Would this $3 touchscreen work?

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=LQ038J7DH52-PB&cat=MON

It's the old tap wave zodiac touchscreen.

Sure, no problem, if you can work out how to read the touch screen X and Y resistance and how to connect to the flexible circuit cables that have contact pads 0.3*0.5mm

I'm an electronics newb. How would recommend connecting this to the Pi's composite or HDMI jacks? Is some intermediate board necessary? Is it necessary to connect via GPIO?

I found the datasheet (http://beyondinfinite.com/lcd/Library/Sharp/LQ038J7DH52.pdf/) on it just now.

I'm an electronics newb. How would recommend connecting this to the Pi's composite or HDMI jacks? Is some intermediate board necessary? Is it necessary to connect via GPIO?

I found the datasheet (http://beyondinfinite.com/lcd/Library/Sharp/LQ038J7DH52.pdf/) on it just now.

If you call yourself an electronics newb then this is not a good project. Making a connection with the display is a huge challenge for anyone that does not have the correct socket to plug it into. Its a shame since there are many mobile device displays like this one that are cheap.

If you could make he electrical connection then the data sheet has all the signal information, you would have to program the GPIO, HDMI could be used but would need a lot of interface circuitry (again not really suitable for a "newb") At first glance it looks like the display requires that you set up 6 bits of Red, Green and Blue data then pulse a clock signal. Also there is a sync signal to indicate start of frame and start of line. So, using GPIO, you would need extra GPIO pins or equivalent (like output and latch each of R,G,B)

As a rule, if there is any part of the data sheet that you dont understand then you are going to find it very difficult to design a circuit from scratch.


But if you really want to try, then go on, give it a go, some people find it better to learn that way. You will almost certainly need a microscope to solder a connection to it.

I think I'll attempt the HDMI route using dvi2par technique (http://www.harbaum.org/till/dvi2par/index.shtml).

oso2k, did you get any far on this one? I am no expert but would like help if I can to get this thing working.

Not yet. I was gonna buy a few with the next paycheck and start collecting the electrical components as well. I'll probably need some help figuring out the components list. Some parts on the DVI2PAR connector remain in German even after Google Chrome translates the page. I'll also need a place to fab up the board.

Hey guys, I actually picked up 5 of these displays and was going to see if anyone at the local Hackerspace (HacDC for me) could help me out. That link to the DVI2PAR project is great though; although TI isn't providing samples for that part anymore, it shouldn't be a problem (TI has actually upgraded the part from 86 MHz to 165 MHz to support full 1080p [and even 1920x1200], which is overkill for us, however the new part has the same pinouts, voltage and timing, so I expect if any changes need to be made it would be in the code (aka the easy part).

Keep us upto date!