hacking a printer's LCD

natedawgg · 03-19-2009, 12:33 PM

so this is just a pie-in-the-sky idea that i had about hacking a printer's LCD screen to use as an auxiliary display to my main 7" lilliput. This could be used to display song info, or OBDII info, clock, anything really.

I recently had a printer that just decided it didn't want to print anymore. when you could get it to print it all worked just fine, but i was tired of fighting with it and just bought a new one. now i have this old one with a nice 2" or so LCD display that works just fine. i was wondering if anybody has done this before or has any idea of where to start to get this LCD working with a regular PC?

Bugbyte · 03-19-2009, 01:07 PM

Are there any numbers or parts identification on it? Maybe you can find out what type of LCD it is and what, if any, hardware it required to drive it.

2k1Toaster · 03-19-2009, 01:08 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by natedawgg

so this is just a pie-in-the-sky idea that i had about hacking a printer's LCD screen to use as an auxiliary display to my main 7" lilliput. This could be used to display song info, or OBDII info, clock, anything really.

I recently had a printer that just decided it didn't want to print anymore. when you could get it to print it all worked just fine, but i was tired of fighting with it and just bought a new one. now i have this old one with a nice 2" or so LCD display that works just fine. i was wondering if anybody has done this before or has any idea of where to start to get this LCD working with a regular PC?

You need the PC to interface with a microcontroller, the microcontroller to an lcd driver & backlight, and those to the LCD.

There are no universal drivers, usually the LCD "frame" is the LCD + driver. But now you have a mystery chip. Aside from ripping a donor apart and looking at model #'s and stamps, the only way is to find someone who has already done that. I doubt the big printer company will put the manufacturer and display driver chip information in a manual anywhere... And to top it off, many LCD with bundled drivers come in different formats. For instance the Nokia 6610 displays that I have been working with have 3 different and completely incompatible chipsets to drive the same display. Different initiation routines, different message format, different commands, different sequencing, you name it.

Not worth the hassle to salvage a screen unless you know what it is.

A 2" 12bit colour screen can be had for $8. Then you know what screen and what driver you are getting. So is $8 worth all the hassle?

natedawgg · 03-19-2009, 03:48 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by 2k1Toaster

You need the PC to interface with a microcontroller, the microcontroller to an lcd driver & backlight, and those to the LCD.

There are no universal drivers, usually the LCD "frame" is the LCD + driver. But now you have a mystery chip. Aside from ripping a donor apart and looking at model #'s and stamps, the only way is to find someone who has already done that. I doubt the big printer company will put the manufacturer and display driver chip information in a manual anywhere... And to top it off, many LCD with bundled drivers come in different formats. For instance the Nokia 6610 displays that I have been working with have 3 different and completely incompatible chipsets to drive the same display. Different initiation routines, different message format, different commands, different sequencing, you name it.

Not worth the hassle to salvage a screen unless you know what it is.

A 2" 12bit colour screen can be had for $8. Then you know what screen and what driver you are getting. So is $8 worth all the hassle?

yeah you are probably right. i just thought it would be a neat project, but it seems like waaay to much work for something not that entirely useful. by the way where do you pick up a 2" screen like that anyway?

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