A bit off-topic but related to the intro in this readme..<p>> Why?
> I'm super bored in lockdown. Add a Raspberry Pi 400 and a few tiny displays...<p>I feel like there are two distinct kinds of lockdown experience. One, you have kids, and you have absolutely no free time because now your kids are home and you're working from home. Two, you don't have kids, and you're super bored every day. Seems like not much in between.
There is a weird spot in the display market that is painful as a embedded developer:<p>Displays under 400x240 pixels, usually the gfx buffer can be managed in the ram of the MCU. Nothing fancy needed, can get decent framerate on SPI bus running at 16 MHz. Anything above this range gets super ugly: no good displays exist and if they do, they're expensive or outdated (800x480 resolution is basically impossible to obtain). Furthermore, driving this display requires crazy shit like multiple SPI channels (QSPI), or some neutered version of DSI protocol...impossible to find docs for and if they have docs, theyre in Chinese.<p>Then there are ultra high resolution displays, for e.g. cell phone market or laptop screens. You're now looking an entirely different beast. MIPI/DSI hardware support is required and a bunch of NDAs, need dedicated GPU and a proper linux running.<p>Ideal display tech would be 5"inch diagonal, OLED (low power consumption), 800x480 (or similar) and can be run using ARM Cortex-M4 or similar microcontroler arch. That would open up opportunities for so many device categories that doesn't exist today. Imagine a VT100 terminal clone running on 8" 1024x768 resolution screen with a cheap ESP32 + display driver chip. Or a slightly more beefy Cortex-M7 running zephyr/linux. So many things we could build.
These 240x240 IPS displays are awesome and dirt-cheap. The best "application" I've seen for them is a tiny retro game console [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://www.funkey-project.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.funkey-project.com/</a>
I want to make a smart glass like device with a tiny display or a projector, Raspberry Pi Zero as the main board and powered by a battery pack. Does any one have any input regarding optics?<p>Just thinking about the possibility of having a linux machine always on you seems really exciing.
Really cool display even if it has problems with tearing. I played around with that display a bit - <a href="https://youtu.be/8S1BXnx-vLE" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/8S1BXnx-vLE</a> (STM32, 60+ fps), <a href="https://youtu.be/Wql4WTpPrWs" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/Wql4WTpPrWs</a> (ESP32, ~40 fps)
This seems really great for times when I want to boot up a PI but don’t want to bother with finding a display and PSU for that display, and I don’t want to unplug my computers display. A quick display for simple things.
Semi-OT: I wish someone would make flexible building blocks for fastening/connecting such parts, i.e. something like Lego or Fischertechnik but better suited for electronics. Many people use 3D printers, but they seem wasteful for printing temporary cases for such projects. Wood is a possibility, but not so quick to work on. There has to be something better than duck tape and rubber bands...
Good work! My first 240x240 display was a Palm Treo 750 and 320x240 apps were unusable because 80 pixels were out of sight, haha<p>Add your contacts, social links and donation button
Nice! I was thinking about coupling it with a thermal printer.<p>Line editors like ed make much more sense when used with a printing teletype, which is what the RPi 400 would be with a little printer attached.