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- Jun 27, 2001
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Scavenging LCD displays from other devices
In general: there is no way you will be able to just hack in any old friggin LCD and expect it to work. That goes for pretty much any handheld unit folks - gameboys, calculators, cell phones, caller ID boxes, you name it, it probably won't work without some serious electronics knowledge and work. And when I say serious, I mean an associate's or bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.
(Uller) <~ LCD god, believe him
Q: Can I use a Palm for a LCD screen?
A: Yes, with the PalmOrb sourceforge project at: http://palmorb.sourceforge.net/ .
PalmOrb acts as MatrixOrbital emulator on the palm.
(spellspoil)
Hey,
I just want to say that I actually got PalmOrb to work. You can use any program that works with Matrix-Orbitals, but unfortunately, I did not have much success with LCD Driver. You'll find out why later.
To set up...
Chose Matrix Orbital for drivers, the COM port that its connected to, and finally the important step, chose 19,200 kbps for speed (I don't know if this speed is right for everyone, so you may have to play around a bit). This is why LCDriver didn't work for me... I haven't updated LCDriver for quite awhile, so maybe they already support higher speeds.I would turn on the Palm, run PalmOrb (and do the steps below to prevent auto-off), and SHUT OFF HotSync to get access to the COM port. Then I would start whatever LCD software I wanted to use.
Also, to prevent your palm from turning off automatically, in the graffit area, make three dots, then a 3. Now your Palm should be on all the time (Just watch the battery!). Do the same steps to turn it off.
I have the Palm IIIxe. Software that I tried that worked so far includes Borderfield's LCDcenter, and a WinAmp plugin (LC Display Plug In at http://soundforge.net/projects/lcdplugin)
Hope this helps!
(dreamnid)
Q: I'd like to hack the LCD from a GameBoy into my case somehow, can I do it?
A: According to Jeff Frohwein's GameBoy FAQ it is possible but complicated. The LCD interface to GameBoy is very similar to other large screen LCDs in that a CRT controller is really required. The reason for this is that all 23,040 pixels (160x144) have to be written or "refreshed" 60 times a second the same way that a TV has to constantly redraw or else there won't be any picture. This is required even if what your trying to display is static and never changes. This is all the info I have at the moment.
(note that this FAQ does not appear to be actively maintained.)
(linear)
Q: What about the Gameboy Advance?
A: It looks like it is possible to directly interface the entire Gameboy Advance to the PC via a serial port. A cable is/will be available that allows you to develop gameboy code on your PC and the gameboy advance will load it when powered on. This could be an interesting option, but requires someone to develop some nice code. It is not yet clear quite how flexible this option will be, but as the gameboy advance has some nice screen modes & processing power, the results could be very interesting, and its a fairly cheap option.
(alumentalist)
In general: there is no way you will be able to just hack in any old friggin LCD and expect it to work. That goes for pretty much any handheld unit folks - gameboys, calculators, cell phones, caller ID boxes, you name it, it probably won't work without some serious electronics knowledge and work. And when I say serious, I mean an associate's or bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.
(Uller) <~ LCD god, believe him
Q: Can I use a Palm for a LCD screen?
A: Yes, with the PalmOrb sourceforge project at: http://palmorb.sourceforge.net/ .
PalmOrb acts as MatrixOrbital emulator on the palm.
(spellspoil)
Hey,
I just want to say that I actually got PalmOrb to work. You can use any program that works with Matrix-Orbitals, but unfortunately, I did not have much success with LCD Driver. You'll find out why later.
To set up...
Chose Matrix Orbital for drivers, the COM port that its connected to, and finally the important step, chose 19,200 kbps for speed (I don't know if this speed is right for everyone, so you may have to play around a bit). This is why LCDriver didn't work for me... I haven't updated LCDriver for quite awhile, so maybe they already support higher speeds.I would turn on the Palm, run PalmOrb (and do the steps below to prevent auto-off), and SHUT OFF HotSync to get access to the COM port. Then I would start whatever LCD software I wanted to use.
Also, to prevent your palm from turning off automatically, in the graffit area, make three dots, then a 3. Now your Palm should be on all the time (Just watch the battery!). Do the same steps to turn it off.
I have the Palm IIIxe. Software that I tried that worked so far includes Borderfield's LCDcenter, and a WinAmp plugin (LC Display Plug In at http://soundforge.net/projects/lcdplugin)
Hope this helps!
(dreamnid)
Q: I'd like to hack the LCD from a GameBoy into my case somehow, can I do it?
A: According to Jeff Frohwein's GameBoy FAQ it is possible but complicated. The LCD interface to GameBoy is very similar to other large screen LCDs in that a CRT controller is really required. The reason for this is that all 23,040 pixels (160x144) have to be written or "refreshed" 60 times a second the same way that a TV has to constantly redraw or else there won't be any picture. This is required even if what your trying to display is static and never changes. This is all the info I have at the moment.
(note that this FAQ does not appear to be actively maintained.)
(linear)
Q: What about the Gameboy Advance?
A: It looks like it is possible to directly interface the entire Gameboy Advance to the PC via a serial port. A cable is/will be available that allows you to develop gameboy code on your PC and the gameboy advance will load it when powered on. This could be an interesting option, but requires someone to develop some nice code. It is not yet clear quite how flexible this option will be, but as the gameboy advance has some nice screen modes & processing power, the results could be very interesting, and its a fairly cheap option.
(alumentalist)