Display types

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Backlit flat-panel displays

CCFL or LED backlight

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCFL

Self-lit

OLED

QLED

On image persistence / burn-in

VFD

Vacuum Fluorescent Displays are vacuum tubes applied in a specific way - see Lightbulb_notes#VFDs for more details.


Lighting

Nixie tubes


Mechanical

Mechanical counter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanical_counter

Split-flap

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split-flap_display


LED segments

7-segment and others

This article/section is a stub — probably a pile of half-sorted notes and is probably a first version, is not well-checked, so may have incorrect bits. (Feel free to ignore, or tell me)
7-segment, 9-segment display, 14-segment, and 16-segment display. If meant for numbers will be a dot next to each (also common in general), if meant for time there will be a colon in one position.


These are really just separate lights that happen to be arranged in a useful shape.

Very typically LEDs (with a common cathode or anode), though similar ideas are sometimes implemented in other display types - notably the electromechanical one, also sometimes VFD.


Even the simplest, 7-segment LED involves a bunch of connectors so are

  • often driven multiplexed, so only one of them is on at a time.
  • often done via a controller that handles that multiplexing for you


Seven segments are the minimal and classical case, good enough to display numbers and so e.g. times, but not really for characters.

More-than-7-segment displays are preferred for that.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven-segment_display

DIY

LCD character dislays

Character displays are basically those with predefined (and occasionally rewritable) fonts.


Classical interface

The more barebones interface is often a 16 pin line with a pinout like

  • Ground
  • Vcc
  • Contrast
usually there's a (trim)pot from Vcc, or a resistor if it's fixed


  • RS: Register Select (character or instruction)
in instruction mode, it receives commands like 'clear display', 'move cursor',
in character mode,
  • RW: Read/Write
tied to ground is write, which is usually the only thing you do
  • ENable / clk (for writing)
  • 8 data lines, but you can do most things over 4 of them


  • backlight Vcc
  • Backlight gnd


The minimal, write-only setup is:

  • tie RW to ground
  • connect RS, EN, D7, D6, D5, and D4 to digital outs


I2C and other

Matrix displays

(near-)monochrome

SSD1306

OLED, 128x64@4 colorsTemplate:Vierfy

https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/SSD1306.pdf

SH1107

OLED,

https://datasheetspdf.com/pdf-file/1481276/SINOWEALTH/SH1107/1

Small LCD/TFTs / OLEDs

This article/section is a stub — probably a pile of half-sorted notes and is probably a first version, is not well-checked, so may have incorrect bits. (Feel free to ignore, or tell me)

Small as in order of an inch or two (because the controllers are designed for a limited resolution?(verify)).


💤 Note that, like with monitors, marketers really don't mind if you confuse backlit LCD with OLED,

and some of the ebays and aliexpresses sellers of the world will happily 'accidentally' call any small screen OLED if it means they sell more.

This is further made more confusing by the fact that there are

  • few-color OLEDs (2 to 8 colors or so, great for high contrast but only high cotnrast),
  • high color OLEDs (65K),

...so you sometimes need to dig into the tech specs to see the difference between high color LCD and high color OLED.



When all pixels are off they give zero light pollution (unlike most LCDs) which might be nice in the dark. These seem to appear in smaller sizes than small LCDs, so are great as compact indicators.


Can it do video or not?

If it does speak e.g. MIPI it's basically just a monitor, probably capable of decent-speed updates, but also the things you can connect to will (on the scale of microcontroller to mini-PC) be moderately powerful, e.g. a raspberry.

But the list below don't connect PC video cables.

Still, they have their own controller, and can hold their pixel state one way or the other, but connect something more command-like - so you can update a moderate amount of pixels with via an interface that is much less speedy or complex.

You might get reasonable results over SPI / I2C for a lot of e.g. basic interfaces and guages. By the time you try to display video you have to think about your design more.

For a large part because amount of pixels to update times the rate of frames per second has to fit through the communication (...also the display's capabilities). There is a semi-standard parallel interface that might make video-speed things feasible. This interface is faster than the SPI/I2C option, though not always that much, depending on hardware details.


Even if the specs of the screen can do it in theory, you also have to have the video ready to send. If you're running it from an RP2040 or ESP32, don't expect to libav/ffmpeg.

Say, something like the TinyTV runs a 216x135 65Kcolor display from a from a RP2040.

Also note that such hardware won't be doing decoding and rescaling arbitrary video files. They will use specifically pre-converted video.


In your choices, also consider libraries. Things like TFT_eSPI has a compatibility list you will care about.



Interfaces

This article/section is a stub — probably a pile of half-sorted notes and is probably a first version, is not well-checked, so may have incorrect bits. (Feel free to ignore, or tell me)


ST7735

LCD, 132x162@16bits RGB


ST7789

LCD, 240x320@16bits RGB

https://www.waveshare.com/w/upload/a/ae/ST7789_Datasheet.pdf

SSD1331

OLED, 16bits RGB https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/SSD1331_1.2.pdf

SSD1351

OLED, 65K color

https://newhavendisplay.com/content/app_notes/SSD1351.pdf

HX8352C

LCD https://www.ramtex.dk/display-controller-driver/rgb/hx8352.htm


HX8357C

R61581

ILI9163

LCD, 162x132@16-bit RGB

http://www.hpinfotech.ro/ILI9163.pdf

ILI9341

https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/ILI9341.pdf

ILI9486

LCD, 480x320@16-bit RGB

https://www.hpinfotech.ro/ILI9486.pdf

ILI9488

LCD

https://www.hpinfotech.ro/ILI9488.pdf

PCF8833

LCD, 132×132 16-bit RGB

https://www.olimex.com/Products/Modules/LCD/MOD-LCD6610/resources/PCF8833.pdf

SEPS225

LCD

https://vfdclock.jimdofree.com/app/download/7279155568/SEPS225.pdf


RM68140

LCD

https://www.melt.com.ru/docs/RM68140_datasheet_V0.3_20120605.pdf

GC9A01 (round)

LCD, 65K colors, SPI

https://www.buydisplay.com/download/ic/GC9A01A.pdf