LCD displays, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5"

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

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penguin
 
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LCD displays, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5"

Post by penguin »

All other things being considered to be encapsulated and secured from the elements. Assuming the only thing exposed to the elements(rain, snow, etc); are the display screens themselves waterproof? I am trying to save as much weight as possible without having to add even the smallest amount of weight with a screen.
Since I am here, I was also wondering if there is an easier way to get the 6V required to run the display other than hooking to lipos in series to get 7.4V? Thanks for your help.

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: LCD displays, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5"

Post by michaelmeissner »

FWIW, the 1.5" lcd fits within a Tic-tac plastic case. You probably could put the 2.0" lcd in it (maybe even the 2.5" lcd)

I do steampunk events in the Massachusetts area where I disguise my camera, and I have two squirrel finger puppets that act as my mascots. One is a photographer (Nutzo) and the other is a painter (Livinea). For awhile, I've wanted to feed video and feed it to the easel in front of Linvinea to make it look like she is painting the scene in real time. I went to an event yesterday (March 16th, 2014) and showed off the screen. I don't yet have pictures of finished build, but you can look at the pictures I've put up that shows the build. http://www.the-meissners.org/2014-large ... ml#hidelcd

Originally, I was going to use two of the small easels they sell at crafts stores back to back to hold the Tic-tac case, but in building it, I came to the conclusion that I wanted a hard back and switch to some wood spacers and MDF on the back. In the Tic-tac case, I used two pieces of cardboard to hold the screen in place. I have left the side open, but you could weather seal it if desired. I imagine you could seal it, but you might need to worry about venting heat.

In terms of battery, the 1.5" display doesn't draw that much power, and it will run between 5-12v (or 6v, I've seen different limits). I could imagine you should be able to boost a single lipo to 7-9v. FWIW, I used a 9v non-rechargeable battery meant for smoke alarms, and it ran for several hours. I'm not sure whether the battery was new or old (probably old, and had been taken out of the smoke alarm when I changed batteries yearly). As I read the spec list for a typical 9v alkaline battery, it looks at 100mA discharge, a fresh 9v battery should power the screen for about 5 hours. IIRC, the rechargeable 9v batteries probably could power the screen for 2-3 hours.

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: LCD displays, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5"

Post by michaelmeissner »

Something like this should be able to boost a single li-po to 12 volts. It can deliver up to 1.2 amps, but you only need 50mA for the display, so it shouldn't be an issue. http://www.pololu.com/product/2117. Obviously you need to test it in your own environment, to see whether it gets too hot, etc.

You might mention what you are trying to build, perhaps I or others will have a more targeted suggestion.

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penguin
 
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Re: LCD displays, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5"

Post by penguin »

Thannk for the replies. I am trying to build a display system for bike. I'd like to keep it obviously as small as possible and weather proof without having to have some sort of shield gaurding the display.

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michaelmeissner
 
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Re: LCD displays, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5"

Post by michaelmeissner »

I'm not sure what the problem with a shield or plastic case is. The Tic-tac case is very light weight. Now, it is much bigger than the 1.5" display, but there are other small cases out there with variable amounts of sealing. One that I was thinking of is the Green Tea infused mint tin from Trader Joe's, that is closer to the size of the screen/electronics board is.

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penguin
 
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Re: LCD displays, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5"

Post by penguin »

Thanks for the recomendation. I may have to go with a 3d printed version as I am trying to get the whole thing into one case including the camera. With just one side of the case open to get to the battery for recharging. I may have to result in using some sort of epoxy of something aroung the edges of the camera enclosure, i.e. a sheet of very thing plstic epoxied to the to of the enclosure and then trimmed to clean up the edges. I am using the NTSC camera from adafruit, the one that outputs color NTSC. The first protype I built came in at around 7.3 ounces and was told it was "too heavy" to race with?????? It did have a couple of flat pack boxes epoxied together and it was a prototype with a seperate camera mounted to a screw. Oh well, this next one is going to be smaller as I have taken one of the batteries out and put in a dc-dc convertor togo from 3.6v to 12v for the display so it will draw current. Not sure if that was the best idea becasue I did go from two 1200maH to one 2400maH battery which to mee is almost as heavy as the two but will be enough to cover even my longest races of around 100k. I'll keep you posted on how it's coming. Again, thanks for your recommendations. I appreciate them very much

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