custom lcd display diy brands

If you have ever wondered what it took to make your own custom graphic LCD from scratch, this video from [Applied Science] is worth a watch. It’s concise and to the point, while still telling you what you need to know should you be interested in rolling your own. There is also a related video which goes into much more detail about experimenting with LCD technology.

[Applied Science] used microscope slides and parts purchased online to make an LCD that displays a custom graphic when activated. The only step that home experimenters might have trouble following is coating the glass slides with a clear conductive layer, which in the video is done via a process called sputtering to deposit a thin film. You don’t need to do this yourself, though. Pre-coated glass is readily available online. (Search for Indium-Tin Oxide or ‘ITO’ coated glass.)

The LCD consists of a layer of liquid crystal suspended between two layers of conductive glass. An electrical field is used to change the orientation of crystals in the suspension, which modulate the light passing through them. Polarizing filters result in a sharp contrast and therefore a visible image. To show a particular shape, some of the conductive coating is removed from one of the layers in the shape of the desired image. The process [Applied Science] uses to do this is nearly identical to etching a custom PCB.

Parts of LCD technology can be quite hackable. Neither of these videos are brand-new, either. Have any of you taken on the challenge of DIY LCD displays? We’ve seen experiments with electrochromatic glass using old LCD displays, as well as experiments in playing with polarized light to hide secret messages on LCD screens.

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.

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.

While most of us think of Arduino boards as something to be programmed by a computer, there’s really nothing that says you can’t use an Arduino-style microcontroller as one. It could be argued that the Arduino is already a computer, but in the case of the DemUino, a small display is embedded into an old […]

LCD screens look complicated but using an Arduino and a MakerShield, you can easily make your own LCD display shield! Check out this tutorial from Make: Projects.

Stevie Bathiche, director of Microsoft’s Applied Sciences Group, introduces this video from GeekWire by explaining that “it looks like we just took an LCD and took the backlight off, but that’s actually not true. There’s actually been a lot of work that Samsung has done to improve the transmission quality of this display.” Be that as it may…

Nuno Alves, an assistant professor of computer engineering at Western New England University, has been experimenting with the BeagleBone and posted an excellent how-to on getting the ubiquitous Hitachi HD44780 compatible LCD screens working with the embedded Linux platform.

Instructables user dimovi took an old LCD monitor and moved the top polarizer from the surface of the screen to a pair of glasses worn by the user. Others who look at the monitor, without the polarized glasses, see only a white rectangle. Besides the übergeek cool factor, the mod could be quite useful if you’re concerned about folks looking over your shoulder at the coffee shop.

This is a question we hear a lot: “I have a spare LCD panel; what else do I need to make a monitor?” This Chinese eBay seller has the cheapest out-of-the-box solution I’ve seen…

HYTE is one of the newest companies to enter the PC case market, and they are making waves. At CES 2023, HYTE has revealed a new add-on for their Y60 chassis that has given their chassis a unique new feature. HYTE has released an official LCD mod for their Y60 chassis, allowing users to add an LCD screen to the case"s corner panel.

With a resolution of 1920x515, HYTE"s Y60 LCD panel is a perfect fit for their chassis and a great way for users to display system information. The screen can be connected to your PC through HDMI, allowing it to be used to display anything you wish. Want it to display CPU thermals, GPU clock speeds and other info? You can do that! Want it to display a custom image or video? That is also possible. You can do whatever you want with this screen, that"s the beauty of HYTE"s Y60 LCD mod.

With an asking price of $120 on HYTE"s website, the company"s LCD mod is an expensive add-on, and one of the downsides of this modding kit is that it does not include everything that HYTE Y60 users need out of the box. HYTE requires users of this screen kit to 3D print mounts to use this LCD DIY kit, which means that users of this screen will need a 3D printer, or know someone that"s willing to print some custom parts for them.

With their Y60 LCD screen, HYTE has shown that they are willing to create products and add-ons that their competitors won"t. We look forward to seeing what Y60 users do with HYTE"s new LED mod, and we look forward to seeing what comes next from the company.

i tried to make my 12.6 panel transparent but its not as easy as a larger 22 inch panel is to achieve, so i went back to no lcd panel because , yes it is blocking the interior and is distracting. wish hyte would sell transparent versionsQuote

114518 lcd custom screen products are offered for sale by suppliers on Alibaba.comAbout 14% % of these are mobile phone lcds, 12%% are digital signage and displays, and 11%% are lcd modules.

A wide variety of lcd custom screen options are available to you, such as original manufacturer, odm and agency.You can also choose from datasheet, lcd custom screen,as well as from tft, ips, and standard lcd custom screen,

BrickScreen is our name for our line of mini OLED and LCD video screens, designed to add a whole new level of realism and awesomeness to whatever you build. Screens are available in several different sizes, orientations, and configurations. The two main configurations are:Pre-loaded with animations and videos tied to a specific theme. Any of the screens below that do not include "Basic" in their product title have videos pre-loaded, and the videos cannot be changed or customized by the customer.

Any product listed as a "Basic" video player allows the customer to copy their own video file(s) in MP4 or AVI format directly onto the module using any computer and the USB cable included with the module kit. Videos are stored in the memory of the "Basic" video players (up to 30 total minutes of compressed video), and they can play in stand-alone mode without a computer attached. Instructions are included with "Basic" players showing how to copy files and how to compress files if needed using free online tools.

BrickScreens operate on a standard 5V DC power source. Each kit includes a standard Brickstuff power connector and adapter board for connecting to our power supplies (our USB power cable is recommended). Also included is a DIY power cable that can be connected directly to any 5V DC supply, so you can use these screens with non-Brickstuff power sources too.

We can load just about any video onto a screen, so if you have finished video (not in need of additional editing), chances are we can load it onto a screen for you! Contact us and tell us what you have in mind. For those with custom requirements, we can also create custom animations, though for that we will bill on an hourly basis (contact us for a pricing estimate).

AGDisplays offers a design solution service for customers who have specific LCD needs, or who have a project involving an LCD and need to integrate an LCD into the equipment. AGDisplays has a team of trained individuals, ready to deliver high-performance display solutions to our customers. Contact us at 1-844-841-6851 to see how we can meet your needs.

If you’ve ever attempted to connect an LCD display to an Arduino, you’ve probably noticed that it uses a lot of Arduino pins. Even in 4-bit mode, the Arduino requires seven connections – half of the Arduino’s available digital I/O pins.

The solution is to use an I2C LCD display. It only uses two I/O pins that are not even part of the digital I/O pin set and can be shared with other I2C devices.

As the name suggests, these LCDs are ideal for displaying only characters. A 16×2 character LCD, for example, can display 32 ASCII characters across two rows.

At the heart of the adapter is an 8-bit I/O expander chip – PCF8574. This chip converts the I2C data from an Arduino into the parallel data required for an LCD display.

If you have multiple devices on the same I2C bus, you may need to set a different I2C address for the LCD adapter to avoid conflicting with another I2C device.

An important point to note here is that several companies, including Texas Instruments and NXP Semiconductors, manufacture the same PCF8574 chip. And the I2C address of your LCD depends on the chip manufacturer.

So the I2C address of your LCD is most likely 0x27 or 0x3F. If you’re not sure what your LCD’s I2C address is, there’s an easy way to figure it out. You’ll learn about that later in this tutorial.

After wiring the LCD, you will need to adjust the contrast of the LCD. On the I2C module, there is a potentiometer that can be rotated with a small screwdriver.

Now, turn on the Arduino. You will see the backlight light up. As you turn the potentiometer knob, the first row of rectangles will appear. If you have made it this far, Congratulations! Your LCD is functioning properly.

Before you can proceed, you must install the LiquidCrystal_I2C library. This library allows you to control I2C displays using functions that are very similar to the LiquidCrystal library.

As previously stated, the I2C address of your LCD depends on the manufacturer. If your LCD has a PCF8574 chip from Texas Instruments, its I2C address is 0x27; if it has a PCF8574 chip from NXP Semiconductors, its I2C address is 0x3F.

If you’re not sure what your LCD’s I2C address is, you can run a simple I2C scanner sketch that scans your I2C bus and returns the address of each I2C device it finds.

However, before you upload the sketch, you must make a minor change to make it work for you. You must pass the I2C address of your LCD as well as the display dimensions to the LiquidCrystal_I2C constructor. If you’re using a 16×2 character LCD, pass 16 and 2; if you’re using a 20×4 character LCD, pass 20 and 4.

The next step is to create an object of LiquidCrystal_I2C class. The LiquidCrystal_I2C constructor accepts three inputs: I2C address, number of columns, and number of rows of the display.

In the setup, three functions are called. The first function is init(). It initializes the interface to the LCD. The second function is clear(). This function clears the LCD screen and positions the cursor in the upper-left corner. The third function, backlight(), turns on the LCD backlight.

The function setCursor(2, 0) is then called to move the cursor to the third column of the first row. The cursor position specifies where you want the new text to appear on the LCD. It is assumed that the upper left corner is col=0 and row=0.

There are many useful functions you can use with LiquidCrystal_I2C Object. Some of them are listed below:lcd.home() function positions the cursor in the upper-left of the LCD without clearing the display.

lcd.scrollDisplayRight() function scrolls the contents of the display one space to the right. If you want the text to scroll continuously, you have to use this function inside a for loop.

lcd.scrollDisplayLeft() function scrolls the contents of the display one space to the left. Similar to the above function, use this inside a for loop for continuous scrolling.

lcd.display() function turns on the LCD display, after it’s been turned off with noDisplay(). This will restore the text (and cursor) that was on the display.

If you find the default font uninteresting, you can create your own custom characters (glyphs) and symbols. They come in handy when you need to display a character that isn’t in the standard ASCII character set.

As previously discussed in this tutorial, a character is made up of a 5×8 pixel matrix; therefore, you must define your custom character within this matrix. You can define a character by using the createChar() function.

The CGROM stores the font that appears on a character LCD. When you instruct a character LCD to display the letter ‘A’, it needs to know which pixels to turn on so that we see an ‘A’. This data is stored in the CGROM.

CGRAM is an additional memory for storing user-defined characters. This RAM is limited to 64 bytes. Therefore, for a 5×8 pixel LCD, only 8 user-defined characters can be stored in CGRAM, whereas for a 5×10 pixel LCD, only 4 can be stored.

Creating custom characters has never been easier! We’ve developed a small application called Custom Character Generator. Can you see the blue grid below? You can click on any pixel to set or clear that pixel. And as you click, the code for the character is generated next to the grid. This code can be used directly in your Arduino sketch.

There’s no limit to what you can create. The only limitation is that the LiquidCrystal_I2C library only supports eight custom characters. But don’t be sad, look at the bright side; at least we have eight characters.

After including the library and creating the LCD object, custom character arrays are defined. The array consists of 8 bytes, with each byte representing a row in a 5×8 matrix.

This sketch contains eight custom-characters. Take, for example, the Heart[8] array. You can see that the bits (0s and 1s) are forming the shape of a heart. 0 turns the pixel off, and 1 turns it on.

In the setup, we use the createChar() function to create a custom character. This function accepts two parameters: a number between 0 and 7 to reserve one of the eight supported custom characters, and the name of the array.