color graphics LCD with CCS driver?

[starfire151]

I've searched for graphics LCDs in the discussions but most of what I've seen is related to monochrome LCDs.

Does anyone know of an inexpensive color graphics LCD with a relatively simple interface (parallel or SPI) that also happens to have a CCS driver written for it?

I've seen the EX_GLCD.C, graphics.c, and GLCD.C files but these seem to be related to the HDM64GS12 part. All the functions are for monochrome.

There are some REALLY nice color LCDs out there now. I was just wondering if anyone has used one or knew of a good one.

Thanks for any info.

[asmboy]

what are you wanting to DO with such a display?

the odds of finding any 'free' CCS code for full color graphics operation
is so close to zero as to be a rounding error.

anybody who has put the effort into creating a driver has likely done so as a work for hire or as part of a commercial project. you are asking in the right place-but i don't think there will be a way to get there unless you choose a part and begin to write a driver yourself.
if i needed such a thing - that's how i would start.

[temtronic]

I'm with asmboy on this. There's probably at least a dozen ways to use any colour graphics module,so whatever driver I created ,won't necessarily work for your application.
Then there's the 'compatibility' issue,different modules use different chipsets and while 'generic base' code might kinda work, there could(WILL) be timing issues,interface details, etc. that come into play.
Honestly, since only you know the requirements of your project, 'google' for a display that fits your requirements of size,speed,cost,interface,etc. Buy at least 5 units for R&D(1 you'll blow up by miswiring, 1 you'll drop on the concrete floor, 1 dies due to frigid cold conditions), that leaves two units to run extensive testing on.If for an actual mass market product, be sure the LCD is available in a month or 2.Often you'll get 'great' deals on units only to find out it's a 'one shot deal'.....

hth
jay

[starfire151]

The main question was to find a specific color LCD that people had experience with. If it has a driver (meaning fundamental function calls for writing text, goto, lines, rectangles, circles, etc.) that would be great but not essential. Looking at the drivers for different modules talked about in these discussions usually shows a commonality in the way circles, lines, rectangles, pixels, etc. are drawn. For instance, a line is usually called out as "DrawLine(x0, y0, x1, y1, color)" or something very similar. There's usually a minimal of functions requiring the specific methods to interface to the actual chip.

I'm looking for a generic solution (meaning an available device at a relatively low cost but with enough resolution, like around 128 x 64 or so) for future projects requiring a color LCD interface.

I realize there's several LCD chips out there. I HAVE downloaded data on several modules which look promising for my applications.

By the way, not all of us are trying to develop code for a targeted market. Some of us are just experimenting for our own little projects...

[asmboy]

check this out

http://www.microtipsusa.com/pdfs/products/MTF-TQ35SP941-LB.pdf

if you want to use fonts - that in itself will challenge you i suspect.

At least it shows what you need as a low level driver for a basic RGB panel

[Ttelmah]

Take a step back....

The PIC, is probably about the worst chip to use to talk to any graphic LCD....

For fast powerful graphics, you are much better off, using a chip where the LCD can be mapped into the memory space of the chip. The more data that is involved, the more true this is. Hence PIC text drivers - common. PIC graphic drivers less common. PIC graphic drivers for large screens - very rare. PIC colour graphic drivers - extremely rare indeed....

I've had half a dozen projects where I've wanted something like this. In each case I've not used a PIC. I've used the PIC for the I/O, control of all sorts of other things, and to send 'high level' messages to the display system, but the actual control of the colour screen, has been left to another chip.

Easiest solution, use a 'smart' screen. Look at EzLCD for example (EarthLCD.com).

For small panels, it is 'doable' with a PIC, but still more work than using a more suited chip. The last one I did, I ended up using a FPGA core to control the LCD, and wrote a library to give 'smart' functions equivalent to an old pen plotter. Dot, Line, Circle, Polygon, Line drawn graphic text at any orientation, area fills etc.. The board was controlled by a PIC, but the display was being handled by the processor made in the FPGA.

It may be worth your while for a small panel, if this is for a lot of units (then the time needed to write the library can be justified), but for smaller numbers buying an off the shelf solution is much easier....

The key problem is that a graphic colour LCD involves a lot of data. The PIC does not have a large RAM space (so can't hold images being prepared for the screen). Doesn't mean it can't be done (by having a larger RAM space addressed 'manually' by the PIC), but it becomes laborious compared to chips that do support larger spaces directly, so slow, and bulky.

Best Wishes

[Markdem]

Here you go..

http://www.ccsinfo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49725&highlight=

Works fine, but as others have said you are quite limited in what you can do. It takes a long time to update this display and does not leave much time to do anything else. I used it in a application that did not update the screen very often so it was fine.

One thing you could do, and what I was going to do but got distracted by other projects, is to use a PIC with a graphics module to do the hard work for you. Look at something like a PIC24FJ256DA210.
If you get it to work, I bet lots of us here would love to see it

Have fun

[alan]

Just my 2 cents worth. I have lately using what I call RGB LCD displays and then using FT800 to control. Not exactly a cheap solution as the FT800 are about $7, at least here. BUT it works and handles the display, even the contrast of the display.

Regards

[starfire151]

Thanks for all the great feedback.

I've been looking at some other solutions, as well. I've looked at the Newhaven NHD-1.8-128160EF-CTXI#-F (Digikey NHD-1.8-128160EF-CTXI#-F-ND), which is a nice, compact, byte-oriented 1.8" diagonal display in 24-bit color. As Ttelmah has stated, a PIC would be hard-pressed to update a full screen graphics image with high fidelity. A PIC could be used quite effectively to update a color display if only drawing graphics primitives in color, though, like color bars, arrows, etc. Some of the latest PIC releases from Microchip (in the PIC32 family) have even been advertised as dedicated graphics processors.

Another approach is to use a dedicated smart panel, such as the 4D Systems (www.4dsystems.com.au) uOLED-128-G1(GFX) platform. This system uses a proprietary 4DGL graphics language for a simpler user interface. It has a dedicated graphics processor and a microSD card slot for preinstalling animations, stills, etc. that can be called from a simple serial interface to a lower-level PIC controller. These panels are a bit more expensive (probably not the first choice for a targeted market of thousands of units) but it is perfectly acceptable for us experimenters. 4D also supplies a lot of support documentation and programming environments for development of applications with these modules.

[bkamen]

[Ttelmah]

Agreed.
I toyed when posting with saying that some of the faster PIC24's with DMA could do this much more acceptably, but decided that the problem would then still remain having to write a complete graphic library, which while much more possible, is still a lot of work...

Best Wishes

[bkamen]