I picked up a batch of LCD panels from Goldmine. They come essentially unmarked except for a few of them have a designation of Planar systems inc. (they make whole units, and I have yet to find any data sheets on their site for anything)
I assume they are marked not because they manufactured them, but rather because they had used them as a part in a display and simply marked them with their name and sku.
Anyway, in my hands I have 5 panels. 3 of them were relatively easily to figure out. They had bilateral symmetric pin outs and essentially pin one was grounded and all the others tended to light up some segment of the displays. Of course some of the pins essentially did nothing. One 5 digit display had enough pins to be a 6 digit display and by extrapolation the unreactive pins would map to the phantom 6th digit. One of the 70 pin display had 18 non-reactive pins but I could find enough pins that would light up all the segments and dp's etc.
** HOWEVER **
The other two panels are not behaving in the same way, so I would like a pointer in the right direction with a strategy for figuring it out.
#1
has a 1-3/4" x 11/16" viewable area
has 20 pins all on one side of the panel with no pins on the opposite side
It has 4-1/2 digits with a superscript B and a dash below it in position before the first 1/2 digit. I can't seem to get to a place where one pin is common and all the rest light up a segment, so I assume this works differently. I am open to suggestions. Or a data sheet if this is a recognizeable panel.
#2
has 3-5/8" x 5/8" viewable area
it has 24 pins on one side and 6 pins in 2 sets of 3 on the opposite side. With the multimeter I have determined that each of the 3 pins on one side appears to be connected to a one on the other side. So if we called them ABC and DEF then A-F are at 0ohms as are B-E and C-D. I am not sure what this means, but it seems to be a significant piece of data.
It has 8 digits, each followed with a dp including the last. Underneath each digit is the reverse of a circumflex.
If I jump from one of the pins in either group of 3 to any single pin on the other side I either get B/C/dp, A/G/D, F/E/circumflex to light up. So I can walk across the pins this way and sight up all the segments but only in groups of 3 each pin.
My exploration technique is quite crude. I have a battery with two leads. I attach one to some pin (that I assume is com) and touch all the others one at at time until I notice something or the device releases its magic smoke. The latter is yet to happen I do have enough discrete components to actually properly run an experiment, and I have some atmel micro-controllers that i can program to do whatever needs be.
I just don't really have a good strategy or frame of reference on these panels to know where to start.
Any advise and pointers would be quite welcome.
BTW, I am new here, Hi!
-- Absinthe
I assume they are marked not because they manufactured them, but rather because they had used them as a part in a display and simply marked them with their name and sku.
Anyway, in my hands I have 5 panels. 3 of them were relatively easily to figure out. They had bilateral symmetric pin outs and essentially pin one was grounded and all the others tended to light up some segment of the displays. Of course some of the pins essentially did nothing. One 5 digit display had enough pins to be a 6 digit display and by extrapolation the unreactive pins would map to the phantom 6th digit. One of the 70 pin display had 18 non-reactive pins but I could find enough pins that would light up all the segments and dp's etc.
** HOWEVER **
The other two panels are not behaving in the same way, so I would like a pointer in the right direction with a strategy for figuring it out.
#1
has a 1-3/4" x 11/16" viewable area
has 20 pins all on one side of the panel with no pins on the opposite side
It has 4-1/2 digits with a superscript B and a dash below it in position before the first 1/2 digit. I can't seem to get to a place where one pin is common and all the rest light up a segment, so I assume this works differently. I am open to suggestions. Or a data sheet if this is a recognizeable panel.
#2
has 3-5/8" x 5/8" viewable area
it has 24 pins on one side and 6 pins in 2 sets of 3 on the opposite side. With the multimeter I have determined that each of the 3 pins on one side appears to be connected to a one on the other side. So if we called them ABC and DEF then A-F are at 0ohms as are B-E and C-D. I am not sure what this means, but it seems to be a significant piece of data.
It has 8 digits, each followed with a dp including the last. Underneath each digit is the reverse of a circumflex.
If I jump from one of the pins in either group of 3 to any single pin on the other side I either get B/C/dp, A/G/D, F/E/circumflex to light up. So I can walk across the pins this way and sight up all the segments but only in groups of 3 each pin.
My exploration technique is quite crude. I have a battery with two leads. I attach one to some pin (that I assume is com) and touch all the others one at at time until I notice something or the device releases its magic smoke. The latter is yet to happen I do have enough discrete components to actually properly run an experiment, and I have some atmel micro-controllers that i can program to do whatever needs be.
I just don't really have a good strategy or frame of reference on these panels to know where to start.
Any advise and pointers would be quite welcome.
BTW, I am new here, Hi!
-- Absinthe
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