diy custom lcd display price

Looking to take your project to the next level in terms of functionality and appearance? A custom LCD display might be the thing that gets you there, at least compared to the dot-matrix or seven-segment displays that anyone and their uncle can buy from the usual sources for pennies. But how does one create such a thing, and what are the costs involved? As is so often the case these days, it’s simpler and cheaper than you think, and [Dave Jones] has a great primer on designing and specifying custom LCDs.

The video below is part of an ongoing series; a previous video covered the design process, turning the design into a spec, and choosing a manufacturer; another discussed the manufacturer’s design document approval and developing a test plan for the module. This one shows the testing plan in action on the insanely cheap modules – [Dave] was able to have a small run of five modules made up for only $138, which included $33 shipping. The display is for a custom power supply and has over 200 segments, including four numeric sections, a clock display, a bar graph, and custom icons for volts, amps, millijoules, and watt-hours. It’s a big piece of glass and the quality is remarkable for the price. It’s not perfect – [Dave] noted a group of segments on the same common lines that were a bit dimmer than the rest, but was able to work around it by tweaking the supply voltage a bit.

We’re amazed at how low the barrier to entry into custom electronics has become, and even if you don’t need a custom LCD, at these prices it’s tempting to order one just because you can. Of course, you can also build your own LCD display completely from scratch too.

Once it’s recognized that a custom display will be a better design and lead to a lower overall system-level cost it’s time to dive into the actual tooling costs.

There are many factors that go into determining the upfront tooling. There’s also due diligence to be performed prior to making this commitment to ensure that this new custom display supplier will effectively support you over the long term.

Customization can either be semi-custom or fully custom. Semi-custom is where some attributes of a standard product are modified to fit the application. In contrast, fully custom is where the design is started from scratch and each component is designed from the ground up.

Semi-custom is typically the preferred option to start with. And in the case of color TFT, it’s typically the only option, as the TFT panel comes with a significant tooling and minimum order quantity (MOQ) such that the customization costs outweigh the drawbacks of using the closest standard TFT glass platform available.

b) Custom color TFT displays— the bulk of this cost comes from the TFT glass cell at $70K–$200K depending on the type of TFT cell used (standard TN or IPS). The balance of the module is an additional $5,000 – $15,000.

f) Touch panels— resistive touch panels cost approximately $2,500, while capacitive touch panels can range between $4,000 and $10,000. If a standard capacitive touch sensor can be used, and only a custom top surface is customized, the tooling can be reduced to only $1,500.

g) Backlights— monochrome display backlights are less complex and cheaper to tool at $2,000 – $4,000. The color counterpart, due to its high brightness requirement, will run between $4,000 and $10,000.

Now that we’ve reviewed some of the costs associated with custom displays, here are some tips you can use to make sure that you move forward with the right partner that will then support this custom display for the long term.

Many LCD display manufacturers try to accommodate all order volumes they receive. While this allows them to serve a wider range of customers, it makes them less specialized for serving certain types of customers. As a result, your specific production volumes may be prohibitively expensive.

Seek out a display manufacturer who is optimized to handle your specific production needs for LCD displays. This is necessary to get the display for the right cost and the appropriate level of support.

Always start with a semi-custom approach. Use the available standard products to base the new design on, and then keep modifying as needed. This results in the lowest tooling costs and an easier design process. And in the case of color TFT, unless you are developing the next iPhone, design your display based on one of the standard glass platforms readily available. Then from there, redesign the backlight and the mechanical and electrical interface for your specific application.

Behind every great company are happy customers. Find out whether your supplier has them. Make sure that when this experience is handed off from your supplier’s sales and design team, the production team is just as good and accommodating. This can be accomplished through references and audits.

Initiating a successful relationship for a new custom display is all about having an open and transparent relationship with the right partner. And by designing the ideal custom or semi-custom display with this partner, you can ensure you’re getting the best possible solution for your company.

Liquid Crystal Displays or more commonly known as LCDs are one of the most common electronic components which help us interact with an equipment or a device. Most personal portable equipment and even gigantic industrial equipment utilize a custom segment display to display data. For many portable consumer electronics, a segment LCD display is one of the biggest contributors to the overall cost of the device, hence designing a custom segment display can drive the cost down while also utilizing the display area in the most optimum manner. These displays have the lowest cost per piece, low power requirements, and a low tooling fee too.

At first thought, designing a custom segment LCD might look like a Herculean task, but trust me that it is easier than it seems. In this article, we have summarised and compared the display types and available technologies which are required to construct a custom segment LCD. We have also provided a flowchart that can act as a step-by-step guide while you design your own custom LCD. We have also provided the process we followed, a require gathering sheet we used for communicating our needs to the manufacturer, and a few other data and the quotation we received from the manufacturer.

Icons: A silhouette of any shape can be placed on the glass which enhances the ability to display data. For example, a symbol of a heart can be made to denote heart rate or an icon for a low battery to show that the battery needs to be charged. Icons are counted as a single pixel or segment and can give a lot more details than similar-sized text.

LCD Bias– It denotes the number of different voltage levels used in driving the segments, static drives (explained later in this article) only have 2 voltage levels or 2 bias voltage while multiplex drives have multiple voltage levels. For example, 1/3 will have 4 bias voltages.

LCDs utilizes the light modulating properties of liquid crystals which can be observed by using polarizing filters. Polarizing filters are special materials that have their molecules aligned in the same direction. If the light waves passing through polarisers have the same orientation as the filter, then the molecules of lights are absorbed by the filter, hence reducing the intensity of light passing through it, making it visible.

A custom LCD is important for maximizing the efficiency of the display area by adding custom symbols and characters. It also helps in reducing the cost and improving energy efficiency of the product. A higher number of custom symbols and specified placement of numerical and alphanumerical characters make the display more informative and readable for the user. This makes it look better than the plain old boring displays we get in the market. Furthermore, we can specify the viewing angle, contrast, and other specifications which can increase durability or give a better value for money for our intended usage.  A typical Custom Segment display is shown below, we will also show you how to design and fabricate the same further in the article.

The LCD display doesn’t emit any light of its own, therefore it requires an external source of illumination or reflector to be readable in dark environments.

While designing a custom segment LCD display, we have the leverage of choosing a lot of parameters that affect the final product. From the color of the display to the illumination technique and color of illumination as well as the type of input pins. Some important considerations we need to take while designing a custom 7 segment display are - the type of display, i.e. positive or negative, illumination method, driving technique, polarising type, and connection method. All these design criteria are explained below:

Positive and negative displays can be easily distinguished by the colour of the background and characters. Some common differences between the positive and negative displays are:

So, which one should you choose? When the displays are to be used in areas with higher ambient light, we should select positive segment LCD display as it has better visibility than negative segment LCD displays without using a backlight.

As we know that LED displays don’t emit any light, hence to illuminate it and make it visible in a dark environment, we can use different methods of illumination. The most common LCD Illumination methods are compared below:

For displays that need to be used for budget-friendly devices that should be small and rugged, LED lights are preferred for the displays due to the high durability and low cost of operations. For high brightness, CCFL and Incandescent lights can be used.

A polarizer film is the most important component of an LCD display, which makes it possible to display characters by controlling the light. There are 3 types of polarizers that can be used in the LCD display, the properties and difference are given below:

Displays can be categorized into two types, passive displays, and active display, passive displays are simpler to construct as they have 2 connections at each segment, the conductors comprise of an Indium Tin Oxide to create an image, whereas the active displays use thin-film transistors (TFT) arranged in a grid. The name is due to its ability to control each pixel individually.

If your displays have fewer segments, then static LCD drive is preferred as it is easier to control and cheaper to construct, and has a better contrast ratio. But let’s say that if the number of segments in the display are more than 30-40 then a multiplex LCD drive should be preferred as it has multiple common pins, hence reducing the total number of pins required to drive the display.

Choosing a connector type!!! For the prototyping phase or if you need to connect your LCD display on a Microcontroller directly, a pin type connector is the best and most economical option you have. If you need to connect your LCD display in a final product with a high volume of production which also requires to be extremely durable, but at the same time should not take up a lot of space, a Flex type LCD Connector will work best for you

LCDs have limited viewing angles and when seen from an angle they lose contrast and are difficult to be observed.  The viewing angle is defined by the angles perpendicular to the center of the display towards its right, left, up, and down which are denoted by the notations 3:00, 9:00, 12:00, and 6:00 respectively. The viewing angle of LCD can be defined as the angle w.r.t. to the bias angle at which the contrast of segments is legible.

To improve the viewing angle in an LCD, a Bias is incorporated in the design which shifts the nominal viewing angle with an offset. Another technique is to increase the Voltage, it affects the bias angle, making the display crisper when viewed from a direction.

For example, the viewing angle of a TN type TFT LCD is 45-65 degrees. Extra-wide polarising film (EWP) can increase the viewing angle by 10 degrees, using an O film polariser can make the viewing angles 75 degrees but these come at a cost of reduced contrast.

LCD Control chip or LCD driver chips can be mounted on the flex cable, display, or externally on a PCB. The placement of LCD control chip can affect the cost and size of the display. The 2 most common methods of chip placement are-Chip of Board (COB)and Chip on Glass(COG) which are described below:

We planned to design an air quality monitoring system for which we needed a custom segment LCD panel for an air quality monitoring device. Our product needs to display the following data: 2.5-micron and 10-micron particulate matter (PM) suspended in the air; the units should be in parts per million (PPM). CO2 in the air in PPM along with total volatile organic compounds present in the air in parts per billion (PPB). To make the product more usable, we included time in 24-hour format, Temperature in ºC, Battery status, loudspeaker status, Bluetooth status, and Wi-Fi status. And for some personal touch, we also added how good the air quality in the room is by using 3 different smileys.

We realized that it was impossible to provide all these data in a generic LCD available in the market, thus decided to build a custom LCD for our project.

A step-by-step flowchart is shown below to walk you through each and every step of selecting components and getting your custom segment LCD manufactured.

We started by listing down our requirements and drew a mock-up of the display on paper. After finalizing the placement of all the segments and icons on the prototype sketch of the display, we then decided which all icons and segments have to be kept on for the whole time and which needs to be driven. Realizing that there are too many segments, characters and icons, hence we selected a multiplex drive with 8 common pins which helped us bring down the total pins from an estimated 180 pins to less than 40 pins.

Since the device was meant to be used inside houses and offices, which are more often than not well lit and protected from environmental conditions, we opted for a positive mode display. For superior contrast ratio and better viewing angle, we chose a Film Super Twisted Nematic Display (FSTN) with a drive condition of 1/8 Duty and bias of 1/4.

Usually, the displays are mounted at a height of 4.5 feet from the ground, thus the viewing direction was selected to be 12"O clock with an operating frequency of 64Hz. We selected a Transmissive polarizer for the front glass and a reflective polarizer for the rear glass so that the natural light can pass through the front panel and the display can achieve the maximum contrast without the need for backlighting and we opted for the pin type connectors as they are easy for prototyping and are suitable for harsh environment with a lot of vibrations and shocks which best suited our purpose.

In the above image of a custom display design, we sent to the manufacturer, the red lines over multiple characters indicate that all these are considered as a single segment. For the sake of simplicity, we added test like T, S, U, B to denote Text, Symbols, Units, and Battery respectively. These characters were followed by numbers to simplify communication between us and the manufacturer. For example, if we needed any particular text or symbol to remain on, we can easily specify that to the manufacturer by using the corresponding text for that segment.

We mailed our requirements to multiple LCD manufacturers, (you will find a lot of LCD manufacturers on the Internet). Most LCD manufacturers have competitive pricing, and reply within a week. A sample requirement sheet is shown above which a customer needs to fill to specify all the details to the manufacturer.

This is a sample Custom Segment LCD quotation we got from one of the manufacturers. As you can see, the cost is based on the quantity. Higher the quantity, lower the cost. Apart from the cost per quantity, there is one more component called tooling fees. Tooling fee is a one-time fee charged by the manufacturer. It is for the technical design, support, and customization of the product. Customization of PCB or tooling of LCD can drive the tooling price higher or lower.

A custom segment LCD can help you personalize your product while also saving the overall cost of your product. The whole process will take you around 2-3 months, which will include the designing phase, prototyping phase, and getting your custom segment LCDs delivered to your doorstep. Higher ordering quantity will reduce the cost per piece of each unit, thus driving down the cost of your final product.

The process to take your LCD idea from a concept to having prototype samples in hand is simple and requires just the few steps listed below. (Download PDF)

In many cases, FocusLCDs’ lead time for custom LCD samples is as little as 6-7 weeks after you approve our counter drawings and data sheet. This lead time increases by 4-6 weeks between November to early February due to Chinese New year. Standard production orders for custom displays have a lead time of 10-12 weeks, which can increase by 2-4 weeks during Chinese New year.

Focus Display Solutions offers several LCD technologies. The majority of these displays can be customized to fit your need. Below is a short introduction to each type of LCD.

Ultra-Wide Viewing Display (UWVD) is a new technology that is named after one of its most notable characteristics – it is viewable from all angles. In addition to the viewing angle, this technology provides a better contrast than other options and can allow for multiple colors. Call one of our design specialists today to see if UWVD is the right technology for you.

Thin-Film-Transistor Liquid Crystal Displays (TFTs) are perhaps the most encountered display technology we see daily. Often seen in cell phones, tablets, cameras and countless other devices, this technology offers several hundreds of thousands of colors with a high pixel count to offer supreme visual clarity. In addition, all TFTs are available off the shelf with resistive and capacitive touch panel options.

Character LCDs have been around since the 1950s and are still very common. These displays offer 256 selectable characters and are available with several different font tables to show a variety of languages. They are most commonly known for their ease of programming wide variety of sizes, character arrays and colors.

Custom led LCD displays have a variety of different settings. On the other end of the spectrum, some suppliers offer lcd displays that are specific for their components.@@@@@

There are four types of lcd display lcds wholesale, and one of the most popular ones. Theft of lcd displays in bulk are one of the most popular choices.@@@@@

Custom built LCD displays create, user-friendly settings and are allowing for customers to save a lot of time and money. Lcd displays are available in a wide range of sizes, styles and and. Itionally, lcd displays are available to all the customers" needs.

Orient Display is a company that specializes in manufacturing LCD displays, touch panels, OLED displays with competitive prices. The company was founded in 1996 by specializing in fields of production, R&D, quality controls. Thanks for the management and employee’s continuous hardworking and enormous effort and shareholder continuous investment over years, Orient Display factory is now the world’s leading custom LCD manufacturer in flat panel industry and is listed as a public company in China stock market. Now, Orient Display factory has 2 production lines that can produce PMOLED and AMOLED custom display modules. Factories have complete quality and environment management system, ISO9001, ISO/IATF16949, ISO14001, IECQ QC080000. Orient Display takes around 18% market share in global automotive market and is No.1 in automotive capacitive touch screen.

Orient Display has supported customers with custom LCD displays for tens of thousands of types and models for automotive, appliances, medical, smart homes, point of sales, industrial advices, etc. Whether your design requires a small custom LCD display glass, or a fully customized LCD module, or custom monitors and displays equipped with complicated embedded control board with touch panels, our experienced engineers in North America, Europe or in China factory will assist you in designing your customized displays.

Orient Display customer service sends quotation to you (might come with technical suggestions according to your targeted applications). The time will depend on the complexity of the project and the time to source components, normally, it takes 1-3 days for custom LCD glass panels, 2-5 days for custom LCD display modules or touch panels.

Orient Display engineers provide custom LCD display counter-drawings for you to approve with your signature on the drawing. The drawings might be modified several times until the designs are fully achieved your technical requirements. There can be a lot of technical discussions at this stage. The time our engineers take to arrange drawings also depend on the complexity of the project. Normally, it takes 1-3 days for custom LCD glass panels, 2-5 days for custom LCD display modules or touch panels.

After your drawing approval, Orient Display will start to make samples or prototypes for you to test. The lead time also varies depending on the production complexity and component/material sourcing. Normally, it takes 4-6 weeks for custom LCD glass panels, 8-10 weeks for custom LCD display modules or touch panels.

After your sample / prototype approval, Orient Display is ready for production. Orient Display welcomes trial production between the prototypes to large scale production so that you have the opportunity to fully test the custom LCD display or touch panel to run well in your designed products.

Congratulations! You have accomplished the journey of the idea, design, prototype and production in the market. The journey can take from 3 months to 3 years. Whatever the voyage, Orient Display’s engineers, customer services are proud to be part of your design. Our happiness is based on your success.

Dimensions (Specification / Drawing / Sketch of the LCD, if available). If it is a drop-in replacement, it is great to provide files in dwg. or dxf. format.

LCD Mode Preference if you have an idea or let us to decide (TN Positive/Negative, STN Positive YG, STN Negative Blue, STN Positive Gray, FSTN Positive, FSTN Negative, FFSTN Negative);

Dimensions (Specification / Drawing / Sketch of the LCD module, if available). If it is a drop-in replacement, it is great to provide files in dwg. or dxf. format.

LCD Mode Preference if you have an idea or let us to decide (TN Positive/Negative, STN Positive YG, STN Negative Blue, STN Positive Gray, FSTN Positive, FSTN Negative, FFSTN Negative);

Fully custom made TFT LCD display module can be very expensive, the NRE ranges from $80,000 to $1M depending on the size and the resolution of the LCD display and the generation of the production line the LCD display to be produced. For over 99% of our projects, we are talking about the modifications of the standard TFT LCD display. There are a lot of standard color TFT displays available in the market. You are highly likely to find one matching your requirement. If you can’t find a suitable one on our website, please check with our engineers, we have a database in factory with much more types.

Dimensions (Specification / Drawing / Sketch of the LCD module, if available). If it is a drop replacement, it is great to provide files in dwg. or dxf. format.

The above information can be overwhelming. Actually, we design a lot of touch panel and LCD custom display projects without being provided detailed information. Our engineers and customer service can quickly decide the parameters based on the customer’s application. Please feel free to contact our engineers for details.

We reduce the barriers to prototype with electrochromic displays.CDP, Custom Display Prototypes, is our standardized offer to make prototypes with your own display design. We charge a fixed fee of 2500 EUR. Contact sales@ynvisible.com to participate.

Ynvisible’s segmented displays can be customized with a high degree of freedom. We manufacture displays with different sizes, shapes, and colors tailored for your specific application.

Mimbly AB, a fast-growing Swedish hardware company developing sustainable laundry solutions, is one of our many clients that have been utilizing the custom display prototype offers.

"We were able to iterate several design ideas in a way that saved us both time and money. We will continue to use the Custom Display Prototype offer for future display concepts as the first step before scaling up."Emil Westman, CDO at Mimbly.

The printed electrochromic displays are produced using screen-printing processes. Screen-printing is a highly flexible production technique as it can combine both conventional graphic print with functional printed electronics.

We offer standardized display drivers but also custom display driver solutions if the standard drivers are not compatible with your display design and electrode/pin arrangement. We charge €200 for 3 standard display drivers and €1000 for 3 customized display drivers.

The number of displays you will receive mainly depends on the outer dimensions of your display design. The effective print area is approximately 20 cm x 30 cm at this prototyping stage. This area will be shared among all display designs, where each client will be allocated at least one design per sheet. Normally, there will be space for more than display per sheet if the display dimensions are relatively small. The standard custom display prototype batch includes 10 sheets, which means that you will receive 10 multiplied with the number of displays per sheet given 100% production yield.

The display designs are essentially up to your imagination, but our engineers need to make sure that they are compatible with our design rules before being produced. Read our detailed design guide for more information.

This offer is made for all of our clients that are interested in custom-designed displays for evaluation and testing before entering pilot- or mass production. If you are new to our technology, please explore our Segment Display Kit.

Except the available standard LCD/TFT/OLED display products, Winstar provides tailor made displays. The extensive portfolio makes it possible to create tailor-made solutions for customers to fit their application. We have the advanced display technologies available to use in your design and if there is anything you want to change about one of our existing LCD/TFT/OLED displays, we can make it happen. With more than 23 years experience, our sales and engineering team will be with you through the entire development process and will ensure the semi or fully customization a successful display tailored made to the individual application.

Our LCD/TFT/OLED custom design solutions are available in different options according to customer requirements. Winstar can offer various options on backlight type, pin and connector, cable, resistive touch screen (RTP) and projected capacitive (PCAP) touch screen or anti-reflective or anti-glare coating, or custom cover lens, ZIF PPC or customized PCB board or a fully custom solution for your product application, as well as System Integrated Solution.

The industry is flooded with manufacturers of varying capabilities, resources, commitment to quality and pre/post sales support. Some of these manufacturers will produce average quality displays without the needed enhancements that your customers expect today.

E3 Displays is all about making the manufacturing of your perfect display simple. We’ll guide you through an easy process to help you built your product so you never have to worry about low quality, inferior technology, unnecessary enhancements, and post sales continued support. Let’s make your business thrive.

EarthLCD is a leading “Assembled In The U.S.A.” manufacturer of Industrial ezLCD “Smart” Touch Serial LCD’s for Embedded Systems, LCD Touch Monitors, Industrial Grade LCD Kits, LCD Touch Screen Kits, Industrial NTSC Monitors & Kits, Open Frame Monitors, Smart LCD Screens, Touch Screen Monitors, Industrial LCD Touch Screen Monitors, All in one Monitors, Custom OEM solutions, Integrated Solutions for OEM, LCD Touch Screen Modules, Custom LCD Display and LCD Controller Cards.

EarthLCD is a division of Earth Computer Technologies, Inc. originally founded in 1984. A full line of products plus custom engineered solutions are available. We source LCD displays direct from major manufacturers world wide allowing for a cost advantage over our competitors. EarthLCD offer’s the world’s widest variety of LCD’s in fully integrated solutions for OEM supply chain requirements.

EarthLCD targets industries such as Point Of Sale, Industrial Automation, Security, Hospitality, Kiosks, Home Automation, OEM, Gaming, Banking, Service, Test Equipment and Monitoring, Embedded Systems, Automotive, and many other applications.