Suggestions on LCDs with various color options (CrystalFontz seems to have a smaller selection now)

[m00dawg]

Since I'm working on my MB6582 again (and by working I mean mostly building a new one since I've lifted several pads off my old baseboard trying to get the control surface wiring working), I was thinking of updating the LCD. I have one with an amber/orange background on dark letting now. I know for a while there the inverted LCDs were something CrystalFontz sold, but I only see a few color combinations. Adafruit sells a 20x4 display that's RGB but I'm not sure how I could use it with the MB6582?

Curious what folks are doing these days with their LCDs? At this point I'll just be happy to have a working MB6582 haha so aesthetics are maybe not quite as important but still thought I'd ask around.

[latigid on]

If you can find the right size, I would suggest to use a white OLED and whatever gel/acrylic to make the colour you're interested in.

[dwestbury]

If you need a standard LCD color, like green or blue, I’d suggest sourcing from AliExpress, because you can get a few of them for ~$3 USD each.

If you need a unique color like Orange/Amber, I’d suggest getting the Adafruit RGB display and connecting your 5v power source to each of the RGB inputs through a set of 3 * 10K pots, which you can adjust individually to achieve the exact color desired.

 

 

 

 

 

[m00dawg]

Yeah your price list (thank you again by the way!) had an Adafruit RGB LCD on there as I recall. I wasn't sure where I might want to place the pots. If I want one of the standard 6 or so colors, I could use just resistors (though I think an amber would require a mix). Their inverted 20x4 definitely looks nice!

[dwestbury]

 

These RGB char displays use 18 pins instead of the standard 16, which means there's separate power input for Red, Green and Blue.

 

 

 

I posted a pic in the gallery of the approach I took with one of my MB-6582's.

Basically I was able to use a single pot on a tiny piece of protoboard to send variable power into Green pin.

I sent the full 5v source into the Red pin, then used the pot to mix in a bit of Green and voila, a nice Amber color that nicely matched my LEDs ;-) 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 14, 2020 by dwestbury

[m00dawg]

Got it, awesome thanks for all the info!