80x2 or 80x4 LCD manufacturers/suppliers.

[Pauldesign]

Hi Guys,

Has anyone come across any 80x1 or 80x2 LCD manufacturers/suppliers.

I've been surfing the web to no avail.

Alternatively i'm looking for any LCD module of view area 30cm by 10cm.

Any other alternative display of the above viewing dimension is welcome esp if it can be interfaced easily with a Picaxe controller.

Basically a display that can be visible from a distance of 10m with a viewing angle of about 60 degrees without any other form of secondary optics.
The display will be mounted in a closed environment exposed only to fluorescent and sometimes filament lamp.

Please throw at me with the garbage and i'll do the sorting.

Thanks.

 

[Haku]

You'll probably have to end up putting a couple of LCD modules side-by-side like these large 16x1's: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/150487072629
or use an LED grid display which would probably be easier to read at a 10m distance than LCD, like two using two of these: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/380349208871

 

[eclectic]

What about an LCD monitor?

There are interfaces available for Picaxe.

See for example
http://www.picaxeforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10160&highlight=monitor+serial

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[hippy]

I've only ever seen one 80 character wide LCD and that is on the Amstrad NC100 range of PDA -

http://www.ncus.org.uk

Some typewriters may have used similar sized displays but I'm not sure any would be readable from 10 metres away. If this is a passenger information display I'd consider VFD or LED matrix displays as Haku suggests.

An LCD module 30cm x 10cm is the same width as a 15" PC monitor LCD screen which may be an option. It would be twice as tall as you need but that excess could be concealed - or used in some way.

A PC monitor would probably be useful to test with to see what size is readable at what distance. If eyesight isn't 20-20 then reading 40 column Ceefax/Teletext on a 28" TV can be a struggle at just 3 metres.

 

[Haku]

I'd completely forgotten about the NC100, the AA powered 'laptop'! I have one of those somewhere and the graphical LCD screen can sometimes be difficult to read when it's sitting on your lap, let alone 10 meters away. The Sinclair Z88 had a similar sized graphical LCD screen.

What is the display going to be used for?

 

[Pauldesign]

Thanks for the reply and all the other options.

Wrt Haku;

Ii might consider one of those Sure electronics displays esp those that are a bit bigger. Although it's a bit still small but might serve the purpose from 3m viewing range.

Cascading multiple displays might be an option but i want something more professional with minimal design and assembly effort since i'm mostly busy with implementation now.

Talking about implementation, Hippy guess correctly (i guessed from my previous thread ). Yes, it will be used to display text messages on trains and platform for now. Ideal viewing dimension is length between 500cm to 1000cm by width of 100cm to 200cm.

Wrt Hippy;

VFD and dot matrix are the possible alternative and i was just worried about redesigning the display interface from scratch. But they seems to be the ideal plan B due to their practical and environmental reasons which LCDs are lacking.

Testing viewing range with a PC monitor is a good idea but just the extra effort that is needed. I can't afford to put a flat screen monitor on a public transport esp here because it will be stolen before mounted even and if u're lucky only wires will be left.

Wrt Eclectic;

Thanks for the link to that chip. Will be quite handy for my future applications.

Once more thanks for all the ideas and i'm looking forward for more ideas, pros, cons, etc; should there be any.

 

[hippy]

In my experience, passenger information displays which need to be read from a distance tend to be absolutely huge, though you don't usually notice that.

It should be possible to work out what size display is needed for a certain distance viewing or at what distance a certain sized display is readable at using standard trigonometry if you have a baseline to work with. It wouldn't surprise me if there are already guidelines, maybe even ISO standards.

There seem to be plenty of people who manufacture passenger information displays so that may be one alternative to rolling your own.

 

[Pauldesign]

Thanks for the feedback Hippy,

Your're right about the size of the display which i'm aware of but what i'm searching for now is an already made portable display that can display 2 lines of texts; 1 line is OK and 4 lines (max) from at least a 3m viewing distance.

There seem to be plenty of people who manufacture passenger information displays so that may be one alternative to rolling your own.

Although i still have to do the mathematics and experimentation to get all my physical and electrical parameters right rather than taking chances; but do perhaps have any links or contact details as inquiring about a customized display might be the best route to go.

Please guys accept my apology for changing the display parameters; i'm just trying first to see and explore whether such display dimensions is already existing and easily source able; which i do understand what is at stake now and i will be working from this frame of reference.

Thanks guys.

 

[Pauldesign]

Hippy thanks for heads-up, you don't have to do the googling for me as i'm busy with that right now but if nothing handy shows up, i'll still need your input