guaging interest in a backligh power panel or colored illumination

[JEEPWORLD2002]

ok been taking to eagletree systems and i reciently broke my power panel and was looking for replacments. and thought to my self "self boy it hard to read these things , wonder what the night flyers do to read them ?? so i thinking it may help with a blue back light and white transmisive wrighting ive got 2 coming to see how much more weight it adds. and how well i can see i ll post pics soon pm me if you interested and or post here . thank you kevin

[JEEPWORLD2002]

wow, no one else likes the blue background and white lettering lcds over the yellow n green non back light screens ? i am suprised

[halley]

Backlit LCD units are quite a bit thicker and heavier than passive LCD.

However, when you mentioned "colored illumination," an idea struck me: tie the color of the backlight to a lipo alarm. Two or three colored backlight LEDs instead of one electroluminescent panel. The screen is bigger than a tiny lamp, so it might show up better at a distance. Two downsides: more power, and it'd be a custom component instead of an off-the-shelf variety.

[JEEPWORLD2002]

yes little heavier but worth the gram or 2 extra. actually not that custom little cheaper then a oem one only prob is after the inventory here is gone its a 500 piece order to replenish stock but who know your the only hit so far on 2 forums

[Big Fil]

Myself personally I can't stand blue backlighting. It just looks cheap to me. Not to mention it is not a good color for night vision and usually overly bright.

[JEEPWORLD2002]

yea i was sure i would have old guys that dont like i just kidding actually blue back light is fairly common when dealing with night optics, i have a hand held garman gps and they use blue ? my brother s sony radio for the car has blue or red, my old swiss and most seikos watches use blue hands for night vision. but blue/red back light and white lettering would be best for night time display,imho. keep in mind you can regulate the strength of the back light by resisting the current feeding the leds.

[Big Fil]

did u just call me old

Green and red are actually optimum night time colors afaik. Red is the color lighting used when in heli and plane holds when dropping off troops. Green is used inside night vision goggles.

[billbill242000]

He did just call ya' old Fil....

[Danal Estes]

I'd like the software option to have ONE value occupy the WHOLE OF ONE PAGE a bunch more than a backlight...

[JEEPWORLD2002]

sorry for the late reply but got the screens in and wow love them maybe an extra 2 grams for the back light i ll weight it to night. only one problem so far the screen dont come with the eagle tree adpt board the logger supplies 5v and then the little brd breaks it down and had to add 2 wires and smt reistor for the backlight so since i ordered 2 screens i put connector on the little brd and conn on the screen and using a 6wire jumper so i can leave screen on one model and just move logger and little brd over. so well say 35 for the screens and i supply the connectors and a jumper lead. you solder it or u can ship me your screen and i solder it and ship it back to you. no extra for doing the soldering.

[Danal Estes]

What color did you get for the prototypes?

[JEEPWORLD2002]

blue back light and white graphix

[JEEPWORLD2002]

pics

[statton1]

i just ordered my eagle tree system , i got the elogger v3 - power panel .
and on the 15th i'll order my sensors . i'm thinking i want this mod because we do some night flying , 'ill hit you up when i get my stuff .
albert

[Danal Estes]

I'm interested in a physically larger screen, so I can read it in a hover. What did you discover about connectors, voltages, protocols, etc, etc?

[flerpie]

Deleted

[Lajon]

My version of a custom display. It can be read from some distance (it shows a single value with a big font). But the main feature are the bright leds that begin blinking when 70% of the charge is consumed.
This is built with a DOG (display on glass) 132x32 pixel lcd with white backlight (in daylight the backlight actually makes very litte difference). A AVR ATmega328 micro controller emulates the lcd protocol of the EagleTree display panel. It also allows changing the battery size (so the % display and discharge check is correct).
/Lars

[Danal Estes]

Originally Posted by Lajon

My version of a custom display. It can be read from some distance (it shows a single value with a big font). But the main feature are the bright leds that begin blinking when 70% of the charge is consumed.
This is built with a DOG (display on glass) 132x32 pixel lcd with white backlight (in daylight the backlight actually makes very litte difference). A AVR ATmega328 micro controller emulates the lcd protocol of the EagleTree display panel. It also allows changing the battery size (so the % display and discharge check is correct).
/Lars

That's much like what I was wanting... will you share details?

[Lajon]

Here is a Mouser catalog page with this type of display:
http://www.mouser.com/catalog/catalogUSD/640/75.pdf
I use the EA DOGM132W-5 with EA LED55X31-W backlight. Also possible, less complicated to program and supporting 5V directly (the graphics displays are for 3.3V or less) are the 1x8 character displays e.g.
EA DOGM081L-A (for use with no backlight which actually works ok in daylight).

8K flash would be ok when not using a graphic LCD (I use the ATmega328 with 32K flash but less than half of that is actually used).

I don't have a schematic (I built this directly with SMD components on a perf board behind the display). Basically it's SPI (one way) and three control signals for the display and I2C for the EagleTree output. There needs to be I2C level conversion when running the micro controller at 3.3V (I have cheated here and use a pair of resistors only).

The display needs 8 external capacitors.

A total of 4 leds are driven (two for the backlight and the two battery warning leds). The AVR chip can drive this without external components other than current limiting resistors.

One 3.3V voltage regulator (with caps), one switch with pullup and decoupling capacitors and reset pullup for the AVR completes it.The total component count should be something like:
8 resistors
12 capacitors
1 voltage regulator
1 switch
2 leds
1 lcd
1 lcd backlight
1 ATmega

Anyone serious about constructing something similar can PM me re. software or other questions. I would not consider it a beginner project though. Also, one needs to be able to flash an AVR and work with the development system (I use WinAVR).
/Lars