STM32F103 & LCD Display

emilio · ‎2014-09-16

Posted on September 16, 2014 at 17:38

Hi everybody,

I'm working about the creation of an automotive dashboard and I'm going to use a STM32 microcontroller, in particular a STM32F103.

I'd like to have some suggestions about the LCD display choice, here my needs:

-about 4'' display size

-good quality/price ratio

-good software libraries easy to use with a STM32

-preferably serial connection

Do you know any model I should choose?

Thanks in advance

Tesla DeLorean · ‎2014-09-16

Posted on September 16, 2014 at 21:11

Quantity, Price, Resolution?

I'm going to assume Qty 1, in which case eBay might yield some cheap sources, but for serial driven displays and lots of code you're likely to be spending some real money.

Consider if an F429 with STemWin would be a better choice?

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stm32forum · ‎2014-09-16

Posted on September 16, 2014 at 22:34

Color ? Bw?

There's enough to find, if you need graphical display then serial is not a good choice, to slow or you must mean with serial spi or something like that.

Here you can make a nice choice; http://www.buydisplay.com if you find something have a look at what controller there's inside and find a suitable library for that. Buydisplay has also enough samples and drivers.

emilio · ‎2014-09-16

Posted on September 17, 2014 at 00:37

Thanks for answering. I need one display only and unfortunately I can't use a development kit by ST, I'm going to design my own board with an STM32 and connect it to a display using one of the STM32 peripherals. I've thought that using the SPI is the easiest way to drive a display since I have no experience about other way. About the resolution something between 240x120 and 360x240 would be fine.

emilio · ‎2014-09-16

Posted on September 17, 2014 at 00:42

Thanks for answering. A black and white display should be fine but I need a backlit unit.

Talking about the interface, which one do you recommend?

Tesla DeLorean · ‎2014-09-16

Posted on September 17, 2014 at 01:01

For graphics, SPI is likely to be least desirable route. It also just shifts cost/complexity to the panel.

You really should look at existing boards/designs as references, it will allow you to design a board right the first time around, and will permit you to experiment with known working hardware, rather than bring up something completely unknown, and not well understood.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RedDragon407-STM32F4-Cortex-M4-3-2-Ethernet-wireless-2-4G-SDIO-Serial-camera-/121087293812

For most STM32 designs you're going to need a panel with it's own controller, and own frame buffer. The STM32F429, and family, are the first ones that support dumber panels and SDRAM based frame buffers.

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Tesla DeLorean · ‎2014-09-16

Posted on September 17, 2014 at 01:07

Talking about the interface, which one do you recommend?

For the F1's you're going to want a parallel FSMC based interface to a panel with it's own controller/frame-buffer. If you are really pin constrained there are SPI variants, but this is likely to be bandwidth limiting.

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emilio · ‎2014-09-18

Posted on September 18, 2014 at 19:51

Thanks again for answering. Following your advice I'm changing my design choices: what about using a display with its own driver, memory and IDE (in order to have a quick development of the graphic interface) and send data to it through SPI/I2C only to drive graphic indicators?

I was thinking at something like this

http://www.4dsystems.com.au/product/uLCD_43/