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bwhiten
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 151 Location: Grayson, GA
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Color Graphics LCD info |
Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 8:43 pm |
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I am thinking of using a Microtips MTF-T035DHSLN style display in a project, driven by a dedicated PIC. First off I haven't been able to get a datasheet request response from Microtips. The only similar datasheet I can find is for the MTF-T057 and it does not show a common/recognizable controller type. If anyone has any info on these displays I could use the help. Second, I did some research here but did not see any specific information on PIC drivers/code written to take advantage of the multi-color aspect of the LCD and wondered if anyone has a link or some code that I could use as a starting point.
Thanks. |
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PCM programmer
Joined: 06 Sep 2003 Posts: 21708
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bwhiten
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 151 Location: Grayson, GA
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Color Graphics LCD info |
Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 10:16 am |
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Thanks. That is the data sheet I was looking for. I haven't had much luck with Microtips service. Looks like the there is no high level controller on board so I will need to generate all the timing myself. May not be possible with a PIC but I didn't want to spend the money on an FPGA or CPLD. |
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Douglas Kennedy
Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Posts: 755 Location: Florida
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:08 am |
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320x240 at a refresh rate of 60 hz is 4.608 million pixels per sec.
A PIC at 10 mips will give you 2 instructions per pixel. I suspect if the PIC can handle this that will be just about all it will be able to do. |
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bwhiten
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 151 Location: Grayson, GA
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:15 am |
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Thanks for the encouragement! Realistic actually. Is 10 MIPs the fastest PIC available? I haven't checked through all the datasheets at this point. |
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kevcon
Joined: 21 Feb 2007 Posts: 142 Location: Michigan, USA
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:25 am |
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Displays like this have very sensitive timing and you will most likely not be able to do it with a PIC. Altera and Xilinx have some low cost chips and free development software. |
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bwhiten
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 151 Location: Grayson, GA
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 11:33 am |
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Yes, I did a 1/4 VGA cockpit display interface for SAAB nearly 10 years ago using a Lattice CPLD and Altera 8K series. I may back down on this and use a monochrome graphics display with standard controller like the MTG-32240xxx that uses the SED1335. |
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rberek
Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 207 Location: Ottawa, Canada
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:28 pm |
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I'm at the Microchip MASTERS conference right now, and just attended a 4 hour class on driving colour touchscreen LCDs. We had a 320x240 Microtips touchscreen QVGA LCD being happily driven by a PIC24, showing animations, sliders, radio buttons, etc.
There seems to be no problem having having a 16-bit PIC drive such a beast. In fact, there will be a PICTail Graphics module available in a few months, with that display.
r.b. |
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bwhiten
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 151 Location: Grayson, GA
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:32 pm |
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rberek,
Can you get the model # of the display and the PIC? I believe color enhancement would truely help sell the project I have in mind so I would like to pursue it further. Thanks for the encouragement. |
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rberek
Joined: 10 Jan 2005 Posts: 207 Location: Ottawa, Canada
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 4:21 pm |
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The display was a Microtips MTF-T022BHNLP and a PIC24FJ128GA010
Note though, that this display is in short supply, which is the reason that the Microchip PICTail board is delayed. Mouser carries this display but I do not believe they have stock
r.b. |
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bwhiten
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 151 Location: Grayson, GA
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Posted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 6:11 pm |
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Thanks. They do carry it and it is on backorder. They also have a couple of other sizes but with different interfaces. Their part numbers are very difficult to decipher. Too many options I suppose. |
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kevcon
Joined: 21 Feb 2007 Posts: 142 Location: Michigan, USA
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 8:59 am |
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That's a cool little display; you could probably drive it with an 18F part too. |
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Douglas Kennedy
Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Posts: 755 Location: Florida
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 1:59 pm |
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Quote: | I'm at the Microchip MASTERS conference right now, and just attended a 4 hour class on driving colour touchscreen LCDs. We had a 320x240 Microtips touchscreen QVGA LCD being happily driven by a PIC24, showing animations, sliders, radio buttons, etc. |
Could it be that the PIC 24 is able to control the LCD because the LCD it is controlling has a built in controller to handle the timing and DMA access to video memory. I have used VHDL coded CPLD's to drive 640x480 displays with PIC waiting for DMA permission to write through to video SRAM. The CPLD clocked at 80Mhz was coded as a controller to handle the LCD timing and the SRAM fetching. There is code in the code library for commercial controllers such as the T6963 so PIC's can drive LCD's . The questioners issue was how capable is a PIC when it has to handle the raw LCD timing ( no controller) and not produce undue flicker in a varying image. |
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bwhiten
Joined: 26 Nov 2003 Posts: 151 Location: Grayson, GA
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Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:17 pm |
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I did some research and that display appears to have some type of controller included. Some of the larger ones don't. That was my point about the data sheets and part number scheme from Microtips. Difficult to interpret.
On another point the PIC24HJ series claims 40MIPS so that would appear to be the best bet if I proceed. |
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kevcon
Joined: 21 Feb 2007 Posts: 142 Location: Michigan, USA
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Here's a crazy thought |
Posted: Thu Aug 09, 2007 2:24 pm |
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There's no way one PIC could handle the timing signals and fetching the bit data, but what if you had two pics?
One could handle the timing signals and another would supply the bit data. |
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