On 24/09/10 16:35, Michael Watterson wrote:
> Sounds great. I have a Spartan 3E starter kit and was thinking 18F + JAL
> + touch LCD to add a GUI to an SDR on the FPGA might be easier than
> trying to do all in FPGA.

Probably. I've done LCD framebuffers and SoCs in FPGAs though, it's not=20
that hard. Timing generation is a snap, and if your LCD wants LVDS you=20
can either use the FPGA vendor's SERDES core, or bolt on one of NSC or=20
TI's parallel-to-LVDS (PanelLink) converter chips.

I've reused old laptop LCDs before today. The hardest part of the=20
endeavour is usually getting the backlight inverter going (figuring out=20
the pinout). Dell tend to use custom inverters with I2C bus links,=20
whereas most of the other manufacturers go with +5V/0V and a 3- or 4-bit=20
parallel 'brightness' (lamp current) value.

Go with something you can find a connector for, and you won't have many=20
problems. Samsung LCDs are a good target, assuming they don't have "DELL=20
P/N" or "IBM P/N" stamped on them. Email Samsung-SDI and ask for a=20
datasheet or pinout and they'll usually email it back to you within a=20
couple of days. They also have a habit of using the JST LVDS connectors,=20
which are stocked by Farnell and Mouser (and probably DKUS as well).

In short: "Easy."

--=20
Phil.
piclist@philpem.me.uk
http://www.philpem.me.uk/
--=20
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