first save the special character at the CGRAM address (prepared 64 addresses, namely addresses 0–63); A special character with a size of 5 × 8 (5 columns × 8 lines) requires eight consecutive addresses to store it, so the total special characters that can be saved or stored on the CGRAM addresses are only eight (8) characters. To be able to save a special character at the first CGRAM address we must send or write 40H instruction to the Instruction Register-IR followed by writing eight consecutive bytes of the data in the Data Register-DR to save the pattern/image of a special character that you want to display on the LCD [9, 10].

We can easily connect this LCD module (LCD + controller) with MCS51, and we do not need any additional electronic equipment as the interface between MCS51 and it; This is because this LCD works with the TTL logic level voltage—Transistor-Transistor Logic.

The voltage source of this display is +5 V connected to Pin 2 (VCC) and GND power supply connected to Pin 1 (VSS) and Pin 16 (GND); Pin 1 (VSS) and Pin 16 (GND) are combined together and connected to the GND of the power supply.

Pins 7–14 (8 Pins) of the display function as a channel to transmit either data or instruction with a channel width of 1 byte (D0-D7) between the display and MCS51. In Figure 6, it can be seen that each Pin connected to the data bus (D0-D7) of MCS51 in this case P0 (80h); P0.0-P0.7 MCS-51 connected to D0-D7 of the LCD.

Pins 4–6 are used to control the performance of the display. Pin 4 (Register Select-RS) is in charge of selecting one of the 2 display registers. If RS is given logic 0 then the selected register is the Instruction Register-IR, otherwise, if RS is given logic 1 then the selected register is the Data Register-DR. The implication of this selection is the meaning of the signal sent down through the data bus (D0-D7), if RS = 0, then the signal sent from the MCS-51 to the LCD is an instruction; usually used to configure the LCD, otherwise if RS = 1 then the data sent from the MCS-51 to the LCD (D0-D7) is the data (object or character) you want to display on the LCD. From Figure 6 Pin 4 (RS) is connected to Pin 16 (P3.6/W¯) of MCS-51 with the address (B6H).

Pin 5 (R/W¯)) of the LCD does not appear in Figure 6 is used for read/write operations. If Pin 5 is given logic 1, the operation is a read operation; reading the data from the LCD. Data will be copied from the LCD data register to MCS-51 via the data bus (D0-D7), namely Pins 7–14 of the LCD. Conversely, if Pin 5 is given a voltage with logical 0 then the operation is a write operation; the signal will be sent from the MCS51 to LCD through the LCD Pins (Pins 7–14); The signal sent can be in the form of data or instructions depending on the logic level input to the Register Select-RS Pin, as described above before if RS = 0 then the signal sent is an instruction, vice versa if the RS = 1 then the signal sent/written is the data you want to display. Usually, Pin 5 of the LCD is connected with the power supply GND, because we will never read data from the LCD data register, but only send instructions for the LCD work configuration or the data you want to display on the LCD.

Pin 6 of the LCD (EN¯) is a Pin used to enable the LCD. The LCD will be enabled with the entry of changes in the signal level from high (1) to low (0) on Pin 6. If Pin 6 gets the voltage of logic level either 1 or 0 then the LCD will be disabled; it will only be enabled when there is a change of the voltage level in Pin 6 from high logic level to low logic level for more than 1000 microseconds (1 millisecond), and we can send either instruction or data to processed during that enable time of Pin 6.

Pin 3 and Pin 15 are used to regulate the brightness of the BPL (Back Plane Light). As mentioned above before the LCD operates on the principle of continuing or inhibiting the light passing through it; instead of producing light by itself. The light source comes from LED behind this LCD called BPL. Light brightness from BPL can be set by using a potentiometer or a trimpot. From Figure 6 Pin 3 (VEE) is used to regulate the brightness of BPL (by changing the current that enters BPL by using a potentiometers/a trimpot). While Pin 15 (BPL) is a Pin used for the sink of BPL LED.

4RSRegister selector on the LCD, if RS = 0 then the selected register is an instruction register (the operation to be performed is a write operation/LCD configuration if Pin 5 (R/W¯) is given a logic 0), if RS = 1 then the selected register is a data register; if (R/W¯) = 0 then the operation performed is a data write operation to the LCD, otherwise if (R/W¯) = 1 then the operation performed is a read operation (data will be sent from the LCD to μC (microcontroller); it is usually used to read the busy bit/Busy Flag- BF of the LCD (bit 7/D7).

5(R/W¯)Sets the operating mode, logic 1 for reading operations and logic 0 for write operations, the information read from the LCD to μC is data, while information written to the LCD from μC can be data to be displayed or instructions used to configure the LCD. Usually, this Pin is connected to the GND of the power supply because we will never read data from the LCD but only write instructions to configure it or write data to the LCD register to be displayed.

6Enable¯The LCD is not active when Enable Pin is either 1 or 0 logic. The LCD will be active if there is a change from logic 1 to logic 0; information can be read or written at the time the change occurs.

To support as many screen sizes as possible, design your app layouts to be responsive and adaptive. Responsive/adaptive layouts provide an optimized user experience regardless of screen size, enabling your app to accommodate phones, tablets, foldable and Chrome OS devices, portrait and landscape orientations, and resizable configurations such as multi-window mode.

Window size classes are a set of opinionated viewport breakpoints that help you design, develop, and test responsive and adaptive application layouts. The breakpoints have been chosen specifically to balance layout simplicity with the flexibility to optimize your app for uni