Choosing the best LCD screen

[jackmulmerp]

Hello,

I need some help choosing the best LCD for my RPi project(s). At first I though an alphanumeric display would be appropriate but then I changed my mind and decided to go for a graphical LCD.

Some assumptions:

• I'm rather a newbie when it comes to electronic engineering. I know some basics and I'm not afraid to try something new but I'm not necessarily interested in going off the deep end. An easy solution is obviously preferred
• Anything with resolution around 256x64 would be sufficient.
• I think I'd prefer getting the LCD and other components and wiring them up together myself. As long as it's not going to be ultra-difficult, of course.
• I need the LCD to be backlit.
• As I mentioned before, I need a graphical LCD, not an alphanumeric one.
• I'm looking for a cheap solution.
• I'm intending to control the LCD from Python scripts. I that's not possible out of the box, C/C++ should be fine as well. Although, I'm not interested in solutions that would require a custom kernel build - I'd like to it to be universal.

I'd be really grateful if you could point me in the right direction.

Best regards,
Jack

[sdjf]

I cannot suggest any particular LCDs for you as the shopping I just finished was for a much larger display, but I can tell you what I did that helped me make my final decision.

I used a search engine to look for all displays with the characteristics I wanted, in addition to searching my favorite mail order sites for what they carried in small monitors.

Then I was overwhelmed by all the possibilities, so I finally made a 3x5 card for each of the final contenders and wrote what I knew about them in a consistent format, so I could stare at the information more easily than using a spreadsheet.

Another important thing is to look at product reviews, see what people who have purchased the displays have to say about them. Amazon is a good place for that kind of review, even if that is not where you are going to make your purchase.

I would start by putting the following into a search engine and see what pops up;

256x64 LCD

But I seem to recall there are suppliers who specialize in kits for what you are talking about, I hope someone else will guide you to those sites! But also hope the above tips might help as well.

[notro]

Here are some options:
https://github.com/notro/fbtft/wiki/LCD-Modules
https://github.com/notro/fbtft/wiki/LCD-Shields
https://github.com/notro/fbtft/wiki/More-LCD-Modules

They can all be used as a regular Linux display.

[RaspberryPiPc]

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1601I would go with the PiTFT Mini Kit from Adafruit.

Pros / Cons

Pros

• High quality

• Touchscreen

• Can be programmed via Python or C/C++

Cons

• Small text but can be changed with LxTerminal

• No more