custom lcd display diy in stock

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.

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.

28” Custom LCD Panel for your digital marquee needs. A great solution for most full-sized multicade cabinets. This screen carries a 1920x360 resolution and high definition pixel density for quality images. Also includes 12v power supply and 8gb USB thumbstick containing 4100 arcade marquee art assets and 6700 home system art assets. Pair with your favorite frontend and load up some marquees! Raw LCD only, mounting not included due to DIY cabinet variables. We recommend using VHB tape to secure the LCD to clear plexi that fits your cabinet. Specs below.

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.

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

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To create a Custom Character, we need to define which dot out of that 5 x 8 block has to be lighted up, which can be done by writing the binary equivalent of each row and column,using this web tool by IOXhop.

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).