TheBackShed.com

Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Driving Digole Serial LCDs with MicroMite

Author

Message

srnet
Senior Member

Joined: 08/08/2014
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 164

Posted: 03:41am 03 Apr 2015

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Here are some routines to drive the Digole Serial LCDs with a Micromite II.

This particular Digole LCD is 160x128 pixels, display area around 40mmx30mm, and it runs from 3V3.

Advantage of the displays is that they only need one I\O pin to drive them, so very easy to add to a project.

Now why cant you get something similar using one of those large and cheap TFT LCDs you see on eBay ?

2015-04-03_133953_Digole_Serial_LCD_Driver_for_Soft_Serial.zip Edited by srnet 2015-04-04

$50SAT is Silent but probably still working.
For information on LoRa visit http://www.loratracker.uk/

Grogster

Admin Group

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9642

Posted: 03:48am 03 Apr 2015

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Very nice.

I seem to recall matherp mentioning in one of his posts, that bigger LCD's are all parallel-port, and unlikely to be serial, SPI or I2C.

I think the reason is simply speed. Once you get up to the bigger screens, you have a lot more screen data to transfer, and this becomes inefficient when done using a standard serial-type method. It is inefficient because with the bigger screen requiring much more data for it's "Screen map" as it were, it would take too long to do it with serial, and it would result in visably sluggish screen update speeds, even with the serial running flat-out.

Smaller screen = smaller quantity of data that needs to be sent to the display.

I may have that wrong - this is just my interpretation of why the bigger screens all use a 16-bit parallel data bus.

Others here will correct me if I actually have that wrong.

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

srnet
Senior Member

Joined: 08/08/2014
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 164

Posted: 04:00am 03 Apr 2015

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

Grogster said I seem to recall matherp mentioning in one of his posts, that bigger LCD's are all parallel-port, and unlikely to be serial, SPI or I2C.

Yep, they need a pile of I\O pins to drive.

But how about one of MatherP's setups acting as a standalone serial display, for displaying text, just like the Digole devices ? Edited by srnet 2015-04-04

$50SAT is Silent but probably still working.
For information on LoRa visit http://www.loratracker.uk/

Grogster

Admin Group

Joined: 31/12/2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 9642

Posted: 02:57pm 03 Apr 2015

Copy link to clipboard

Print this post

That's certainly do-able, and something to consider, but if you needed an ARMmite or 470 to drive the display, you'd probably benefit from running your main code that was going to drive the slave display directly from the ARMmite or 470 - there should be plenty of pins on either to accommodate both the 16-bit parallel port, the SPI touch-screen and whatever I/O pins you needed.

It's something worth further thought though, as now that matherp has put many of the LCD driving routines into the 470 especially, a board could be designed to fit directly onto the apparently standard 16-bit parallel header on most of those type of display, and it would take care of all the screen control, and you just talk to it with I2C or serial or something. Food for thought.

Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops!

Print this page

To reply to this topic, you need to log in.