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Multiple displays

Posted: Fri Nov 15, 2013 10:36 pm
by Surf0rabbit
Hello,

I need a little help, i'm new to this kind of devices, and it's being so hard to find information for multiple displays.

I'm trying to construct a digital praxinoscope. For this i will need to connect between 6 to 10 mini LCD displays to one Raspberry pi and play one video through all of the displays (to be more easy) or one frame sequentially for each one (my megalomaniac idea).

I'm not sure if the raspberry can do this kind of work, maybe if i find the solution to connect all the screens i will be able to send each frame to each display via bluetooth/wi.fi.

I hope the community can help me get started!

Thanks and good look to everyone ;)

Re: Multiple displays

Posted: Sat Nov 16, 2013 6:16 am
by jwzumwalt
You can have an unlimited number of displays connected using Xwindows via ethernet.

However, it is doubtful that RPI is powerful enough to be useful. I have a lcd monitor connected to the analog input and 1ea xwindow connected via ethernet and the xwindow is painfully slow :(

Re: Multiple displays

Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:05 am
by ghans
I guess it makes more sense to use one Pi per Display and
network them. If you don't have much electronics knowledge
that would be the easiest way. Else try notros fbtft
project and the fbcp tool - i believe you will only be able
to mirror one display multiple times with that setup because
the Pi has limited bandwidth on this bus.

Look here for what is possible using multiple , networked Pis :

www.piwall.co.uk

ghans

Re: Multiple displays

Posted: Sun Nov 17, 2013 9:47 am
by PiGraham
It may be possible to connect multiple LCDs on SPI, if you can accept that the frame rate of any one display will be 1/n. As you only need small displays you could look at Texy's 2.8" TFT with a modified version of notro's fbtft driver (as ghans suggests) and fbcp framebuffer copy. That creates a framebuffer device on the TFT that replicates the main display in miniature. Using OmxPlayer and copying the main framebuffer to the fbtft can play video files at 20+ fps. If you can modify Texy's board and fbtft to use multiple GPIO lines for selecting one of n display devices in turn you could have each successive frame of video sent to a different display. If you have 10 displays you should be able to get 2 fps on each display with 20 fps on the main display (HDMI).

It will require hardware and software skills.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 20#p447220

Image

Info on SPI here

I suggest you contact Texy and notro for their opinion on the feasibility of this.