Sunlight readable 3,5-4 inch display for micro or raspberry - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: TrendX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 03:38:05 pm
content: Good day to you all!I'm looking for a sunlight readable color display that I can connect to a raspberry or arduino for a in-car project. I got myself a nextion enhanced before but the 200cd/m² are simply not enough. You can barely see the contents even on a cloudy day. The best thing I could find is a outdated FTDI VM800 with 500cd/m² but these don't allow landscape mode without much hassle.I'm hoping someone here tried something similar and could share his or her experience.Greetings and best regard from germany,TrendX

author: cheater
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 03:56:52 pm
content: Any chance you can put a shadow hood around the display to make it easier to read?

author: TrendX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 04:08:08 pm
content: Quote from: cheater on March 23, 2021, 03:56:52 pmCould do, but as the display sits on top of the dash it isn't realy a suitable solution. Even less if you're driving with the sun behind you.

author: TrendX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 04:20:11 pm
content: I kinda found a solution, New Haven Displays seem to have some useable displays for my purpose.Sadly they are rather expensive, so I'm still open for suggestions on some cheaper displays.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 06:37:44 pm
content: If you want something really "sunlight readable", consider at least 800 to 1000 cd/m2.You didn't mention what kind of resolution you were after. Also, if you're going for a RPi solution, a HDMI interface would probably make more sense.I've found such panels on Aliexpress a few years ago. You may want to take a look. Now chances are you'll find some kind of LVDS panel, that can be driven either directly (if you can) or through an adapter board such as HDMI-LVDS. If you're looking for a display module with some kind of higher-level controller (such as those you typically find on SPI displays for instance), it's going to be much harder to find something with this kind of brightness. Or it will be expensive.I'd take a look at Matrix Orbital. They have a number of high-brightness TFT displays for reasonable prices. For instance:https://www.matrixorbital.com/mop-tft320240-35g-ipsor this with a HDMI interface and a touchscreen:https://www.matrixorbital.com/htt50g-ips

author: spostma
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 08:22:47 pm
content: ePaper displays are excellent in sunlight, and not too expensive.Two- an three colour versions also exist.Also have a look at smart barcode badges with ePaper displays.

author: TrendX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 08:30:15 pm
content: Quote from: SiliconWizard on March 23, 2021, 06:37:44 pmI'm looking for sunlight readable as in "readable in a car driving on a sunny day".Resolution should be crisp. It doesn't need to be RPi campatible, it would just be easier for me as a beginner. Basically I want to receive and send CAN packets to monitor and control functions of a vehicle. My initial experiments were done with a arduino nano and the Nextion, but I wouldn't mind exchanging it for a RPi, STM32 or others.I saw a prototype once that used a FTDI VM800 dev board and a homemade STM32 interface. Worked pretty well and was easily readable with the vehicle driving on a sunny day.

author: TrendX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: March 23, 2021, 08:31:34 pm
content: Quote from: spostma on March 23, 2021, 08:22:47 pmHad that idea as well, but the refresh rate is too low for my purpose.