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Breaking: Liquid Crystals are Slow!

A project log for CircuitPython Badge

A handheld running CircuitPython and cheap enough for a badge.

dehipudeʃhipu 03/26/2018 at 13:336 Comments

So I wrote the code to do all the blit magic and stuff, and coded a bouncing ball demo, and the effect is a little bit disappointing:

Hardware special effects! Who would have thought that the low price, low-res, old LCD would be so slow to update? I guess that power efficiency comes at a cost.

Well, since the PCB is already ordered, I guess I will build it anyways, and try to make some games that don't do any sudden moves. Maybe it will be enough for the usual tetris, snake and 2048.

On the other hand, I have some loose OLED displays that I got for the #Micro:Boy, but couldn't get them to work (and later discovered that it was a reset issue). I could use them for this, though they are about half as small as this display.

If you know of any ~1.5" displays with relatively low resolution and big pixels, but decent update speed, let me know!

Discussions

Wenting Zhang wrote 03/28/2018 at 17:28 point

Hope you remember the monochrome screen on the original GameBoy... It is STN.

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deʃhipu wrote 03/28/2018 at 17:38 point

I don't. Maybe it's hard to believe, but I never had a gameboy (either original, color or advance) in my hands. When I was a kid they were very hard to get in my country, and now there are much better options.

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davedarko wrote 03/26/2018 at 14:22 point

there's this 1.54" oled, but that probably breaks the bank with a price of at least 8 euros? 

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deʃhipu wrote 03/26/2018 at 15:15 point

yeah, that's a bit more than I was hoping for, and also it requires a boost converter, which would bump my parts count

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davedarko wrote 03/26/2018 at 18:03 point

forgot about the boost converter, I think the closest one then is the 1.3 inch oled, or does that need a booster as well?

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deʃhipu wrote 03/28/2018 at 18:49 point

No, the 1.3 one has everything built-in, only needs 5 caps and a current-sensing resistor. I tried to use one in #Micro:Boy but didn't know about the reset requirements. I will try it again — I have a PCB for it on order too. But right now I have high hopes for that e-ink.

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