Sharp Memory LCD Displays = Ultra Low Power

BINGO!

Thanks so much for solving this problem quickly.

I can now keep pushing forward with this project.

The new 3.2 & 1.8 inch Memory LCD’s with built in front night light should be here by Friday. Ill post some pictures of those once I get them running.

It’s nice Digikey stocks these screens now with the backlight already attached.

2 Likes

Nice. So, all you did is use the code you provided in the link above and replaced the Adafruit library with peekay123’s library?

I got lost in this thread trying to find which display you are using (in last pictures). Would you mind posting a link?
Thanks

All I did was replace the code he provided into the library link i posted a couple post up.

So if you download my library and add his code to the .cpp file you will be good to go.

I have all the different Sharp Memory LCD sizes and have the 2 new 3.2" and 1.8" models that have Flex Lights front night light already attached to them and they are instock at Digikey. Having the Backlight built in is really nice since they do not normally come with a backlight option.

The screen Im using in the code is the 2.7" memory LCD.

2 Likes

@RWB, what’s the part number of that low power timer chip you found?

Here is the 1Hz version of the chip.

https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/abracon-llc/ASTMK-0.001KHZ-MP-DCC-H-T/535-14466-1-ND/8592980

1 Like

@peekay123 The 3.2 Memory LCD arrived :mailbox:

The Backlight LED being fed with 3.3v @ 40mA looks like this under 2 dimmed overhead LED lights.

So this version of the screen does call for a slightly different SPI data structure than the other screens based on this library I came across for this specific display size.

You can see how they handle this LS032B7DD02 vs all the other versions of the Sharp displays.

And

I can see this is a tad bit different than the changes you just did for the Sharp Displays on the Gen3 Devices.

Here is the library I pulled the code from if you’re interested in looking it over:

1 Like

@RWB I’ll take a look today. Since I don’t have one of these, I’ll need to rely on you for testing.

Thanks!

The only difference with this larger display vs the others is that SPI write order code circled in red.

@RWB, the library is interesting though it doesn’t use the Adafruit_GFX library but adds some extra functions to control the display which I like. It also makes me realize that I could use a SoftwareTimer to do the VCOM updates in a much simpler way, though this would only be useful for non low-power applications. Software timers weren’t available when the original library was created so now is the time to add this.

I’m going to create a new hybrid library (using this library, adding Adafruit_mfGFX) and test with my non-backlit display. Once it works, you can test with your backlit unit.

I’m happy to hear your going to port that library :spark:

I liked how it looks like it’s doing everything with less code.

I also like how they are using a solid up to date software for exporting fonts to use with the library.

http://www.iseasoft.com/bitfontcreator.html

@RWB, are you saying you WANT to use as-is and NOT use mfGFX? That’s not a problem but it will mean older code based on mfGFX will not work with this library.

I’m writing new code for this project so there would be no issues starting fresh with this new library.

1 Like

Either library works so just do whatever you feel like doing since I know new libraries can eat up a lot of time.

Looking at the new library it just seems like it’s lacking some of the draw functions for rectangles and triangles which I have not used up to this point so I don’t see those as a loss.

I mainly just need to print bitmaps and use custom fonts.

What I am interested in due to using this larger LCD with double the pixels of the 2.7 inch display is taking advantage of the quicker partial screen updates that he has integrated into the library. I’m interested to see how beneficial the quicker partial update code can be on the Argon since it’s half the clock speed of the Photon’s MCU.

@RWB, agreed on all points. My plan is to port to Gen2 and Gen3 devices. I can’t vouch for the efficiency of the font bitmap size but having easy access to fonts is important.

2 Likes