Which TFT screen/controller are easy to find and great to startup? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: asgard20032
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2015, 03:36:50 am
content: I want to start using some screen, but if I do, i may write my own library for interfacing with the controller. Which controller that support SPI are easy to find? Where may i buy screen with that controller?I looked at the adafruit tft screen :http://www.adafruit.com/products/1480Its using the ILI9340 controller, but i can't find other screen using that controller.My criteria is to be able to easily find a screen with a good controller outside website like sparkfun/adafruit, since to integrate in a real product, its better, also its more professionnal, and since adafruit and sparkfun are hobbyist website, product come and become discontinued rater quickly, so not a good source.320x240 and bigger is correct for me.What would be nice is if i could get a tft screen board with a micro sd card and easy to use breakout pin, like the one from the link i posted, but with a controller easy to find, so i could do my development easily and when ready for "production", get the scree+driver combo from place like digikey, mouser, newark or other reputable place.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2015, 03:54:50 am
content: There are large families of controller types with nearly identical command sets; seehttp://wiki.s1mp3.org/LCMControllers. I would recommend using the parallel interface if you have the I/Os, because it is much faster. ILI9340/9341/9342 are all in the same family (large Philips.)You can try looking at this site:http://www.buydisplay.com/default/color-2-4-inch-tft-lcd-module-display-touch-panel-240x320-dot-serial-spiAdafruit is ridiculously overpriced.

author: MarkF
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2015, 03:56:40 am
content: I'm looking at the2.8" TFT LCD with Cap Touch Breakout Board. It has the ILI9341 controller. Not sure how different it is from the ILI930 controller you mentioned.A Google search shows several sites with TFT displays with the ILI9341 controller.

author: Chris C
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2015, 04:36:01 am
content: I'm using an 2.4" ILI9341-based 320x240 LCD, with touchscreen, and SPI interface. From Ebay, cost about $6 with free shipping from China. I found it easy enough to use, with plenty of example code and libraries. The included example code, even though partially written in Chinese and for a different MCU, was enough to get it running in a hour.SPI is slower than parallel, but good enough if you're not doing anything too graphics-intensive. It will render a GUI just fine. If it takes one or two tenths of a second to redraw the entire screen from scratch after I press a button, that's not an issue for me. It's still faster than I am.Smaller screen updates are faster.There's just one thing I don't care much for. A lot of the cheap LCDs modules are built from old cell phone displays. Which only look good when viewed at the intended angle - which is zero, looking straight at it. Start increasing the angle, and the colors and contrast rapidly go downhill. For mine, even a 15° vertical angle makes it impossible to distinguish between anything but extremely different shades of the same color. The horizontal angle is a little more forgiving.So you would not want to put one of these displays in a piece of equipment that sits flat on a shelf, because unless the screen just happens to be at eye level and facing the user's eye, it's going to be hard to see. If it's handheld, or can be easily tilted towards the user, that's fine.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2015, 12:10:46 pm
content: Quote from: Chris C on September 05, 2015, 04:36:01 amThose are the passive-matrix (C)STN displays, which were more popular several years ago but have been gradually displaced by the active-matrix TFTs. TFT displays have much better viewing angle and contrast.These cheap displays are certainly not going to have the quality of typical computer monitors, but if you think your TFT is bad, you've probably not had to use a CSTN before.

author: canibalimao
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2015, 12:29:21 pm
content: I'm using this one for a few weeks:http://www.banggood.com/2_2-Inch-Serial-TFT-SPI-LCD-Screen-Module-HD-240-x-320-5110-Compatible-p-912854.htmlIt's cheap and very easy to use. It has a SD card holder, but I think it don't work. The breakout board have an unpopulated zone (the PCB is a bit different from the one on the pictures) that I think it's for the SD.However the screen is very good and woths the price.

author: Chris C
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 05, 2015, 08:15:44 pm
content: Quote from: amyk on September 05, 2015, 12:10:46 pmTruth. That's what I get from skipping straight from an old Nokia to an Android. Haven't seen a (C)STN since they were used in laptops, and forgot how bad they were.I don't think any of us managed to address one aspect of the original poster's question though:Quote from: asgard20032 on September 05, 2015, 03:36:50 amI read this as ruling out dealing directly with Eastern manufacturers or vendors. Also hobby-level vendors like Sparkfun/Adafruit, that may not be able to guarantee supply of sufficient quantities or same product. And I haven't seen LCDs at Digikey/Mouser/Newark. The only resource on my list that remains:http://www.4dsystems.com.au/Though I haven't dealt with them, I know they have business accounts, issue end-of-life notices, and offer good support. (And the prices reflect that.)