hole in lcd screen free sample
If the hole is only in a thin surface film, you might be able to press it flat, but if the film has been distorted (stretched), it probably won"t stay flat. You might find that over time, the film may flatten a little on its own. I would not try to soften it with heat because some plastics will shrink and shrivel, making it worse and eliminating any chance for improvement.
If it is a puncture hole that extends into other plastic layers, you will not be able to flatten the raised rim of the hole without damaging a bigger area.
In terms of filling the hole, that is also likely to make it worse and if not, probably won"t improve it. It also depends on the purpose of the surface film and the cause of the bright spot. If it is an anti-glare film,the bright spot may be the next layer. Anything that is not anti-glare film will be a similarly non-diffusing surface. If the filler doesn"t have the same refractive index as the next layer, it may create cloudiness or distortion that will also be noticeable.
Filling the hole with something like what is used to fill holes in car windshields is likely to make it much worse. That material is similar to superglue. It may etch the surface. It may wick under the film and damage a large area. The fumes may etch the surface over a large area.
Similarly, trying to glue down the surface film may wick under the film and mess up a large area. If you use an adhesive that doesn"t wick, you would need a way to compress the film flat until it cures to avoid a permanent bump. Material thick enough not to wick is likely to leave a raised area. The screen sandwich is manufactured using tightly stretched sheets of material that are compressed together and bonded under pressure. It is not a condition you can reproduce to repair a spot.
There isn"t a practical way to actually repair it, but can you make it less noticeable? A number of people responded with ideas based on the principle that a dark spot may be less noticeable than a bright spot. You could potentially make it a little less noticeable, but it"s a question of how much improvement can you achieve and at what risk.
No matter what you do, it will still be noticeable. Maybe a darker spot won"t bother you as much if you get it right. But there is a good chance of achieving little or no net improvement, and a substantial risk of making the situation worse in a non-fixable way.
Anything hard, like a pencil or pen tip, can nudge more film loose, making the hole bigger. Any liquid can wick under the film, leaving a big stained area. Assume permanent markers that will stick to the film will be permanent, whether or not it turns out to be an improvement.
Don"t count on a redo or cleanup, because cleaning fluids, including any dissolved materials, can wick under the film, and rubbing is likely to make the hole bigger. So if you don"t get it as good as you"re going to get it on the first try, you have a good chance of making the problem permanently worse.
Now that you"ve been forewarned, if you are determined to try this, here"s an approach I would try if it was a last resort (disclaimer, I"ve never tested it, but it seems like the least risky alternative). Practice the procedure first on something else to get the feel for how things behave and how much working time you have. Work with a magnifier and good light so you can see what you"re doing. Do the procedure with the screen lying face up and level.
Use a very viscous sticky material with temporary adhesion, like rubber cement for paper. Use an extremely fine-tipped brush, or be extremely gentle with a toothpick, to apply a thin layer to the hole, being careful not to get it anywhere else (not getting it anywhere else is more important than perfectly filling the hole).
While it is still tacky, dust on some dry powdered graphite using a pinpoint applicator (sold in hardware stores as a lock lubricant). Use a soft brush and blowing, while protecting the hole, to remove any graphite that lands outside the hole (you can clean the rest of the screen as you normally would, just be careful to avoid the hole). If you"ve made the problem worse, you may be able to carefully peel this filler off when it dries.
If the hole bothers you so much that you are ready to replace the screen or buy a new monitor, you don"t have much to lose by attempting these measures (other than possibly not having the monitor as a backup in the latter case). Otherwise, consider whether the risks outweigh the minor potential improvement.
Unfortunately, this is one of those problems where the best solution may be to change how you view the problem. You"re aware of the hole, which serves as a constant reminder. Instead of letting the hole bother you, think about how much money you will save by simply living with it. Every time your eye is drawn to it, remind yourself of the savings from not buying a replacement monitor. :-)
Flexible displays open up new dimension of design opportunities that aren’t possible with rigid glass-based displays. Nowadays, users have come to expect touch capability from almost any display-enabled device, but, many devices still need certain buttons or knobs – for example in cars. This becomes a limitation when using rigid glass displays - designers need to allow for additional space for knobs or buttons outside the display area. This can waste space, compromise aesthetics and result in a bulky non-optimised design.
Recently, some display makers have introduced glass displays with through-holes for the camera in smartphone screens. For example, Tianma has recently announced a 6.4” LCD with a through-hole that will be used in Huawei’s nova 4 device. It becomes more challenging and more expensive if the holes or the displays are larger, or if there are multiple holes required, when the displays are made from glass
In order to make displays flexible, the transistor backplane technology used needs to be flexible. This is currently made possible using conventional silicon technology or metal oxides on bespoke polyimide substrates. Flexible displays need to be mounted onto glass in order to keep them flat during fabrication. At the end of the process the flexible displays need to be demounted from the glass carrier by using a laser de-bonding process. Holes can be cut through the displays before or after the de-bonding process. If the demounting process is aggressive, like in the case of laser de-bonding for the polyimide-based displays, it can generate unwanted stresses which will cause the edges of the holes to be concentrated stress relief areas and hence impact yield and cost.
FlexEnable has developed a different approach for flexible displays. By using low temperature processing of organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) on low cost plastics like triacetyl cellulose (TAC), no laser de-bonding processes are required. Instead a mild heat or UV treatment is used to separate the flexible displays from the glass. Holes through the displays are laser profiled while the displays are still mounted onto the glass. Unlike polyimide-based displays, OTFT displays have a simple high yielding demounting process.
There will continue to be applications that require the use of knobs and buttons even if they feature touch-enabled displays. Imagine a car’s central console which is a touch–enabled display, but the volume dials and gear stick protrude through the display. As kitchen appliances become smarter with the use of displays, they may still require physical dials to control certain functions. Wearables like smart watches can combine the digital look of a smart watch with the mechanical dials of a conventional arm watch.
As the landscape for flexible displays evolves with new use cases, the ability to cut holes through the displays unlocks even more design freedom and enables bolder product designs to meet growing consumer expectations.
About: I"m a High Voltage Electrical Engineer by trade, but I"ve been involved in computers and electronics since my teens. My experience and knowledge ranges from the world of 5V DC up to the world of 132,000V AC. …
I"ve been working on a project that used a 16x2 LCD display and wanted a nice finish that also allowed me to seal against water and other liquids. I also needed impact resistance, low cost and the ability to be changed easily if worn or broken.
2) A small piece of perspex over a cut hole in the enclosure. Cheaper but not so nice finish, showing the full LCD through and any rough enclosure cutting.
3) Looking for access to a laser cutter to make a profiled perspex window that sits through the enclosure hole to sit flush with surface. Difficult tolerances and no depth control with a laser.
So, eventually I tried something else and ended up with what I think is a nice professional finish that is easy to do, cheap, and results in an iPhone type black glass frame style, with a clear window exactly the right size to show the display properly. It can also be easily adapted to any other type or size of display.
Since I"ve been getting more proficient with CADSoft Eagle, I simply used a blank BRD file with mm grid to create my drawing and print at scale on to some card.
I took the original dimensions of the 16x2 LCD display I had and drew it up, including the stand-off holes. I then added an additional 5mm surround to give my bezel additional strength around the fixing holes, and also to make it look better since the holes wouldn"t be right on the edge.
A fine tip permanent pen like a Sharpie or Write-4-All works well on the acrylic. I used 1.5mm clear acrylic sheet for a glass-like finish. You could use different colour acrylic or thicker/thinner to suit your requirements.
For the 16x2 LCD the display area is approx 15mm x 65mm. I made my window 14mm x 64mm so there is a slight overlap to the display so no edges can be seen.
To do this we simply want a piece of tape stuck to this area so that it does not get painted. I used electrical insulation tape as it cuts and peels easily and leaves no residue.
Use a sharp knife to score lightly along the inside edges of the window area. Pay careful attention to meeting up in the corners so that our tape has a continuous rectangular cut.
These correspond exactly to the stand-off holes in the LCD PCB. This means we can use a single metal or plastic bolt to mount both our bezel and the LCD when finished.
NOTE : Always drill a pilot hole first. This means you can be more accurate with positioning, and also means you don"t make a large hole in the template.
Lay the piece on top of a scrap piece of timber. I used a bit of 1/4" ply. I also put a piece of the protective film underneath to stop the acrylic picking up any dust and fibres as much as possible.
Remove the template and then re-drill with the correct sized drill bit. I used a 3.5mm bit to give me a slight play to offset any error due to manual drilling.
Make sure the piece is always flat, with the timber behind, and that you drill SLOWLY. This will ensure an accurate drill with minimum of swarf, rough edges and chances of cracking.
We now want to spray paint the area that will be the bezel outer border. Choose your colour for this, although I used black and found it produced a lovely black glass type finish.
Use some of the insulation tape doubled back on itself to act as double sided tape and mount the acrylic piece to some backing paper or card. The masking tape applied already should be FACE UP.
Mounting the piece is to make sure it doesn"t get blown around by the force of the spray can, as we don"t want overspray onto the other side of the acrylic.
EDIT: On making one for a 64x128 1.8" TFT display it occurred to me that we can simply mask the back side of the acrylic completely. This ensures 100% that you don"t get any overspray on what will become the top face. When everything is dry just peel off the masking on the other side too.
Take the piece into a well ventilated area before spraying. Outdoors is best, or a garage with open door. The paint has quite an odour until fully dry.
Apply a generous coating of spray paint from a distance of 15-25cm minimum. DO light coats and repeat as necessary. Take care to also paint the acrylic edges if you want this, although these will appear coloured anyway.
Once you have an edge then slowly peel the tape away from the acrylic and you will be left with a nice sharp and clean edge between painted and non-painted area.
You now have clear acrylic top face with a painted underside. The top is nice and shiny and the coloured finish cannot be marked or worn away as it will be face down on your enclosure.
You can now mount the bezel to your enclosure, using the mounting holes and some 3mm bolts. The same bolts can be used to mount the LCD behind. I found 3mm x 20mm bolts are ideal. You can also use nylon ones that are used for PCB stand-offs.
If you need weather/water proofing then simply apply a thin layer of sealant under the black border outside of the stand-off hole line. When this dries in place it will form a watertight seal that can"t be seen.
This is the first instructable I have made so please take a moment to leave feedback on anything you think could be improved, or if this helped you in any way.
Awesome idea! I"m just starting on an Arduino based chess timer project with a small VFD display and a couple of those big "arcade" style microswitch buttons for my son and was thinking about how to make a decent looking hole / bezel for the display. Your instructable solved my problem elegantly! Thanks and thumbs up for you!
Then use a new, sharp razor blade or X-acto knife and score a line into the plastic. Make at least 10 to 15 passes, half one direction and half the other. Press firmly down, but not TOO hard. While still stuck to the ruler, carefully bend the free part of the plastic sheet and bend it AWAY from the score line.
The sheet will snap with a perfect, clean edge that needs no finishing! Gloves and safety glasses are a good idea when doing this. I"ve cut myself a few times when the sheet snapped and nicked the palm of my hand.
This is similar to cutting glass. You create a stress concentration point and the sheet breaks at that point. Maybe I should make an Instructable of the technique! LOL!0
The types of flathead countersunk hex head bolts in the attached picture are great for such projects, especially the black bolts. I"ve used them a lot for such panels and also for mounting black items like IEC mains input sockets. They provide a fantastic finish, you just have to be careful and precise with your countersinking. Available on eBay from various sources. I use the M3 type most often but other sizes are available. I"d avoid pan-heads of a different colour on the outside as they don"t look nearly as professional as the countersunk flatheads. If you don"t want to countersink then use the button head ones, they look much nicer than the pan heads.
I"ve used the milled edge rebate technique in the past to produce a flush finish and it works great ... IF you can get someone to do the milling for you. I was lucky, I did. You don"t NEED a CNC machine but a plain old milling machine IS required for a really good accurate finish. If you have a decent pillar drill, you can use a simple cross feed milling table to do the milling with your drill. eBay has a great one for under £50 that I"m planning on getting.
However, you CAN achieve the effect by taking advantage of the ability of true perspex to be acetone welded invisibly and you build the total from the top piece that fits exactly into the cutout hole (very accurate cutting, filing and trimming is needed. Then before black painting the reverse, acetone weld a complete piece over the top piece like a layer cake. the second layer is larger than the first so provides the rebate step. It"s tricky but can be very successful. You can then black mask the rear as before.
Another trick is to use stand-offs behind the front panel, bolted to the front panel via countersunk holes at the front with the relevant bolts, then mount the operstional display etc to the stand-offs. The front bezel can then be applied OVER the countersunk bolts using double-sided adhesive or using a silicone bead as it should never need to come off again. I am using this process currently for a frequency meter display.
Nice design. How did you get round the paint being peeling off when you remove the tape? I"d have thought you"d need to score exactly on the edge of the tape before you remove it!0
Have you ever left your TV or monitor on for days, stuck on the same image? You return to your screen, only to find an image burned into the display. No matter what you do, it won"t go away. It is a permanent image burn.
Why do monitors and TVs get image burn? Why can"t manufacturers prevent LCDs and plasma screens from a burnt image imprint? Moreover, what can you do to fix an image burn?
In some cases, you can minimize the image burn effect. In others, you can remove the image burn completely, so long as it hasn"t been burning too long.
Before flat-screens and crystal displays, most TVs and monitors featured CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) technology. In CRTs, individual pixels comprise a red, blue, and green phosphor component. Depending on the intensity of each phosphor component, the pixel appears to the human eye as a unique color.
When a particular still image remains for too long, the intensity of each phosphor component diminishes at an uneven rate. The result is a ghost image on the screen, which is known as image burning.
Plasma displays use plasma, a gaseous substance containing free-flowing ions. When the plasma is not in use, the particles in the plasma are uncharged and display nothing. With the introduction of an electric current, the ions become charged and begin colliding, releasing photons of light.
This is a very simplified version of how a plasma screen works. However, the main thing to understand is that plasma screens use phosphor material (like CRTs) to turn those photons into images.
LCD and LED do not work in the same way as CRTs, either. LCD and LED screens use backlit liquid crystals to display colors. Although manufacturers market screens using LED and LCD, an LED screen is still a type of LCD. The white backlight filters through the liquid crystals, which extract particular colors per pixel.
LCD and LED displays don"t suffer from the same type of image burn as CRTs and plasma screens. They"re not completely clear, though. LCD and LED screens suffer from image persistence. Read on to find out more about image persistence.
Before you can fix screen burn-in, take a second to understand why these images burn in the first place. LCDs and LEDs don"t suffer from burn-in as seriously as plasma screens. But static images can leave an imprint on both display types if left alone for too long. So, why does image burn happen?
First, let"s tackle plasma screen burn-in. Remember why CRTs experience image burn? When a still image remains on the screen for too long, the phosphor components in each pixel wear out at different rates. The uneven burn rates leave behind a ghost image, forever etched into the screen.
Plasma screens also suffer from phosphor deterioration. Plasma burning occurs when pixels on the screen are damaged through long exposure. The phosphor loses its intensity and only shows the light it was fed repeatedly. In this case, the still image, which causes the burn.
LCD and LED screens can also experience image burn, though the image burn process can take longer to develop into a permanent issue. In addition, LCD and LED screens suffer from another issue, known as image retention (also known as image persistence or an LCD shadow).
Image retention is a temporary issue that you are more likely to notice before it becomes a permanent issue. However, proper image burn can still affect LCD, LED, and OLED screens.
Image retention is a different issue from image burn (although it is a precursor to image burn). For example, you"re using an image of a steam train as a reference point for a drawing. You have the steam train image on your screen for a few hours before you decide to play a video game instead.
When you load up the video game on the screen, you can still see the faint outline of the steam train on the screen. The steam train image will remain for a short while, but the movement and color changes of the video game (or film, TV show, or other media type) should erase the retained image.
The other thing to consider is that LED and OLED image burn-in, when it happens, is irreversible. That"s because of how LED and OLED screens work. Individual pixels within an LED display decay when they emit light.
Under normal use, an LED, OLED, or QLED screen won"t suffer image burn. However, if you leave your screen on a single channel for hours every day, then burn-in can become an issue, as it would with almost any screen.
Issues arise when a screen shows a single news channel 24 hours a day, every day, causing channel logos to burn-in, along with the outline of the scrolling news ticker and so on. News channels are a well-known source of television burn-in, no matter the screen type.
Image burn-in fixes exist for LCD and plasma screens. How effective an image burn-in fix is depends on the screen damage. Depending on the length and severity of the image burn, some displays may have permanent damage.
The best fix for screen burn is to prevent it in the first place. Okay, that isn"t super useful if your screen is already experiencing image burn. However, you should always try not to leave your screen on a still image for too long. The time it takes for an image to burn-in varies from screen to screen, between manufacturers, sizes, and panel type.
My personal rule of thumb is to turn off the display if I plan on being away for more than 15 minutes. That way, it is difficult to get caught out, plus you save yourself money on electricity costs and monitor or TV wear and tear.
Another prevention method is to reduce screen contrast as much as you can. Unfortunately, most screens aren"t calibrated correctly, often pushing the contrast and brightness settings too high.
Lower contrast means the lighting across your screen is more even. This means less strain on specific areas of the screen, which helps protect against image burning.
If your plasma or LCD screen already has image burn-in, you can try turning on white static for 12 to 24 hours. The constant moving of white-and-black across your screen in random patterns can help remove the ghost image from your screen.
Unfortunately, this won"t work for extreme cases. Some TVs will have a built-in pattern swiping option that basically accomplishes the same thing (filling your screen with random patterns).
Pixel-shift constantly slightly adjusts the image on your screen, which varies the pixel usage to counteract image burn. You might have to enable a pixel or screen shift option in your screen settings. Pixel-shift is a handy feature for LED and OLED screens that cannot recover from image burn and should help counteract an LCD shadow.
Other modern screens feature built-in screen refresh functions that the manufacturer will advise using to remove image retention and image burn issues.
The best tool for fixing ghost images is JScreenFix. The original program helps fix monitors with dead pixels, but the same company also released an "advanced" version of the tool, known as JScreenFix Deluxe.
While the Deluxe version uses advanced algorithms to repair burned screens and prolong plasma and LCD longevity, the official site is no longer up and running, and there is no way to download the full version officially.
You can find the free version of the Deluxe app online, but it is limited to 20 minutes running at a time. Furthermore, we"re not going to link out to the versions you can find online as we cannot verify the security of these installations. If you do use the Deluxe version, you do so at your own risk.
Another option is to set a completely white desktop background and leaving to run for a few hours. The solid color might reset the image burn. A solid color background is more likely to help with image persistence than image burn, but it is still worth trying.
If you have television burn-in, you can attach a laptop to your TV using an HDMI cable, extend your desktop to the television, and share the white screensaver. Hopefully, that will shift your television burn-in.
The team over at ScreenBurnFixer offers a few different ways you can attempt to fix screen burn on your TV or monitor. As with any other screen burn-in fixes, their chance of working depends on the scale of the issue.
You can head to the ScreenBurnFixer Video page and find a video that matches your screen type, then let the video play for as long as possible (we"re talking multiple hours, not a quick half an hour blast). Alternatively, head to the Chart page and find your device or a device that matches your specifications.
https://www.anrdoezrs.net/links/7251228/type/dlg/sid/UUmuoUeUpU35824/https://www.youtube.com/supported_browsers?next_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DnWfWaQvenw4
There are several ways you can attempt to fix screen burn-in. The results will vary between the screen type and the level of burn-in. A screen with extensive image burn may not clear entirely, although you might see an improvement.
Some screen degradation over time is understandable. However, if you follow the steps in this guide, you"ll protect your screen from image burn before it becomes a permanent issue.
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I"m looking for an enclosure for a project that will include one of the 2x8 character LCDs from seeedstudio and should have an IR panel and battery enclosure.
but accoring to the datasheet, the internal dimension is 60mm wide and according to seeedstudio, the LCD is 58mm wide. I"m worried I"ll have trouble fitting the LCD because it"s cutting too close, or in the best case the aesthetics will suffer because the display will be too far off center (it doesn"t look centered on its own PCB).
I"m working with a similar sized LCD but it"s going behind a panel rather than in a box. I am lucky that I can make my own cutout and fit the LCD into it. I"m not real sure how I"m going to protect the LCD though - it will be exposed to the elements.
Regardless of research or advice though I would suggest you get your hands on any remotely-possible container and trial fit your stuff. I never cease to be amazed at how different realitly is from my vague imaginings of what will fit.
oh, by the way, I have one of the Seeed modules in my hand and I would say the LCD face is pretty well centered on the board. It"s not EXACT but no more than a couple of mm further from the backlight end of the board than the connector end.
oh, also, I wasn"t able to get the Seeed module working myself. That doesn"t mean it won"t work for you but I moved on. If you do get it working I"d like to know.
Very good point about the difference between reality and a datasheet for an enclosure. For me to get the box I was linking too I"ll have to order it which means shipping fees and a nice long wait.
I have the seeedstudio LCD too. It was my original request that he stock them ;). I"m thinking a few mm off will look pretty crappy in the box though.
What trouble are you having getting it to work? It"s working for me, but I had to modify the time delays in the arduino liquidcystal library (the problem was with the library, not the display). I had a horribly frustrating time where it would work once in a while, but 95% of the time would never initialize.
I am having trouble with the 60mm red-green 8x8 matrix display though. I"ve only tested by directly connecting to the LEDs, through a resistor of course, and the brightness is very, very dim.
What trouble are you having getting it to work? It"s working for me, but I had to modify the time delays in the arduino liquidcystal library (the problem was with the library, not the display). I had a horribly frustrating time where it would work once in a while, but 95% of the time would never initialize.
I would get either blank or sometimes the black character boxes showing (I now know) that it was getting power. This was the first LCD module I bought and I had not yet learned about the liquidcrystal library so i was working just from the datasheet. The problem could have been my wiring or my code. I have it out now and I"ll try it again. What timing did you have to change?
In terms of centering, I just don"t believe I could detect the offset, maybe mine is not quite the same. How are you going to make the cutout for the LCD and attach it?
I have no idea how I"m going to cut the opening :). I was thinking of using a nibbler to make it a little on the small side and then adjusting with a file or a dremel with a grinding disc. Or just cutting it out with the dremel in the first place.
With respect to the cutout, dremeling or whatever is going to make a rough cut, at least in my hands. It would be really nice to be able to get an external bezel. The one already on there wouldn"t do for me though, I"d just have the rough edge outside it.
I decided to try mounting my prototype yesterday and found it doesn"t work anymore. There"s probably a short somewhere or a wire fell off. It semi-worked once of the 30-40 times I tested it. This hobby is frustrating at times. It was built on perf board with isolated holes, so it"s a big mess of spaghetti wiring so it"s probably easier to start again with a PCB now that I had the hardware working.
it looks better now since ive taped the sides but it was impossible to cut a perfect rectangle witha dremel, nor a box cutter, so i had to sand and sand, and, ofcourse, i over sanded and ended up with huge, awkward gaps between the sides of the lcd screen and the box...
it looks better now since ive taped the sides but it was impossible to cut a perfect rectangle witha dremel, nor a box cutter, so i had to sand and sand, and, ofcourse, i over sanded and ended up with huge, awkward gaps between the sides of the lcd screen and the box...
exactly what I"ve been worrying about. I foolishly expected there would be readily available plastic/chrome bezels that would fit neatly around stock-sized LCDs, no luck yet though.
One thing I"ve used is a shadow box. It"s like a picture frame but instead of holding a flat page it"s got an internal compartment to hold and display 3D objects. I paid around $10 at a crafts store for a 5x7 with about 2 inches inside. It came with a glass front and a felt-lined pressboard back. I made all the holes in the back board.
I got a couple of sample boxes like the one below from pactec. They have a wide variety on their web site. In this case the end is separate but probably too small for the LCD and the sides of the cases just leave you with the same issue of cutting your own hole and finishing it.
If you really want to get crafty, you can design your case out of acrylic sheets and get the parts laser-cut:SpikenzieLabs Mini Cut 5.5x5.5 - 1/8 Thick Acrylic [SPL-004001] - One 5.5 by 5.5 sheet of 1/8 thick acrylic, cut any way you like based on the drawing file that you upload. Upload your file and choose color from the list below.
Otherwise, a visit to Staples/Office/Business Depot is a good opportunity to pick some acrylic boxes, originally designed for different purposes (card holders, disk holders etc etc). And these are cheap.
Also, keep in mind that you can, relatively easy, bend your acrylic sheets. There are lots of articles on the internets on how to do this (basically heat up along the line you want to bend).
If waterproofing/dustproofing is not important, you can just sandwich your project (PCB, LCD etc) between 2 sheets of acrylic, with long screws and spacers.
That one looks good except for the lack of an IR panel. The data sheet for it though has no information on the size of the opening or the PCB dimensions. Also, my local supplier and digikey doesn"t stock it. Mouser seems to with a minimum order of 289 units. It also seems to be double the price of the hammond unit, though that"s not a problem (assuming it has all the hardware in the datasheet listed under different part numbers).
florinc: for now, custom making a box is beyond my ability. Knowing me, if I try I"ll never finish and it"ll just stop me from finishing any projects for a while. In grade 8 industrial arts, I got to play with a heat tool for bending it and it is fun to play with :).
I"m still surprised that there aren"t more readily available LCD mounting options. In my case I need something really weatherproof because I"m mounting on an exposed motorcycle surface but I haven"t see anything that would help finish off a project.
I think it is amazing that there isn"t already on the market a simpe palstic box with rectangular holes the size of the screens on LCD"s, which are all pretty standard.
Mike, I don"t think there is a single standard. I have three 16x2 LCD panels and all require different size cutouts. My 16x1 and 16x4 panels are different sizes again.
bill: There are some nice looking options there, though the ones with IR panels are a bit thinner which makes it harder to fit components. The main issue I seem to have is finding a source, I"m shocked that digi-key doesn"t seem to carry them. I have almost no local sources for electronics parts, but Hammond boxes seem to be one of the few things I can get locally.
For your weatherproof project, why not use florinc"s suggestion of a pelikan or otterbox? They"re expensive, but very weatherproof and available with clear tops for the display. For the interface if needed, you can rig up something IR so you don"t have to comprimise the weatherproofing.
Most of the manufacturers will do custom CNC routing or laser cutting for large orders, but that really doesn"t help the average hobbyist. You might be able to find a local machine shop to do the routing for you, or even get a router attachment for a Dremel tool, and build a small jig to get a clean hole.
Bill: You might be able to do something like the second example here http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/static.php?name=custom_enclosure_design for yours. Maybe a short piece of 4" or 6" PVC pipe, and a couple of pieces of Lexan over the ends. Something larger than the hole in your gas tank cover.
I"ve seen the same need to provide enclosures for Arduino, and other DIY projects, and have started working on a couple of things. They are a few months off, so don"t really solve any problems now, but I"m trying to get a couple of manufacturers to work with me on a more modular enclosure design that would work better for the type of projects that Arduino, and other hobby projects seem to need.
This panel meter features a 3½ digit LCD with 8mm (0.31") digit height in a low profile housing. Fitted inside a threaded stud which allows easy mounting of the product through a 32.5mm (1.28”) hole, this unique enclosure is ideal for quick mounting. A rubber seal provides waterproof protection to IP67 / NEMA 4X when fitted between the meter and mounting panel. Connection is via screw terminals. The EM32-1B is a low cost, popular part, normally stocked in high quantity and suitable for new designs.
FlexEnable’s glass-free organic LCD (OLCD) delivers high-brightness, long lifetime flexible displays that are low cost and scalable to large areas, while also being thin, lightweight and shatterproof.
OLCD is a plastic display technology with full colour and video-rate capability. It enables product companies to create striking designs and realise novel use cases by merging the display into the product design rather than accommodating it by the design.
Unlike flexible OLED displays, which are predominantly adopted in flagship smartphones and smartwatches, OLCD opens up the use of flexible displays to a wider range of mass-market applications. It has several attributes that make it better suited than flexible OLED to applications across large-area consumer electronics, smart home appliances, automotive, notebooks and tablets, and digital signage.
OLCD can be conformed and wrapped around surfaces and cut into non-rectangular shapes during the production process. Holes can be also added to fit around the functional design of the system – for example around knobs and switches.
As with glass-based LCD, the lifetime of OLCD is independent of the display brightness, because it is achieved through transmission of a separate light source (the backlight), rather than emission of its own light. For example OLCD can be made ultra-bright for viewing in daylight conditions without affecting the display lifetime – an important requirement for vehicle surface-integrated displays.
OLCD is the lowest cost flexible display technology – it is three to four times lower cost that flexible OLED today. This is because it makes use of existing display factories and supply chain and deploys a low temperature process that results in low manufacturing costs and high yield.
Unlike other flexible display approaches, OLCD is naturally scalable to large sizes. It can be made as small or as large as the manufacturing equipment used for flat panel displays allows.
The flexibility of OLCD allows an ultra-narrow bezel to be implemented by folding down the borders behind the display. This brings huge value in applications like notebooks and tablets where borderless means bigger displays for the same sized device. The bezel size allowed by OLCD is independent of the display size or resolution. In addition, OLCD can make a notebook up to 100g lighter and 0.5mm thinner.
OLCD is the key to the fabrication of ultra-high contrast dual cell displays with true pixel level dimming, offering OLED-like performance at a fraction of the cost. The extremely thin OLCD substrate brings advantages in cost, viewing angle and module thickness compared to glass displays. At the same time OLCD retains the flexibility required for applications such as surface-integrated automotive displays.
Due to its unique properties, OLCD has the potential to transform how and where displays are used in products. The videos below give a glimpse into this innovative technology.
OLCD brings the benefits of being thin, light, shatterproof and conformable, while offering the same quality and performance as traditional glass LCDs. The mechanical advantages of plastic OLCD over glass LCD are further enhanced by the technology’s excellent optical performance, much of which originates from the extreme thinness of plastic TAC substrates compared to glass.
Glass substrate with ITO electrodes. The shapes of these electrodes will determine the shapes that will appear when the LCD is switched ON. Vertical ridges etched on the surface are smooth.
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directlybacklight or reflector to produce images in color or monochrome.seven-segment displays, as in a digital clock, are all good examples of devices with these displays. They use the same basic technology, except that arbitrary images are made from a matrix of small pixels, while other displays have larger elements. LCDs can either be normally on (positive) or off (negative), depending on the polarizer arrangement. For example, a character positive LCD with a backlight will have black lettering on a background that is the color of the backlight, and a character negative LCD will have a black background with the letters being of the same color as the backlight. Optical filters are added to white on blue LCDs to give them their characteristic appearance.
LCDs are used in a wide range of applications, including LCD televisions, computer monitors, instrument panels, aircraft cockpit displays, and indoor and outdoor signage. Small LCD screens are common in LCD projectors and portable consumer devices such as digital cameras, watches, digital clocks, calculators, and mobile telephones, including smartphones. LCD screens are also used on consumer electronics products such as DVD players, video game devices and clocks. LCD screens have replaced heavy, bulky cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays in nearly all applications. LCD screens are available in a wider range of screen sizes than CRT and plasma displays, with LCD screens available in sizes ranging from tiny digital watches to very large television receivers. LCDs are slowly being replaced by OLEDs, which can be easily made into different shapes, and have a lower response time, wider color gamut, virtually infinite color contrast and viewing angles, lower weight for a given display size and a slimmer profile (because OLEDs use a single glass or plastic panel whereas LCDs use two glass panels; the thickness of the panels increases with size but the increase is more noticeable on LCDs) and potentially lower power consumption (as the display is only "on" where needed and there is no backlight). OLEDs, however, are more expensive for a given display size due to the very expensive electroluminescent materials or phosphors that they use. Also due to the use of phosphors, OLEDs suffer from screen burn-in and there is currently no way to recycle OLED displays, whereas LCD panels can be recycled, although the technology required to recycle LCDs is not yet widespread. Attempts to maintain the competitiveness of LCDs are quantum dot displays, marketed as SUHD, QLED or Triluminos, which are displays with blue LED backlighting and a Quantum-dot enhancement film (QDEF) that converts part of the blue light into red and green, offering similar performance to an OLED display at a lower price, but the quantum dot layer that gives these displays their characteristics can not yet be recycled.
Since LCD screens do not use phosphors, they rarely suffer image burn-in when a static image is displayed on a screen for a long time, e.g., the table frame for an airline flight schedule on an indoor sign. LCDs are, however, susceptible to image persistence.battery-powered electronic equipment more efficiently than a CRT can be. By 2008, annual sales of televisions with LCD screens exceeded sales of CRT units worldwide, and the CRT became obsolete for most purposes.
Each pixel of an LCD typically consists of a layer of molecules aligned between two transparent electrodes, often made of Indium-Tin oxide (ITO) and two polarizing filters (parallel and perpendicular polarizers), the axes of transmission of which are (in most of the cases) perpendicular to each other. Without the liquid crystal between the polarizing filters, light passing through the first filter would be blocked by the second (crossed) polarizer. Before an electric field is applied, the orientation of the liquid-crystal molecules is determined by the alignment at the surfaces of electrodes. In a twisted nematic (TN) device, the surface alignment directions at the two electrodes are perpendicular to each other, and so the molecules arrange themselves in a helical structure, or twist. This induces the rotation of the polarization of the incident light, and the device appears gray. If the applied voltage is large enough, the liquid crystal molecules in the center of the layer are almost completely untwisted and the polarization of the incident light is not rotated as it passes through the liquid crystal layer. This light will then be mainly polarized perpendicular to the second filter, and thus be blocked and the pixel will appear black. By controlling the voltage applied across the liquid crystal layer in each pixel, light can be allowed to pass through in varying amounts thus constituting different levels of gray.
The chemical formula of the liquid crystals used in LCDs may vary. Formulas may be patented.Sharp Corporation. The patent that covered that specific mixture expired.
Most color LCD systems use the same technique, with color filters used to generate red, green, and blue subpixels. The LCD color filters are made with a photolithography process on large glass sheets that are later glued with other glass sheets containing a TFT array, spacers and liquid crystal, creating several color LCDs that are then cut from one another and laminated with polarizer sheets. Red, green, blue and black photoresists (resists) are used. All resists contain a finely ground powdered pigment, with particles being just 40 nanometers across. The black resist is the first to be applied; this will create a black grid (known in the industry as a black matrix) that will separate red, green and blue subpixels from one another, increasing contrast ratios and preventing light from leaking from one subpixel onto other surrounding subpixels.Super-twisted nematic LCD, where the variable twist between tighter-spaced plates causes a varying double refraction birefringence, thus changing the hue.
LCD in a Texas Instruments calculator with top polarizer removed from device and placed on top, such that the top and bottom polarizers are perpendicular. As a result, the colors are inverted.
The optical effect of a TN device in the voltage-on state is far less dependent on variations in the device thickness than that in the voltage-off state. Because of this, TN displays with low information content and no backlighting are usually operated between crossed polarizers such that they appear bright with no voltage (the eye is much more sensitive to variations in the dark state than the bright state). As most of 2010-era LCDs are used in television sets, monitors and smartphones, they have high-resolution matrix arrays of pixels to display arbitrary images using backlighting with a dark background. When no image is displayed, different arrangements are used. For this purpose, TN LCDs are operated between parallel polarizers, whereas IPS LCDs feature crossed polarizers. In many applications IPS LCDs have replaced TN LCDs, particularly in smartphones. Both the liquid crystal material and the alignment layer material contain ionic compounds. If an electric field of one particular polarity is applied for a long period of time, this ionic material is attracted to the surfaces and degrades the device performance. This is avoided either by applying an alternating current or by reversing the polarity of the electric field as the device is addressed (the response of the liquid crystal layer is identical, regardless of the polarity of the applied field).
Displays for a small number of individual digits or fixed symbols (as in digital watches and pocket calculators) can be implemented with independent electrodes for each segment.alphanumeric or variable graphics displays are usually implemented with pixels arranged as a matrix consisting of electrically connected rows on one side of the LC layer and columns on the other side, which makes it possible to address each pixel at the intersections. The general method of matrix addressing consists of sequentially addressing one side of the matrix, for example by selecting the rows one-by-one and applying the picture information on the other side at the columns row-by-row. For details on the various matrix addressing schemes see passive-matrix and active-matrix addressed LCDs.
LCDs, along with OLED displays, are manufactured in cleanrooms borrowing techniques from semiconductor manufacturing and using large sheets of glass whose size has increased over time. Several displays are manufactured at the same time, and then cut from the sheet of glass, also known as the mother glass or LCD glass substrate. The increase in size allows more displays or larger displays to be made, just like with increasing wafer sizes in semiconductor manufacturing. The glass sizes are as follows:
Until Gen 8, manufacturers would not agree on a single mother glass size and as a result, different manufacturers would use slightly different glass sizes for the same generation. Some manufacturers have adopted Gen 8.6 mother glass sheets which are only slightly larger than Gen 8.5, allowing for more 50 and 58 inch LCDs to be made per mother glass, specially 58 inch LCDs, in which case 6 can be produced on a Gen 8.6 mother glass vs only 3 on a Gen 8.5 mother glass, significantly reducing waste.AGC Inc., Corning Inc., and Nippon Electric Glass.
The origins and the complex history of liquid-crystal displays from the perspective of an insider during the early days were described by Joseph A. Castellano in Liquid Gold: The Story of Liquid Crystal Displays and the Creation of an Industry.IEEE History Center.Peter J. Wild, can be found at the Engineering and Technology History Wiki.
In 1888,Friedrich Reinitzer (1858–1927) discovered the liquid crystalline nature of cholesterol extracted from carrots (that is, two melting points and generation of colors) and published his findings at a meeting of the Vienna Chemical Society on May 3, 1888 (F. Reinitzer: Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Cholesterins, Monatshefte für Chemie (Wien) 9, 421–441 (1888)).Otto Lehmann published his work "Flüssige Kristalle" (Liquid Crystals). In 1911, Charles Mauguin first experimented with liquid crystals confined between plates in thin layers.
In 1922, Georges Friedel described the structure and properties of liquid crystals and classified them in three types (nematics, smectics and cholesterics). In 1927, Vsevolod Frederiks devised the electrically switched light valve, called the Fréedericksz transition, the essential effect of all LCD technology. In 1936, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph company patented the first practical application of the technology, "The Liquid Crystal Light Valve". In 1962, the first major English language publication Molecular Structure and Properties of Liquid Crystals was published by Dr. George W. Gray.RCA found that liquid crystals had some interesting electro-optic characteristics and he realized an electro-optical effect by generating stripe-patterns in a thin layer of liquid crystal material by the application of a voltage. This effect is based on an electro-hydrodynamic instability forming what are now called "Williams domains" inside the liquid crystal.
The MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) was invented by Mohamed M. Atalla and Dawon Kahng at Bell Labs in 1959, and presented in 1960.Paul K. Weimer at RCA developed the thin-film transistor (TFT) in 1962.
In 1964, George H. Heilmeier, then working at the RCA laboratories on the effect discovered by Williams achieved the switching of colors by field-induced realignment of dichroic dyes in a homeotropically oriented liquid crystal. Practical problems with this new electro-optical effect made Heilmeier continue to work on scattering effects in liquid crystals and finally the achievement of the first operational liquid-crystal display based on what he called the George H. Heilmeier was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of FameIEEE Milestone.
In the late 1960s, pioneering work on liquid crystals was undertaken by the UK"s Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern, England. The team at RRE supported ongoing work by George William Gray and his team at the University of Hull who ultimately discovered the cyanobiphenyl liquid crystals, which had correct stability and temperature properties for application in LCDs.
The idea of a TFT-based liquid-crystal display (LCD) was conceived by Bernard Lechner of RCA Laboratories in 1968.dynamic scattering mode (DSM) LCD that used standard discrete MOSFETs.
On December 4, 1970, the twisted nematic field effect (TN) in liquid crystals was filed for patent by Hoffmann-LaRoche in Switzerland, (Swiss patent No. 532 261) with Wolfgang Helfrich and Martin Schadt (then working for the Central Research Laboratories) listed as inventors.Brown, Boveri & Cie, its joint venture partner at that time, which produced TN displays for wristwatches and other applications during the 1970s for the international markets including the Japanese electronics industry, which soon produced the first digital quartz wristwatches with TN-LCDs and numerous other products. James Fergason, while working with Sardari Arora and Alfred Saupe at Kent State University Liquid Crystal Institute, filed an identical patent in the United States on April 22, 1971.ILIXCO (now LXD Incorporated), produced LCDs based on the TN-effect, which soon superseded the poor-quality DSM types due to improvements of lower operating voltages and lower power consumption. Tetsuro Hama and Izuhiko Nishimura of Seiko received a US patent dated February 1971, for an electronic wristwatch incorporating a TN-LCD.
In 1972, the concept of the active-matrix thin-film transistor (TFT) liquid-crystal display panel was prototyped in the United States by T. Peter Brody"s team at Westinghouse, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Westinghouse Research Laboratories demonstrated the first thin-film-transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT LCD).high-resolution and high-quality electronic visual display devices use TFT-based active matrix displays.active-matrix liquid-crystal display (AM LCD) in 1974, and then Brody coined the term "active matrix" in 1975.
In 1972 North American Rockwell Microelectronics Corp introduced the use of DSM LCDs for calculators for marketing by Lloyds Electronics Inc, though these required an internal light source for illumination.Sharp Corporation followed with DSM LCDs for pocket-sized calculators in 1973Seiko and its first 6-digit TN-LCD quartz wristwatch, and Casio"s "Casiotron". Color LCDs based on Guest-Host interaction were invented by a team at RCA in 1968.TFT LCDs similar to the prototypes developed by a Westinghouse team in 1972 were patented in 1976 by a team at Sharp consisting of Fumiaki Funada, Masataka Matsuura, and Tomio Wada,
In 1983, researchers at Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC) Research Center, Switzerland, invented the passive matrix-addressed LCDs. H. Amstutz et al. were listed as inventors in the corresponding patent applications filed in Switzerland on July 7, 1983, and October 28, 1983. Patents were granted in Switzerland CH 665491, Europe EP 0131216,
The first color LCD televisions were developed as handheld televisions in Japan. In 1980, Hattori Seiko"s R&D group began development on color LCD pocket televisions.Seiko Epson released the first LCD television, the Epson TV Watch, a wristwatch equipped with a small active-matrix LCD television.dot matrix TN-LCD in 1983.Citizen Watch,TFT LCD.computer monitors and LCD televisions.3LCD projection technology in the 1980s, and licensed it for use in projectors in 1988.compact, full-color LCD projector.
In 1990, under different titles, inventors conceived electro optical effects as alternatives to twisted nematic field effect LCDs (TN- and STN- LCDs). One approach was to use interdigital electrodes on one glass substrate only to produce an electric field essentially parallel to the glass substrates.Germany by Guenter Baur et al. and patented in various countries.Hitachi work out various practical details of the IPS technology to interconnect the thin-film transistor array as a matrix and to avoid undesirable stray fields in between pixels.
Hitachi also improved the viewing angle dependence further by optimizing the shape of the electrodes (Super IPS). NEC and Hitachi become early manufacturers of active-matrix addressed LCDs based on the IPS technology. This is a milestone for implementing large-screen LCDs having acceptable visual performance for flat-panel computer monitors and television screens. In 1996, Samsung developed the optical patterning technique that enables multi-domain LCD. Multi-domain and In Plane Switching subsequently remain the dominant LCD designs through 2006.South Korea and Taiwan,
In 2007 the image quality of LCD televisions surpassed the image quality of cathode-ray-tube-based (CRT) TVs.LCD TVs were projected to account 50% of the 200 million TVs to be shipped globally in 2006, according to Displaybank.Toshiba announced 2560 × 1600 pixels on a 6.1-inch (155 mm) LCD panel, suitable for use in a tablet computer,transparent and flexible, but they cannot emit light without a backlight like OLED and microLED, which are other technologies that can also be made flexible and transparent.
In 2016, Panasonic developed IPS LCDs with a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1, rivaling OLEDs. This technology was later put into mass production as dual layer, dual panel or LMCL (Light Modulating Cell Layer) LCDs. The technology uses 2 liquid crystal layers instead of one, and may be used along with a mini-LED backlight and quantum dot sheets.
Since LCDs produce no light of their own, they require external light to produce a visible image.backlight. Active-matrix LCDs are almost always backlit.Transflective LCDs combine the features of a backlit transmissive display and a reflective display.
CCFL: The LCD panel is lit either by two cold cathode fluorescent lamps placed at opposite edges of the display or an array of parallel CCFLs behind larger displays. A diffuser (made of PMMA acrylic plastic, also known as a wave or light guide/guiding plateinverter to convert whatever DC voltage the device uses (usually 5 or 12 V) to ≈1000 V needed to light a CCFL.
EL-WLED: The LCD panel is lit by a row of white LEDs placed at one or more edges of the screen. A light diffuser (light guide plate, LGP) is then used to spread the light evenly across the whole display, similarly to edge-lit CCFL LCD backlights. The diffuser is made out of either PMMA plastic or special glass, PMMA is used in most cases because it is rugged, while special glass is used when the thickness of the LCD is of primary concern, because it doesn"t expand as much when heated or exposed to moisture, which allows LCDs to be just 5mm thick. Quantum dots may be placed on top of the diffuser as a quantum dot enhancement film (QDEF, in which case they need a layer to be protected from heat and humidity) or on the color filter of the LCD, replacing the resists that are normally used.
WLED array: The LCD panel is lit by a full array of white LEDs placed behind a diffuser behind the panel. LCDs that use this implementation will usually have the ability to dim or completely turn off the LEDs in the dark areas of the image being displayed, effectively increasing the contrast ratio of the display. The precision with which this can be done will depend on the number of dimming zones of the display. The more dimming zones, the more precise the dimming, with less obvious blooming artifacts which are visible as dark grey patches surrounded by the unlit areas of the LCD. As of 2012, this design gets most of its use from upscale, larger-screen LCD televisions.
RGB-LED array: Similar to the WLED array, except the panel is lit by a full array of RGB LEDs. While displays lit with white LEDs usually have a poorer color gamut than CCFL lit displays, panels lit with RGB LEDs have very wide color gamuts. This implementation is most popular on professional graphics editing LCDs. As of 2012, LCDs in this category usually cost more than $1000. As of 2016 the cost of this category has drastically reduced and such LCD televisions obtained same price levels as the former 28" (71 cm) CRT based categories.
Monochrome LEDs: such as red, green, yellow or blue LEDs are used in the small passive monochrome LCDs typically used in clocks, watches and small appliances.
Mini-LED: Backlighting with Mini-LEDs can support over a thousand of Full-area Local Area Dimming (FLAD) zones. This allows deeper blacks and higher contrast ratio.MicroLED.)
Today, most LCD screens are being designed with an LED backlight instead of the traditional CCFL backlight, while that backlight is dynamically controlled with the video information (dynamic backlight control). The combination with the dynamic backlight control, invented by Philips researchers Douglas Stanton, Martinus Stroomer and Adrianus de Vaan, simultaneously increases the dynamic range of the display system (also marketed as HDR, high dynamic range television or FLAD, full-area local area dimming).
The LCD backlight systems are made highly efficient by applying optical films such as prismatic structure (prism sheet) to gain the light into the desired viewer directions and reflective polarizing films that recycle the polarized light that was formerly absorbed by the first polarizer of the LCD (invented by Philips researchers Adrianus de Vaan and Paulus Schaareman),
Due to the LCD layer that generates the desired high resolution images at flashing video speeds using very low power electronics in combination with LED based backlight technologies, LCD technology has become the dominant display technology for products such as televisions, desktop monitors, notebooks, tablets, smartphones and mobile phones. Although competing OLED technology is pushed to the market, such OLED displays do not feature the HDR capabilities like LCDs in combination with 2D LED backlight technologies have, reason why the annual market of such LCD-based products is still growing faster (in volume) than OLED-based products while the efficiency of LCDs (and products like portable computers, mobile phones and televisions) may even be further improved by preventing the light to be absorbed in the colour filters of the LCD.
A pink elastomeric connector mating an LCD panel to circuit board traces, shown next to a centimeter-scale ruler. The conductive and insulating layers in the black stripe are very small.
A standard television receiver screen, a modern LCD panel, has over six million pixels, and they are all individually powered by a wire