Despite having good results with the OLED, it was just a bit too small – there was a 2-3mm border around the outside of the active area of the display that I just wasn’t happy with. A bit more poking about on the internet revealed a possible replacement – a 1.8″ 160×128 pixel LCD, which across the short side was almost exactly the right size for the width of Gerty’s screen. It didn’t matter that it was taller, because the way the screen is angled, the unused portion would stick up inside the body.
One was duly ordered and delivery awaited (deliveries from the far east seem to have got considerably longer in the last few months…)
When it finally arrived, there were a few issues to deal with:
- The LCD is attached on each side with sticky foam strips to a breakout PCB which is a tad too big, but as the connector is at one end it was possible to very gently separate the display from the sticky strips so that it could be lifted up at an angle. The PCB will be mounted inside the body, with only the display itself sticking out into the bezel around the screen.
- The glass of the display is encased in a thin plastic surround, and this is still marginally wider than the original resin bezel that comes with the kit. I had to make a whole new bezel and shade from plasticard that was 3mm wider – a lot of work for such a small gain, but the display now fits perfectly.
- The display extends up into the body far more than anticipated – I had to mill out quite a bit of resin to get it to sit high enough but again this was mainly due to the size of the breakout PCB.
- The breakout includes a SD card reader on the PCB, but for some reason every time data is read from the SD card, the display flickers. Using the original standalone microSD reader I bought, there was so such problem, so I’ll probably go with the that one.
The active area of the LCD that is visible in the bezel is 128 x 85 – a slight increase in resolution from the 96×64 of the OLED, but the OLED does not suffer the viewing angle issues that are inherent in LCDs. It’s aggrivated because I’m basically mounting the LCD upside down. Swings and roundabouts…
