There are a bunch of 2.2" (240x320) color display for sale, some under $4. However, most are geared to the Arduino form factor. There is another set of similar displays that use either the I2C or SPI interface, which ups the price to about $6, but reduces the pin count to 5 (sometimes 4). Many also have an SD card reader, but I've not had much reliability with most of these. I'd have to drag out a few projects to find out their current draw and "noisiness". Also, keep in mind that library support is crucial, and displays using the ILI9341 display controller are pretty easy to work with and Adafruit has libraries.
Jack, W8TEE
On Friday, February 15, 2019, 1:41:34 AM EST, Ashhar Farhan <farhanbox@...> wrote:
peeps,
i am thinking of a graphics display for the bitx radios. here is the shopping list of ideas:
1, Ubiquitous : We should be able to source it from multiple sources and multiple countries with ease.
2. Low cost: The bitx40 costs 50 dollars to make. We can't tie it to a display alone that costs $20s.
3. RF friendly: Many of these display are very noisy.
4. Current consumption. We should be able to handle this with a few milliamps.
I have tried two options :
A) 128x64 LCD display. The common one uses the KS0108 display that needs about 11 pins. Which means, we will have to dedicate one ATMEGA328P as a 'display controller' that runs over a TTL serial line. That way, a single TTL line can be used to control the display. I have, at the moment, a display of this sort running where you can give send text message like "text 20,30, Hello world" or "rect 10,10,100,50". It seems to be a reasonable solution. It can even display the waterfall. The current consumotion is about 10 ma without the backlight. A 2N7000 turns the backlight on and off.
B) E-ink display. I have used modules from waveshare. The display is to die for. It does everything, costs a little more, however, alas, the display update time is lagging. You turn the knob and wait for the frequency to update. I haven't given up on it yet, I hope there is some breakthrough and we can get the frequency updated in real-time. If the frequency can be updated, then even the S meter would work.?