• Re: Looking for Pi display to use in direct sunlight

    From David Taylor@3:770/3 to Chris Green on Sat Jul 29 10:16:38 2023
    On 29/07/2023 09:46, Chris Green wrote:
    I'm trying to find a display to use with a Pi that will be readable in
    direct sunlight (on a boat).

    I can find LCD numeric displays using the Hitachi HD44780 interface
    and they work OK in the sun but I'm after a graphic display of some
    sort. It needs to be a reasonable size, so all the 128 x 64 ones are
    too small really. Something like a 7" display would be ideal.

    Does anyone here know of anything like this that doesn't cost hundreds
    of pounds?

    Chris,

    If an update rate of, say, 30 seconds is adequate, and a 74 mm diagonal is adequate, you could look at the Pimoroni Badger - 296 x 128 pixels. Available plain, or with embedded wireless:

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040?variant=39752959852627

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040-w?variant=40514062188627

    Using two lines of characters it's readable at 2m away. Program with Python - many examples and help easily available.

    --
    Cheers,
    David
    Web: https://www.satsignal.eu

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Chris Green on Sat Jul 29 10:18:46 2023
    On 29/07/2023 09:46, Chris Green wrote:
    I'm trying to find a display to use with a Pi that will be readable in
    direct sunlight (on a boat).

    E-paper is the correct technology



    I can find LCD numeric displays using the Hitachi HD44780 interface
    and they work OK in the sun but I'm after a graphic display of some
    sort. It needs to be a reasonable size, so all the 128 x 64 ones are
    too small really. Something like a 7" display would be ideal.

    Does anyone here know of anything like this that doesn't cost hundreds
    of pounds?

    E-paper up to around 400x300 is not hard to find, but 7" is a bit harder. https://thepihut.com/products/4-2-e-paper-display-module-for-raspberry-pi-pico-black-white-400x300
    is a pico product.
    - 4 and a bit inches

    This is a great compromise between teeny, and silly money https://shop.sb-components.co.uk/collections/raspberry-pi-displays/products/7-5inch-hd-e-paper-e-ink-raw-display-880x528-black-white-spi-without-pcb

    But I have no idea how to drive it. What *is* an SPI? Ah! Serial
    peripheral interface, so it wont be fast. e-ink is alway pretty sluggish
    though anyway.


    --
    "A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight
    and understanding".

    Marshall McLuhan

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  • From Chris Green@3:770/3 to All on Sat Jul 29 09:46:58 2023
    I'm trying to find a display to use with a Pi that will be readable in
    direct sunlight (on a boat).

    I can find LCD numeric displays using the Hitachi HD44780 interface
    and they work OK in the sun but I'm after a graphic display of some
    sort. It needs to be a reasonable size, so all the 128 x 64 ones are
    too small really. Something like a 7" display would be ideal.

    Does anyone here know of anything like this that doesn't cost hundreds
    of pounds?

    --
    Chris Green
    ·

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Chris Green@3:770/3 to David Taylor on Sat Jul 29 12:08:26 2023
    David Taylor <david-taylor@blueyonder.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/07/2023 09:46, Chris Green wrote:
    I'm trying to find a display to use with a Pi that will be readable in direct sunlight (on a boat).

    I can find LCD numeric displays using the Hitachi HD44780 interface
    and they work OK in the sun but I'm after a graphic display of some
    sort. It needs to be a reasonable size, so all the 128 x 64 ones are
    too small really. Something like a 7" display would be ideal.

    Does anyone here know of anything like this that doesn't cost hundreds
    of pounds?

    Chris,

    If an update rate of, say, 30 seconds is adequate, and a 74 mm diagonal is adequate, you could look at the Pimoroni Badger - 296 x 128 pixels. Available
    plain, or with embedded wireless:

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040?variant=39752959852627

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040-w?variant=40514062188627

    Using two lines of characters it's readable at 2m away. Program with Python -
    many examples and help easily available.

    No, sadly those E-Ink displays are too slow. I don't need really fast
    refresh but I do need to be able to refresh in, say, 100mS (or maybe a
    bit more).

    --
    Chris Green
    ·

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  • From Ahem A Rivet's Shot@3:770/3 to Chris Green on Sat Jul 29 14:10:08 2023
    On Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:08:27 +0100
    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

    No, sadly those E-Ink displays are too slow. I don't need really fast refresh but I do need to be able to refresh in, say, 100mS (or maybe a
    bit more).

    How about this ?

    https://www.adafruit.com/product/1303

    --
    Steve O'Hara-Smith
    Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
    Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
    Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Theo@3:770/3 to Ahem A Rivet's Shot on Sat Jul 29 16:38:28 2023
    Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
    On Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:08:27 +0100
    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

    No, sadly those E-Ink displays are too slow. I don't need really fast refresh but I do need to be able to refresh in, say, 100mS (or maybe a
    bit more).

    Do you need to refresh the whole screen? Many of the e-ink displays are
    able to do a partial refresh in much shorter time.

    How about this ?

    https://www.adafruit.com/product/1303

    The Pixel Qi company went bankrupt in 2015, and while supposedly this one
    has the rights to manufacture and claims to do so: https://www.tripuso.com/index.html
    it's not clear if they still do.

    However it is possible to buy the 7" panels on Aliexpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001944445301.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001025242130.html
    datasheet https://www.openvario.org/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=projects:series_00:spec_sheet_pq070ws01_dcn20130103-100.pdf

    and it looks like the decoder board used by Adafruit is available: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003128606387.html
    (although the Adafruit 10.1" panel has a different pinout from the Aliexpress 7" one, so a cable would need to be made)

    The Adafruit 10.1" panel is also available, for a higher price: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32717016812.html

    Looking at the datasheet it looks pretty plug and play - you switch from transmissive through transflective to reflective mode by just dimming the backlight down to zero. When the ambient light is strong the reflective
    pixels wash out the transmissive ones, resulting in semi-greyscale.

    The 7" is about 2W in 100% backlight and 0.5W in 0% backlight, so not as low power as e-ink, but acceptable if you don't need such low power consumption.

    Almost tempted to get one to play with, if only I had an application...

    Theo

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Chris Green on Sat Jul 29 17:40:36 2023
    On 29/07/2023 12:08, Chris Green wrote:
    David Taylor <david-taylor@blueyonder.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/07/2023 09:46, Chris Green wrote:
    I'm trying to find a display to use with a Pi that will be readable in
    direct sunlight (on a boat).

    I can find LCD numeric displays using the Hitachi HD44780 interface
    and they work OK in the sun but I'm after a graphic display of some
    sort. It needs to be a reasonable size, so all the 128 x 64 ones are
    too small really. Something like a 7" display would be ideal.

    Does anyone here know of anything like this that doesn't cost hundreds
    of pounds?

    Chris,

    If an update rate of, say, 30 seconds is adequate, and a 74 mm diagonal is >> adequate, you could look at the Pimoroni Badger - 296 x 128 pixels. Available
    plain, or with embedded wireless:

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040?variant=39752959852627

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040-w?variant=40514062188627 >>
    Using two lines of characters it's readable at 2m away. Program with Python -
    many examples and help easily available.

    No, sadly those E-Ink displays are too slow. I don't need really fast refresh but I do need to be able to refresh in, say, 100mS (or maybe a
    bit more).

    Will they really not do that speed?
    Shame, I like e-ink

    --
    "Women actually are capable of being far more than the feminists will
    let them."

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Ahem A Rivet's Shot@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Sat Jul 29 18:24:30 2023
    On Sat, 29 Jul 2023 17:40:36 +0100
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    Will they really not do that speed?
    Shame, I like e-ink

    The fastest (E-ink Carta) are around 450ms for a complete refresh
    which is OK for turning pages in a book.

    --
    Steve O'Hara-Smith
    Odds and Ends at http://www.sohara.org/
    Host: Beautiful Theory meet Inconvenient Fact
    Obit: Beautiful Theory died today of factual inconsistency

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Ahem A Rivet's Shot on Sat Jul 29 18:36:52 2023
    On 29/07/2023 18:24, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
    On Sat, 29 Jul 2023 17:40:36 +0100
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

    Will they really not do that speed?
    Shame, I like e-ink

    The fastest (E-ink Carta) are around 450ms for a complete refresh
    which is OK for turning pages in a book.

    Mmm. But aren't they essentially pixel level addressable, so some smart software could keep a RAM copy of a small display and only update the
    changed pixels?

    Not thinking of running videos, y'know!

    --
    Any fool can believe in principles - and most of them do!

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  • From Chris Green@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Sat Jul 29 19:29:32 2023
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/07/2023 12:08, Chris Green wrote:
    David Taylor <david-taylor@blueyonder.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
    On 29/07/2023 09:46, Chris Green wrote:
    I'm trying to find a display to use with a Pi that will be readable in >>> direct sunlight (on a boat).

    I can find LCD numeric displays using the Hitachi HD44780 interface
    and they work OK in the sun but I'm after a graphic display of some
    sort. It needs to be a reasonable size, so all the 128 x 64 ones are >>> too small really. Something like a 7" display would be ideal.

    Does anyone here know of anything like this that doesn't cost hundreds >>> of pounds?

    Chris,

    If an update rate of, say, 30 seconds is adequate, and a 74 mm diagonal is >> adequate, you could look at the Pimoroni Badger - 296 x 128 pixels. Available
    plain, or with embedded wireless:

    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040?variant=39752959852627 >>
    https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/badger-2040-w?variant=40514062188627 >>
    Using two lines of characters it's readable at 2m away. Program with Python -
    many examples and help easily available.

    No, sadly those E-Ink displays are too slow. I don't need really fast refresh but I do need to be able to refresh in, say, 100mS (or maybe a
    bit more).

    Will they really not do that speed?
    Shame, I like e-ink

    My Kobo reader feels much faster than that, pages turn in what feels
    like a (significant) fraction of a second.

    --
    Chris Green
    ·

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Dennis Lee Bieber@3:770/3 to All on Sat Jul 29 14:39:22 2023
    On Sat, 29 Jul 2023 10:18:46 +0100, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> declaimed the following:


    But I have no idea how to drive it. What *is* an SPI? Ah! Serial
    peripheral interface, so it wont be fast. e-ink is alway pretty sluggish >though anyway.

    SPI is NOT an old-fashioned serial UART. Depending on hardware it can run at MHz bit rates. https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/699/what-spi-frequencies-does-raspberry-pi-support

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  • From Chris Green@3:770/3 to Theo on Sat Jul 29 19:27:46 2023
    Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
    Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
    On Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:08:27 +0100
    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

    No, sadly those E-Ink displays are too slow. I don't need really fast refresh but I do need to be able to refresh in, say, 100mS (or maybe a bit more).

    Do you need to refresh the whole screen? Many of the e-ink displays are
    able to do a partial refresh in much shorter time.

    No, I don't need to refresh it all. The only relatively fast refresh
    is for the rudder position indicator which would just be a single dark
    cursor (or similar) moving about.

    How about this ?

    https://www.adafruit.com/product/1303

    The Pixel Qi company went bankrupt in 2015, and while supposedly this one
    has the rights to manufacture and claims to do so: https://www.tripuso.com/index.html
    it's not clear if they still do.

    However it is possible to buy the 7" panels on Aliexpress: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001944445301.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001025242130.html
    datasheet https://www.openvario.org/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=projects:series_00:spec_sheet_pq070ws01_dcn20130103-100.pdf


    and it looks like the decoder board used by Adafruit is available: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003128606387.html
    (although the Adafruit 10.1" panel has a different pinout from the Aliexpress 7" one, so a cable would need to be made)

    The Adafruit 10.1" panel is also available, for a higher price: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32717016812.html

    Looking at the datasheet it looks pretty plug and play - you switch from transmissive through transflective to reflective mode by just dimming the backlight down to zero. When the ambient light is strong the reflective pixels wash out the transmissive ones, resulting in semi-greyscale.

    The 7" is about 2W in 100% backlight and 0.5W in 0% backlight, so not as low power as e-ink, but acceptable if you don't need such low power consumption.

    Almost tempted to get one to play with, if only I had an application...

    Power isn't an issue for me, it's on a canal/river boat with
    (relatively) lots of 12 volt power available.

    --
    Chris Green
    ·

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Chris Green on Sat Jul 29 19:52:32 2023
    On 29/07/2023 19:27, Chris Green wrote:

    No, I don't need to refresh it all. The only relatively fast refresh
    is for the rudder position indicator which would just be a single dark
    cursor (or similar) moving about.

    I am fairly sure that you can update on a per pixel basis. If you
    maintain an in memory copy of what you have *and* what you want, you can
    rip through and compare them and only send the updates.

    https://www.pervasivedisplays.com/improving-the-e-paper-display-user-experience-using-fast-and-partial-updates/


    Power isn't an issue for me, it's on a canal/river boat with
    (relatively) lots of 12 volt power available.

    I suggested e-paper because its very good in bright sunlight - less so
    in the dark.
    Not because of its amazing power consumption.

    Personally I think it would do the job, but you would need to code some
    fairly low level 'set a pixel, clear a pixel' type stuff. And then build
    some graphics libraries on top of that to move your rudder indicator.

    A really small one would suit my room thermometer app. Tempting..


    --
    Any fool can believe in principles - and most of them do!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Jan Panteltje@3:770/3 to cl@isbd.net on Sun Jul 30 05:13:18 2023
    On a sunny day (Sat, 29 Jul 2023 19:27:46 +0100) it happened Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote in <2a2gpj-7p752.ln1@esprimo.zbmc.eu>:

    Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
    Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
    On Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:08:27 +0100
    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

    No, sadly those E-Ink displays are too slow. I don't need really fast >> > > refresh but I do need to be able to refresh in, say, 100mS (or maybe a >> > > bit more).

    Do you need to refresh the whole screen? Many of the e-ink displays are
    able to do a partial refresh in much shorter time.

    No, I don't need to refresh it all. The only relatively fast refresh
    is for the rudder position indicator which would just be a single dark
    cursor (or similar) moving about.

    Am I missing something if I propose an old analog meter where the hand shows the rudder position?

    Or a needle connected to a stepper motor?

    I was into that stuff some years back, used a Pocket book Aqua2 (e-ink display) to connect to
    my software server.
    https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/xgpspc/index.html
    Not that much impressed with e-ink...
    There exist very good sunlight readable monitors I have heard.
    Do not have a boat at this time...

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  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Jan Panteltje on Sun Jul 30 07:04:12 2023
    On 30/07/2023 06:13, Jan Panteltje wrote:

    Am I missing something if I propose an old analog meter where the hand shows the rudder position?

    Or a needle connected to a stepper motor?

    Rip any dial out of a modern car and replace the fascia. They are all
    'digital'

    Or use PWM on a model R/C servo.


    I was into that stuff some years back, used a Pocket book Aqua2 (e-ink display) to connect to
    my software server.
    https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/xgpspc/index.html
    Not that much impressed with e-ink...
    There exist very good sunlight readable monitors I have heard.
    Do not have a boat at this time...


    --
    Any fool can believe in principles - and most of them do!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Chris Green@3:770/3 to Jan Panteltje on Sun Jul 30 10:55:02 2023
    Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid> wrote:
    On a sunny day (Sat, 29 Jul 2023 19:27:46 +0100) it happened Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote in <2a2gpj-7p752.ln1@esprimo.zbmc.eu>:

    Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
    Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:
    On Sat, 29 Jul 2023 12:08:27 +0100
    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

    No, sadly those E-Ink displays are too slow. I don't need really fast >> > > refresh but I do need to be able to refresh in, say, 100mS (or maybe a >> > > bit more).

    Do you need to refresh the whole screen? Many of the e-ink displays are >> able to do a partial refresh in much shorter time.

    No, I don't need to refresh it all. The only relatively fast refresh
    is for the rudder position indicator which would just be a single dark >cursor (or similar) moving about.

    Am I missing something if I propose an old analog meter where the hand shows the rudder position?

    No, it's an approach that I'm seriously considering. As the
    'transducer' at the rudder end is simply a pot stuck on top of the
    rudder post the whole thing can be analogue. I'm actually thinking
    that an edgewise meter might be best.

    --
    Chris Green
    ·

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  • From druck@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Mon Jul 31 21:16:48 2023
    On 29/07/2023 10:18, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
    But I have no idea how to drive it. What *is* an SPI? Ah! Serial
    peripheral interface, so it wont be fast. e-ink is alway pretty sluggish though anyway.

    It's not an old RS232 port! SPI is clocked up to 250MHz, and it's used
    to drive many types of display on the Pi, including LCD and OLED, which
    are much quicker that e-ink.

    ---druck

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  • From Martin Gregorie@3:770/3 to Jan Panteltje on Wed Aug 2 12:12:44 2023
    On Mon, 31 Jul 2023 10:07:57 GMT, Jan Panteltje wrote:

    If you decide to use e.g. a radio control servo, there are very
    inexpensive 'servo testers' which do in fact have a pot in the middle.
    The whole lot could be had for just a few dollars. You could wire your
    pot up to them. Or generate your own PWM with a pi - the servo spec is a
    20 Hz (or thereabouts) repetition of a 1-2ms pulse, with 1.5ms being the >>putative 'straight ahead' position.

    If you want to use a servo to move a nice, big rudder position indicator, another low-cost option is to use a PICAXE device to drive the servo.

    The PICAXE-08M2 is a simple, cheap 8-pin DIP package with a serial port
    that's used both to load programs, which are written in a simple integer compiled BASIC, and to accept ASCII strings containing textual commands
    and/or integer values. All PICAXE models have built-in firm-ware to drive
    radio control servos. There are bigger chips, i.e. have more i/o pins, but those are likely to be overkill for this application.

    The BASIC compiler/downloader can be run on an RPi, though you'll also
    need a PICAXE USB Download Cable £14.99 inc. VAT, though most users only
    need one of these: it connects to an RPi USB socket and has a 3.5mm coax
    jack at the PICAXE end.

    They also sell prototyping boards with a 3.5mm socket: an RPi, BASIC
    compiler, prototyping board and download cable forms a fairly complete development and prototyping outfit.

    Full details and prices are here: https://www.picaxestore.com/


    --

    Martin | martin at
    Gregorie | gregorie dot org

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  • From Computer Nerd Kev@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Fri Aug 4 08:58:10 2023
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Analogue meters don't come cheap or with suitable scales these days.

    Unless you go to hamfests, in which case you can usually buy great
    quality old ones for $5 or less. Ebay seems to have cheap Chinese
    ones in the $5-$10 range too.

    And thay are soewahtt fragile.

    Well they _might_ not survive being dropped on the floor, but then
    neither might a Raspberry Pi board.

    --
    __ __
    #_ < |\| |< _#

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