Excellent! https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:189940/#comments
Probably should start looking into enclosure design. I can make small stuff, up to 120x120x300 mm single part. On Sun, Apr 15, 2018, 7:17 PM Mychaela Falconia <mychaela.falco...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello FC community, > > An update on the FreeCalypso handset project: I am still in the process > of evaluating candidate LCDs from different vendors. All of the > candidate LCD manufacturers I am evaluating are based in Shenzhen, > China - that city seems to be the world capital for fast-turn > electronic design and manufacturing - and in the present case it is > home to a large number of different LCD manufacturers. > > The only LCD I have successfully tested so far (as in got to the point > of displaying pictures) is the one from Startek, model KD020C-2A - > Startek was the first vendor to send me usable sample pieces, and they > included a breakout board that made it much easier for me to assemble > a working test rig. Here are some pictures of this test rig: > > https://www.freecalypso.org/members/falcon/pictures/lcd-test-rig/ > > The test rig consists of the LCD itself, the LCD vendor's breakout > board, one of our FT2232D boards for interfacing and a rat's nest of > wires connecting the LCD breakout board to the FT2232D board; the > whole mess is mounted on a 6x12" sheet of acrylic material with > double-sticky tape. The only outside connection to this whole > arrangement is USB on the FT2232D adapter board, used for both power > and programming: as soon as USB is plugged in, the LCD backlight > lights up as it is powered directly from USB 5V through a resistor in > series with each LED. I programmed the EEPROM on the FT2232D board > with my own USB ID so the connected USB host won't treat it as a > serial device (it is not a serial device - I am using the FT2232D chip > in the so-called MCU host bus emulation mode, which is completely > different from serial or SPI/JTAG), and in order to talk to the > controller inside the LCD module and put pictures on the LCD, I run a > special test program based on libftdi (published in the > freecalypso-hwlab Hg repository on Bitbucket) that issues the > necessary LCD controller commands through the FT2232D running in > FTDI's MCU host bus emulation mode. > > The original KD020C-2A LCD had 12:00 viewing direction which we don't > want (it is the opposite of the direction from which cellphone LCDs > are meant to be viewed), but the sample pieces which Startek sent me > are a modified version - it has been modified with some special film > that somehow improves the viewing angle. I don't really understand it > myself, but most of the test pictures I have tried displaying actually > look better on this LCD from the 6:00 viewing direction (the one we > want for the cellular handset application) than from 12:00. Overall > the picture quality is very good, and this LCD from Startek would > definitely make a good choice for our FreeCalypso handset product. It > is definitely better than the LCD on the Pirelli DP-L10, and my S.O. > says that the picture looks even better than on her Nokia phone. > > As a matter of due diligence though, I do need to evaluate one other > LCD from a different vendor before we officially commit to using > Startek LCDs. According to both the LCD datasheet and the vendor's > communication with me, the other vendor's LCD is officially made for > the 6:00 viewing direction, whereas Startek's LCD was originally > 12:00, but then modified in some way which I don't really understand. > It is possible that Startek's LCD with their special film is so good > that it's even better than the other vendor's LCD made for 6:00, but I > need to see both with my own eyes before I can commit to anything. > > The other vendor in question already sent me their sample pieces, and > they are supposed to arrive on Monday California time. But they don't > have a breakout board similar to Startek's for their different > connector, so I will need to make my own test PCB. I plan on still > using an external FT2232D breakout board rather than incorporating the > FT2232D into my own test board - this way the test board will be > simple enough for me to lay out myself. I'm going to give pcb-rnd a > try on this LCD test board - I have previously used gEDA/PCB, but > pcb-rnd has been making great progress and might be suitable for doing > the actual handset motherboard layout way down the road, so I'm > thinking of trying it out for the very simple board. I'm hoping to do > this layout some time this coming week, and then it will probably be > another 2-3 weeks to actually get the PCB made - but it is needed so > we can properly evaluate both LCD vendors and make a fully informed > decision. Stay tuned for further updates. > > Hasta la Victoria, Siempre, > Mychaela aka The Mother > _______________________________________________ > Community mailing list > Community@freecalypso.org > https://www.freecalypso.org/mailman/listinfo/community > _______________________________________________ Community mailing list Community@freecalypso.org https://www.freecalypso.org/mailman/listinfo/community