Sharp Memory LCD Displays = Ultra Low Power

@neal_tommy, breathing magenta means it is in safe mode waiting for code. How are you flashing you code to the Photon?

@Peekay123, through the web IDEā€¦ it seems to reset and then stays breathing magenta for a while. No action on the screen or anything. A tap of reset puts it back through the normal color boot up sequence and then back into breathing magenta. Tinker apps seems to work fine thoughā€¦ not sureā€¦

@neal_tommy, the magenta may be the cloud updating the system firmware on the Photon which can take a couple of minutes. You may want to let it go to see what happens.

@RWB @peekay123 have either of you tried using the photon with sharp 1.33 inch color memory lcd?

@Cody1, last I checked there was no library for the display and I havenā€™t had a chance to put one together yet.

@peekay123 Do you think it would be to hard to adapt the current Memory LCD library for the Color version?

I have been thinking about this and was wondering if there may be a easy way to just reuse code from a different Color LCD library that is also a 8 color display?

Iā€™m not sure how hard or easy it would be but Iā€™m willing to give you $500 if you can build a working library that would allow me to use the new Color Memory LCDā€™s.

Let me know if you think this is something you can or want to do.

Iā€™ll have a color screen sent to you if your interested.

@RWB, it should be somewhat straight forward to use the existing library. The trick is the bit-packing (3 bits per color). It may be possible to do some optimization with SPI DMA as well. What I donā€™t have is any specs on the display (bit order, etc.) though that will be easy to figure if I have a display. So what the hell, put me down for being interested!

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@peekay123 Great! Iā€™ll have a color screen shipped out to you today.

Hopefully when you do get this up and running Iā€™ll be able to also use the library with the Teensy 3.1 via the Arduino IDE also.

I picked up the new Pebble Time Steel watch with the new color display and Iā€™m really loving it. I didnā€™t expect the color display to make as big of a difference as it does but its much better than just black and white, it gives it much more personality and is overall much cooler. I want to add this Sharp Color screen to my smaller battery packs.

So the good news is that we have direct contact with the Sharp engineer for this new display so they should be able to answer any question you have about bit ordering. Here is the email for the Sharp Engineer Horner, Mark Horner@sharpsec.com

Below is what he already sent me:

This is from the data sheet

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@RWB, that is good news! I was a Time Steel kickstarter pledger so I have mine already just waiting on the steel bracelet. I love it and the colors are great!

The mfGFX library already supports color and with a bit packing algorithm, everything should work just fine. :smile:

@Peekay123 Great!

So I just paid for a color screen to be shipped to you today via Digikey. Iā€™ll forward the tracking # as soon as I have it.

I first picked up the regular Pebble Time in Black, then got the email a day later that the Steel was in stock and ready to ship finally. I liked the black rubber strap from the plastic Pebble time better then the light tan leather strap so I just switched them out. I like the rubber because it never stains or soaks up water when it gets wet.

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What sizes do the color displays come in?

@Bspranger, for now, only 128x128.

@RWB, what is unclear from the datasheet above are the color bits being represented as DR*, DG* and DB*. Are those inverted values? To clear the monochrome display you load it with 0xFF. So if I understand the colors correctly Black* = 000 (inverted) so the value you write to the display is 000 inverted = 111. Iā€™ll just have to make that assumption to start and fix the code if thatā€™s wrong! :stuck_out_tongue:

Shame the watch soaks up the water too thoughā€¦ my replacement one has just diedā€¦ and im waiting for my third to arrive :frowning:

@Hootie81, are you talking about the Steel Time?

Yeah, sorry for hijacking the thread!

@RWB said the band soaks up the water so he swapped to the rubber band. Just letting him know its not just the band that gets wet!

I couldnā€™t live without mine these daysā€¦ trello is one of my most used apps on it, wife sits at home and creates a shopping list and sends me to the shop and watches as i tick things off from my watch :slight_smile:

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@peekay123 I just emailed your question to Sharp in hopes of getting you a answer today.

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Yea I canā€™t live without the Pebble Watch either. The Time Steel is so much better than the last steel.

I shower and do dishes with my watch on every day and have had zero issues with water to date.

That app Trello sounds cool. Im always sent to the grocery with a list also :smile:

@RWB I just got the new Sharp Memory 4.4 display http://www.sharpmemorylcd.com/4-4-inch-memory-lcd.html. I was looking back at this post and wonder what screen size you have in this photo and what breakout board you used? I currently am using the Adafruit breakout board. https://www.adafruit.com/product/1393 and a Photon. I can get dots on the screen, but no actual image so far. Any thoughts?

@dplumly The adafruit breakout board will work fine.

Were gonna need to ask @peekay123 if the Photon can handle the 320 Ɨ 240 pixel that the 4" screen has. The pixel density is lower on the 4" screen than 400x240 on the 2.7" screens.

If the Photon is a problem then we know it will work on the P1 due to its increased memory capacity.

You need to check the .H file and set the pixel size to 320x240 before its going to work right.