LCD ASCII Art Display

Thread Starter

Nomad_

Joined Nov 24, 2022
4
Hey y’all! First off I’m new here so I apologize if this isn’t in the correct place. I was scrolling through Twitter and I came across this post of an artist who creates these beautiful pieces using ascii.

They also have created these small lcd screens to display them. About the size of a picture frame but able to display animated versions of this ascii art.

My first thought was raspberry pi but their display is sleek and rechargeable using USBC. Definitely not one of the RasPi displays I’ve found online.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience working with small lcd displays and could lend a hand as to figuring out how I can replicate this. Ideally I’d like to build a sort of triptych using three small screens that can display my own ASCII art

I’ve included some screenshots below.

Also if you think their stuff is cool here’s the Twitter handle. Lots of cool resources for creating your own pieces if you are interested.

MOD NOTE: Removed Twitter link

7D95EFA3-033E-4CB1-AB19-3F961261F4FA.pngB0FA43FA-C89C-4228-AAB8-44A04612F1A9.png
 
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KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,063
The screen you show is quite low resolution so the only limiting factor will be how large you need the screens and how quickly you need to update them. An arduino could probably be used, depending on the above.
 

Thread Starter

Nomad_

Joined Nov 24, 2022
4
The screen you show is quite low resolution so the only limiting factor will be how large you need the screens and how quickly you need to update the display. An arduino could probably be used, depending on the above.
Hey Kieth! I was thinking three 4x4 (inches) screens all linked to display different parts of the animation. Do you have any experience with ardunio doing something similar/have any recommendations as to what kit to look for to accomplish this.
 

KeithWalker

Joined Jul 10, 2017
3,063
Most small displays have an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 2:1. I am not aware of any that are 1:1.
What is your budget for this project? Low resolution (128 x 64) displays are inexpensive in sizes up to about 3" x 1.5". Above that size, they have much higher resolution and start getting quite expensive.
How quickly do you want the animations to run on the three screens? Small, low res displays can be updated fairly quickly but multiple higher res displays need fast processors with lots of memory. That's why computers have their own dedicated high speed graphics processors.
I have run two small LCD displays using an arduino, for robot "eyes".
 

djsfantasi

Joined Apr 11, 2010
9,156
Here is a 7” graphic LCD display for the Raspberry Pi.

One consideration is that a display’s driver will leave a blank row between characters. The pictures posted here shoe that successive rows of characters are contiguous.
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,708
There was once upon a time in the '70s when typewriter art (from a Teletype® machine) was truly fascinating and amazing.
Do people still do that today?

1669390314680.png
 

Ya’akov

Joined Jan 27, 2019
9,069
The display on that device is only 2.7". It is a Sharp Memory Pixel display designed for low power applications. You can get one from Adafruit. Even though it is only displaying text, it is a graphical display with individually addressed pixels, it doesn't have its own character generator on board.
 

Thread Starter

Nomad_

Joined Nov 24, 2022
4
Most small displays have an aspect ratio of 4:3 or 2:1. I am not aware of any that are 1:1.
What is your budget for this project? Low resolution (128 x 64) displays are inexpensive in sizes up to about 3" x 1.5". Above that size, they have much higher resolution and start getting quite expensive.
How quickly do you want the animations to run on the three screens? Small, low res displays can be updated fairly quickly but multiple higher res displays need fast processors with lots of memory. That's why computers have their own dedicated high speed graphics processors.
I have run two small LCD displays using an arduino, for robot "eyes".
I wouldn’t need very high resolution for what I’m looking to do. I’d be displaying stuff that looks similar to the photos I included above.

going to try a couple different routes and see what I come up with. Thank you so much for taking the time to assist me!
 
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