@peekay123 & @ScruffR
Stupid human input error…it compiled!
Thanks for your help!
@peekay123 We’ll do a pull request to your github repo. We updated the library and example to reflect the dropbox version and we’re adding a readme with a Fritzing. @dplumly will be pushing that code later today.
Happy Taco Tuesday 
!
Edit:
Yay! And yes it’s supposed to be that icon…
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Hi guys! I would like to use the sharp 4.4" display, is there some tutorial or summary of which parts you need, and a wiring diagram? I am not so used to read the datasheet to do the wiring.
The data in this thread is a bit scattered and I am not sure what info belongs to which display.
thanks 
@Coffee, to connect the 4.4" display, if you don’t have one, you will need a breakout board:
You will need to remove the smaller display and connect the new 4.4" unit. After that, the wiring instructions in the library I ported will work just fine. If you use the web IDE, I recommend copying the library files to your own app (extra tabs) so you can modify the display dimensions for yours. The larger display requires that you compile and run the app on a Photon, since a 9600 byte RAM buffer is required
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You can get the breakout boards cheaper from here: https://www.tindie.com/products/kuzyatech/sharp-memory-lcd-breakout-a2/
Post some pictures once you have it up and running.
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I’ve manufactured a few break-boards for the 4.4". They are small (unlike the Adafruit ones or the kuzyatech ones they don’t provide enough surface area to hold a display of any side) but they work well. You can see one of them in use (and a little Pong demo I made) in this YouTube Video. I might have one or two laying around if you only need a couple
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@harrisonhjones, if you could share the eagle files it would be great!
@harrisonhjones Nice to see the video. I see the Photon is updating the screen at a decent frame rate which is nice to see. Do you have any idea how often your refreshing the screen?
@peekay123 There for sure is a need for a proper breakout board for the larger 2.7 inch & the 4.4 inch Sharp displays. If you make some I’m sure you could sell them on Tindy, the Sharp Breakout that I linked to says its one of Tindy’s top sellers.
I’m running a loop on a Teensy 3.1 to read and then display data on the 2.7 inch display every .5 seconds and I can get what seems like 4- 5 days run time off a 3.3 Ah single cell 3.7v battery.
I’m about to start testing some ultra low power harvesting chips with some small solar panels and see how much power I can harvest with a small cell phone sized solar panel under indoor lighting conditions. I’m thinking enough power can be generated to keep the memory LCD’s up and running 24/7 & wake up the micro controller every so often to update the screens data. I’m sure this could be done with the Photon also to pull weather data or what ever and then update the screen and then put the micro back to sleep.
@RWB, when you say “proper” do you mean bigger? As in the same size as the display?
@peekay123 Yes. The having the PCB be the same size as the 2.7 inch or bigger LCD screen keeps the LCD much more protected than on the smaller 1.3 inch breakouts. The connector ribbon cables are super easy to break, I’ve broken 2-3 of them on accident over all my testing on breakout boards. I have a box full of these screens for testing.
I’m building out a custom PCB for products that the displays will be used in.
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A 4.4" breakout wouldn’t be too bad. OSH Park is out. Each board would cost $~19/pcb. Using another service you could get the board price down to $4/pcb (in lots of 10) and with ~$4-5 in components (could be kinda high) I bet you could price the final item (without the LCD of course for about $20-$25. Seems a bit high but I guess it is a special item.
Making a mostly blank 4.4" PCB seems wasteful, what about using a cheap rigid material like acrylic and mounting a small breakout board to that?
Also do-able. Adding additional components just takes extra time for sourcing and assembly. In large numbers sure, easy but in smaller numbers the price differential might not be so great
I agree with @Pixelmatix. A bezel or mounting plate with the I/O board as a bolt-on would be better.
I mostly agree. But ruining a $60 4 inch Sharp screen is really easy to do with these very fragile connectors so what ever you do make sure the screen and the ribbon cable are both secure because it’s really easy to snap rip the ribbon cable.
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Latest on a Sharp 4.4 inch hardware setup?
Trying to sum up what is needed for a good setup using the sharp memory display. Please reply if you have suggestions or can fill in the blanks.
From what I have read this is a option:
-
Photon, not core
Because its less hassle with the RAM -
Sharp 4.4 screen
http://www.futureelectronics.com/en/Technologies/Product.aspx?ProductID=LS0DAS2395SHARP2038585&IM=0 -
Driver/breakout boards
Here are the options that I can find, I do not know which one to use. I do have a screen but no driver yet.
I assume the library for running the screen is driver dependent?
a) Kuzyatech
Library: ?
b) Adafruit modified
http://www.adafruit.com/products/1393
Library: Assume this is for the core "low amount of ram"
https://github.com/pkourany/Adafruit_SharpMem
c) TS3005DB with adapter
Found very little information on how this can be used, just a post in the beginning of the thread from @RWB
d) A design as @harrisonhjones did.
?possible to get that?
Library?
Help filling in the blanks are appreciated
2 Likes
All you need to get the screen up and running is the:
- 4.4" Sharp Screen if that’s the one you want.
- Kuzyatech Breakout Moudule. The Adafruit breakout comes with 1.33 in screen that you will probably just take off because its the mirror hard to see screen type so why waste the money buying their more expensive breakout.
- If your using the Photon then you just need to use Peekay’s Photon Library. If your using an Arduino then use Peekay’s Arduino library like I am with the Teensy 3.1.
- @peekay123 also has the custom font library and user guide that is useful if you want to create custom fonts beyond what is included in the stock library which is less than ideal but works.
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If you feel comfortable soldering surface mount parts you can grab the board here: https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/iHHWPa4s
I can publish a BOM (Bill of Materials) if you are interested. (see below)
I’m also planning on updating this breakout when I find time. Let me know if you are interested.
BOM
The main LCD connector is this one: http://www.mouser.com/Search/ProductDetail.aspx?R=10051922-1010ELFvirtualkey64910000virtualkey649-10051922-1010ELF
The other 3 components are caps (0603 surface mount caps I believe).
C1 is between GND and DISP and is 0.1uF
C2 and C3 are between GND and 3.3V and are both 1uF
NOTICE!
NEW Sharp Color Memory LCD’s Are Available Via Digikey now!
Here is a good video that goes over the whole Sharp Memory LCD lineup and the new color screen. Go to the 3min mark for color LCD info only.
@peekay123 & @harrisonhjones How hard do you guys think it will be to get the Sharp Memory LCD library modified to send color data to the screen instead of just black and white? @peekay123 if your up for the task then let me know and I’ll have a color screen sent your way, I would really like to test it out against the monochrome screens that I’m currently very happy with in all respects.
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@RWB, I can't seem to find a datasheet with the data protocol for the display. It will use 3bits per pixel but how those are arranged and communicated is unclear. If you can find the data, I would be glad to adapt the existing library.
These folks seem to have the info and a driver but have not shared it yet.
I emailed them and asked if they could share the Arduino code they are using, no idea if they will reply.
I also emailed Sharp @ memorylcd@sharpsec.com to see if they will email the datasheet.
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