What display technology and make? 2

[Skogsgurra]

Needs: 4 rows 16 or 20 characters. No graphics. Light-emitting or reflective with background light. Light on/off/intensity selectable. Colour OK but not necessary. Mature technology.

Constraints: Shall work from -20C to around +50C. Lowest possible (<10 mA) power consumption. Life better than 50 000 h. Cost lower than USD 30 in 100+ quantity.

I have quite a few candidates, but may have missed a few. Suggestions?

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[IRstuff]

What's on your list so far?

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[itsmoked]

That's classic LCD. I use them all the time:

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[itsmoked]

Great service and prices at Topway.
They speak English.

Topway Displays


Prices will blow your socks off.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[Skogsgurra]

That is what I have, more or less. But the backlight draws more current than I like. Otherwise, it is very much what I am looking for. The one I use is hard to read in dark corners behind machines. But four AA batteries go flat too quickly for my liking. So, something like that - but lower draw. That would be something for the children to have.

I have this one now:

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[itsmoked]

If you're really trying to save power then usually you kill the backlight unless someone has pressed a button. You add that the buttons do nothing at all except turn the backlight on on the first button pushed. Leave the backlight on for whatever time period makes sense for that product and then have it time-off after the last press. If the whole thing is in a black hole consider having the backlight come on for 1 second every 10 or 20 so someone knows there's a display available.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[IRstuff]

What kind of backlight? You could replace with EL backlight, which is way lower current draw than even LED. Additionally, EL is already uniform illumination, so nothing else needs to be done. Timex had a version called IndiGlo for their watches.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg

faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list

http://www.eng-tips.com/forumlist.cfm

 

[Skogsgurra]

Thanks, IR and Smoked! That is the kind of input I needed. Never thought about electroluminiscence. Can't even spell it right, I guess.

And that Light On on first Keypress is something I needed to be told. Thanks a lot!

Still, if there are more good tips - keep'em coming!

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

--------------------------------------
Half full - Half empty? I don't mind. It's what in it that counts.

 

[VEBill]

"Needs: 4 rows 16 or 20 characters"

You probably know this already. Useful search terms for those characters counts are "1604" or "2004", combined with terms like LCD and/or Arduino. Problem is, the market is ~99% the same old LCD with the usual LED backlighting. I did find an OLED exception.

Swapping out the backlight technology in an existing module might be a bit intricate.

Good luck.

 

[Sparweb]

Funny, I'm in the middle of building something with a LCD - for the first time in my case. So maybe I don't know what I'm doing yet...
I've learned that these development boards (I'm using Arduino) can be programmed to turn off the LCD completely by powering it from the digital output pins, rather than constantly on the 5VDC power supply, which is always on. When a button is pushed, the digital pin used is set to HIGH, permitting power to the LCD. I haven't tried this yet, but will once I have the hardware all sorted out.
The LCD I bought (Ladyada) is an energy hog so I won't recommend it for your job.
No I'm not making anything slick like your silk-screened touch panels, which look very professional, BTW.



STF