Mini-LCD display for props...has anyone been successful with this?

[tubachris85x]

I toyed around years ago, but never found anything short of trying to get boards and such custom made. The idea of what I want to have done is have a micro LCD display (like 1.5" wide) able to run off a camera feed. I took apart an old flip phone years ago, but couldn't figure out how to modify it in this manner..

 

[Contec]

Someone here made a old TNG tricorder with one of those tiny lcd screens a few years ago.

 

[13doctorwho]

I would say look for one of those digital picture frame keychains. That would be the best way to start. Check Amazon.

 

[Baconbringer]

There's a lot of options here, all depending on skill level/expenses and how much time you want to spend on it.


Also: Are how are you going to receive the feed?

Wireless or wired?

I'm going to go ahead and assume that you mean wired like; Camera -> Board -> LCD.

Here's a couple of methods I have tried and find relatively easy:

BeagleBone Black (BBB): The BBB is a micro computer on which you can run a variety of OS on, like Android -Ångström Linux - Ubuntu ETC.
The BBB is community supported development platform and have the tools you need to support direct feed from a camera.
There is modules available for the BBB - to help you achieve this - they are known as capes and can be bought from a lot of different retailers.
All you need is the BBB, a camera cape and a LCD cape.
Camera Cape
LCD Cape (There is smaller ones if I remember correctly).


Raspberry PI (RPi) - RPi is a micro computer as the BBB.
The RPi has modules as well that will work perfectly well for what you want to achieve.
LCD Module
Camera Module


A personal favorite tho is the HackHD!
Why try to hack a camera that is hard to mount, hard to trigger or even hard to do anything with?
The HackHD (as the name suggest) is actually made to be hacked.
You can easily embed this camera to anything really.

And the best part is that it is very well documented.
(I really hope any of my ramblings made any sense)
Happy hacking!


Please note - I do not endorse any of the products in any way, I'm just letting you know what alternatives there is out there.

 

[tubachris85x]

I would say look for one of those digital picture frame keychains. That would be the best way to start. Check Amazon.

Thought about this. I'm curious to learn how to make it such I can wire a small camera to it while making it function

 

[holtt]

Both tiny cameras and tiny screens are cheap and available, but the catch is getting the two of them talking to each other.

One approach would be to take a camera like this one (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11745) which has an RCA video output, and hook up the RCA out to a tiny TV with RCA input like this 2" one (NTSC/PAL (Television) TFT Display - 2.0 Diagonal ID: 911 - $39.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits).

 

[tubachris85x]

Both tiny cameras and tiny screens are cheap and available, but the catch is getting the two of them talking to each other.

One approach would be to take a camera like this one (https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11745) which has an RCA video output, and hook up the RCA out to a tiny TV with RCA input like this 2" one (NTSC/PAL (Television) TFT Display - 2.0 Diagonal ID: 911 - $39.95 : Adafruit Industries, Unique & fun DIY electronics and kits).

Wow, thank you! This seems more feasible with this. I'll have to do some more research to make it work

 

[holtt]

The fact that you want to do just a one to one (cam to screen) feed theoretically makes this easier. I think you're not that far off thinking about salvaging stuff from existing devices, however you can probably work up something like what I linked to.

There's just a ton of potential for what we can do with the kinds of devices and circuits available via sites like Adafruit and Spark Fun. The potential for using an Arduino to create dynamically active props is really quite big IMO.

PS

I kinda regret using the word "cheap" in the original post - it does kind of add up if you don't watch out :/

 

[tubachris85x]

The fact that you want to do just a one to one (cam to screen) feed theoretically makes this easier. I think you're not that far off thinking about salvaging stuff from existing devices, however you can probably work up something like what I linked to.

There's just a ton of potential for what we can do with the kinds of devices and circuits available via sites like Adafruit and Spark Fun. The potential for using an Arduino to create dynamically active props is really quite big IMO.

PS

I kinda regret using the word "cheap" in the original post - it does kind of add up if you don't watch out :/

Cheap, yea, it all adds up but for the desired affect, on a relative scale, it could be much more expensive. Granted, it'll progressively become cheaper over time. As for this application, it would be a great additional feature and add some more realism to the prop. Especially if I were capable of modifying and controlling what can be seen on the screen or the purposes for which it can be used.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to do a number of functions, to include at least being able to operate on the camera first off, record/take screen shots, apply a screen overlay (like a pre-set design OVER the live feed/pictures). That's what I'd like to be able to do, but this seems like a long term project for research and overall learning. I don't think I'd be able to have this ready for my desired project's time frame but definitely something I can develop for it to mod the prop

 

[holtt]

I know one could setup an Aruduino to capture the camera frames, then render them on the screen. That would allow you to add overlays, etc. The catch is I don't think it's going to let you do very fast capture. Like it might be seconds per frame instead of frames per second if you don't watch out

One suggestion would be to go on the Adafruit forums dedicated for as they say, "Glowy Things" at View forum - Glowy things (LCD, LED, TFT, EL) purchased at Adafruit ? adafruit industries ? Customer Support Forums, DIY Electronics, Open Source Hardware, Arduino. It's worth asking if anyone can offer any suggestions.

 

[tubachris85x]

I know one could setup an Aruduino to capture the camera frames, then render them on the screen. That would allow you to add overlays, etc. The catch is I don't think it's going to let you do very fast capture. Like it might be seconds per frame instead of frames per second if you don't watch out

One suggestion would be to go on the Adafruit forums dedicated for as they say, "Glowy Things" at View forum - Glowy things (LCD, LED, TFT, EL) purchased at Adafruit ? adafruit industries ? Customer Support Forums, DIY Electronics, Open Source Hardware, Arduino. It's worth asking if anyone can offer any suggestions.

Hmph, I cannot seem to register. Keeps timing out for me when I try!


As for this purpose, I'm starting to think the best route to go with all this is utilizing the Raspberry Pi. It seems to be my best bet for any of this as I am sure there are plenty of programs that would be able to control the camera's function.

As for the LCD, the ones posted above are still too large for this application. I feel that anything less than an inch is ideal. I did find this one as well:

0.96” OLED Colour Display Module

I think all the pieces to the puzzle is here, it's just a matter of putting them all together to make it work...

 

[holtt]

I think all the pieces to the puzzle is here, it's just a matter of putting them all together to make it work...

You've hit the nail on the head there. There is a wonderful availability of parts for this kind of thing, if you're able to figure out how to put them together.

One approach might be to incrementally develop this. Start off with a little screen like you linked to, driving it with an Arduino. And instead of live video integration, use fixed images for now - or just a single frame grabbed from the camera. For phase 2, start working out details about how to up the frame rate so you're doing overlays on live video.

One thing to consider is the resolution of the screen. That one you linked to is only 96 x 64 pixels I believe - which really isn't much. The trick is, a lot of modern cameras are going to put out much much higher resolution images. So if you could find a camera that could put out 96 x 64 instead of say 800 x 600, it would be MUCH faster - that's a lot less data for the little processor to handle. So don't make your little computer (arduino, raspberry pi, etc.) work harder than it needs to.

 

[Spideyfox]

Arduino is the way to go try looking over at instructables.com

 

[Killtime]

I have an old LCD headset thing from an old dentistry that would hook into AV channels and reflect the images from the lcd on to a shiny reflector. Something like that would work yes? I would rip apart on of those silly shades that have LCD screens in them as they are set up for inputs.