perfect for your next project?

[rchadd]

http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20050722/index.html

[RayB]

YEAH! Someone buy this and do a review!
What I want to know is if it will run in DOS mode?

[Marky_1979]

What is it?

[AlanS17]

$110 for and LCD display? No thanks...

[pointdablame]

$110 for and LCD display? No thanks...

Matrix Orbital has never been what I'd call affordable, but they are great screens.  I had an older Parallel LCD from them a few years back.

The VK204 is $130, but it can display even more than the model in that review.  They are really nice screens if you're willing to drop the dough.

[hooded_paladin]

Ooo, this is what I've been working on.

[RayB]

But are the cheaper ones illuminated like that one in the link? If it's just an LCD, like you see on a digital watch, I'd rather have the one you can see in the dark.

[lesserChance]

I have also been working on displaying information on an lcd display.  Im finally able to send data to the pins now, only to figure out I seem to have chosen the wrong wires, oh well.  But it is fun overall.  I bought it on ebay for ten bucks.  Requires some soldering and programming, but Im hoping once its done Ill get it to display any mame-related information.  overall a good, cheap project.

[Kobex]

Yea, those VFDs are nice compared to LCDs.  You don't have to worry about visibility in the dark with those.  I'm also using one of those Noritake VFDs since we had one sitting around at work.  This was a good excuse to learn to program the thing.  I just wish we got one of the larger displays, as this one is maybe a little small (a 256x64 pixel unit).  The actual viewable area is about 3.5" x 1".

Inspired by the LCD projects I saw on here, I started working on the software this week.  If you really got into it you could pull off some very nice effects/animations, since it's not just a character display.  You can display bitmaps wherever you want, and it has some built-in transition effects.  The command sat was very easy to implement, and is all done through serial.

You can still just send text files on the serial port to display characters, like the LCDs people have been using.  I just control it through software directly since that's easier for me, I don't have to generate a text file for each game, and it allows me to do some of the "cooler" stuff (animations/effects).

For instance, currently when I launch a mame rom, I put a mame intro screen on the display with some simple twirling characters for about 5 seconds (the game is still loading anyway), and then use one of the built in transitions to "wipe away" the mame screen, starting from the center and going to both sides, to display the game/button information.

I'm not sure how much these displays cost individually.  You'd probably have to find some reseller to get them for a reasonable price.  I see 128x32 units on ebay all the time (search for "noritake vfd") for $17 + $8 shipping, but I'm not sure how that one compares to the one I have.  I looks to be about the same size, just a lower resolution.  I imagine it's an older unit since I didn't see it right away on their site, found here:  http://www.noritake-elec.com/

[Effayy]

But are the cheaper ones illuminated like that one in the link? If it's just an LCD, like you see on a digital watch, I'd rather have the one you can see in the dark.

Well, I just picked up this puppy off of EBay the other day, still waiting for it to arrive:

LCD Screen 4x40

It's backlit, and should fit a nice amount of info on a 4x40 screen.

- FA

[unclet]

Is something like this a big deal to use with an arcade cabinet .... please explain why this is a good thing?  What can it do for me?

[Effayy]

Is something like this a big deal to use with an arcade cabinet .... please explain why this is a good thing?

[Havok]

Now we need to integrate support with a front end, so it would be automatic when you select the game you want to play...

[lesserChance]

well, arcadeos is written in C++, im not sure about other front ends, but you can program these with that.  So you should just be able to go into that code and alter it.

[hooded_paladin]

But are the cheaper ones illuminated like that one in the link? If it's just an LCD, like you see on a digital watch, I'd rather have the one you can see in the dark.

The cheapest ones aren't; the cheaper ones are.



These things could definitely be integrated with a flexible enough frontend... I know LCD smartie can read from a file so a frontend made to write instructions to a file would be great.

[Silverwind]

I just bought a HD44780 compatible PLED/OLED display..
http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/CFAP1602M/index.html

It was about $21 or $30 shipped.  It goes with the theme of my cab.. i'm going for a fallout theme...  going to dress it up with a few things.. hehe..