What are some suggested displays (LCD) with Spark Core

Thanks James - have your code up and running and have begun investigating options. Have you looked at u8glib given it has support for SSD1351 or are you planning on a direct port of the existing Arduino libs you have.

So I'm actually working on several display solutions for the Spark Core right now.

There's so many different 16x2/20x2/20x4 LCD backpacks on the market, each with different command sets. I started out writing a library for the Parallax Serial 16x2 LCD Backpack, however it's turned into more of a Universal Liquid Crystal Library. It'll support all the same commands as the Arduino Liquid Crystal Library, but I'm structuring it so that you can use #define statements (or custom functions) to enter the commands your specific backpack expects. It'll support Serial and I2C backpacks.

I've got a port (well, really a re-write) of the Digole SPI/I2C/UART Library I'm working on now.Finally, I've got a primitives and UI library that should work with @Jamjardavies Color OLED and pretty much any other display, so long as you can hack together a basic driver for it. :slight_smile:

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timb thanks for lending the whole community your obvious talents.

Doug

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Seems like this would be a really easy LCD solution (for me anyway :D)?

http://www.coolcomponents.co.uk/16x2-display-and-keypad-shield.html

Since it is an existing arduino shield, do we have the LiquidCrystal library already?

@Phil12d3 Something to begin with:

LiquidCrystal Library for Spark Core up on Github now: https://gist.github.com/technobly/8342145

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@BDub & @timb - thanks for all your work on the drivers here.

I am using the Adafruit I2C backpack with a 16x2 display (also from the fruit)… once I get my pullup situation in order I’ll be back to needing to actually DISPLAY something with this thing.

Do either of you have a reccomendation for a library that is I2C, Spark ready and hits the 16x2?

Thanks!
Ken

@Soulhuntre you're welcome! I also replied to your other post with library support for the I2C backpack. Please let me know if it works for you :wink:

I bought this board as well and was surprised at the resistor changes needed. I’ve ordered those resistors and I’m going to try to port the Adafruit 8875 library, which uses the 4-wire SPI. I’m still thinking this is might be a dead-end: saving a few bucks and doing all this extra work might not be worth it.

@ClintonKeith well, I think the board itself has potential. I like the I2C and I tend to like Adafruit for the extra info and quick delivery times - as long as I can get it running (even if I have to do pull-ups!) it will be worth it to me.

I have looked at some of the other serial boards folks mentioned - and they do seem enticing (especially with how easy it is to send text to some of them). I may look into a few of those as well just so I can use them with much smaller boards (trinket, flora etc.).

With luck, I can get this running however!

Ken

@BDub - indeed you did, thanks for the reply over there!

@Soulhuntre - Are you referring to the RA8875 Driver Board?

If so, I agree. The hardware I was talking about is the buydisplay TFT with the integrated controller.

That one requires a bit of soldering very small surface mount resistors to get SPI working on the integrated 8875. I might have been better off buying the TFT display separately, but it ends up being almost twice the cost.

For prototyping, I have been using the Sparkfun 16x2 white on black LCD with a 3.3V serial packback. Here’s a link to the backpack datasheet. It is serial TX from core to display only so you don’t have to worry about polled IO on the serial port right now. Very easy to use and very reliable for me. I am planning on getting another one or two to play with.

I am looking at the Adafruit displays too and I will likely get one next time I order from them.

@bko - yeah, I am going to pick two of those sparkfun’s up just to have around.

On the buydisplay, it is best to purchase from their website so you can get it ordered just the way you want it. My mistake and sound like ClintonKeith also was buying through ebay where they don’t tell you what options just assume. I want this larger display and with touch screen so I do want to go this direction. I think it has huge potential and at a good price.

timb is going to get this display to work with spark.

timb, have you finished your digole library port yet?

:smile:

@peekay123 Almost! Sorry for the delay, I’ve been swapping back and forth between this, rewriting the I2C library and implementing pulseIn.

Maybe I’ll dedicate a few hours tonight to polishing this off. :smiley:

@timb - I just wanted to take a second agian and say thanks for the hard work!

I posted this on another thread but I wanted to be sure you guys saw it as well.

I wrote a port of the Arduino code that was available for this OLED display:
http://wide.hk

My code is here:

I hope that is helpful, the OLED only cost me $19 and its contrast is fantastic.

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Thanks! I have a display that looks a LOT like that one in size from Adafruit, but sadly is not the same in any other respect that helps. Mine uses the SSD1306 instead of the SSD131x.