Looking for a segmented e-ink / e-paper display solution for a power up display counter module project.
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Hi it's mini-project series time and I probably could have done. This little project is just like one video like here it is and Bob's your uncle but I thought it's more interesting just to show like the process as I've done in some previous videos and it's only a very simple one but you might get to know and that a lot of there's a lot of tedious business that goes into even like the simplest project. So this project has actually got a very nice application but you might see why in our future videos. But what it is is basically I want a board about I don't know.

Yay big something like that? haven't decided yet. it'll once again you know, like open-ended kind of aspects which could be good and bad. but I want it like a little board like this that has a little ink display on it and earrings important for a specific reason that has basically just a counter on it and every time that you power up this board, I want the counter to increment by one? Why? Well it can be useful as a product as an integrated product power up counter. Like how many power cycles has this particular product gone through and there can be various applications for like something like this can be like buried inside the product for like you know, servicing reasons or something like that or it can be actually out displayed to the user for whatever reason you want and I might go into that in future videos.

and the reason for Inc is because I want the display to always be there. so even if you remove the power of this board, you can instantly see the the account there and it doesn't require any power at all to actually retain that count. So anyway I won't go into too many more reasons. But basically I want a little ink display? It's going to need a little micro controller and that's it.

and possibly the board will like have a cast elations on the outside so it can be a module that you actually like can solder onto your product board like a little like surface mount module so to speak. So anyway, um, this video will be about looking at the displays I thought well let's go let's try and find an E-ink or IPE display I think earrings a trademark of Incorporation whatever a lot of people call them et paper displays generically these days. So let's have a look to see what we can find shall we? Now of course I could do this with a dot matrix. A little dot matrix.

Well I think I've even got like an E dot matrix display here of probably about the right size like this. but um anyway, it's somewhere I could probably dig it up but don't necessarily want to dot matrix like it would be easier and simpler for the project. If I just used like a 7 segment display and you can get in 17, let's play. So let's go or just do not seven segments but segment display So let's just google it.

Shall we? Here we go: Graphic? No, we don't want any of that rubbish. Wave should know it. No, it's all graphics or graphic ink display. Bingo we're in like Flynn straight away, let's go have a look at that.
that that's what I want Digits 60 Justice: Lenny For a powerup display, what's this one? Report: Image: yeah, I'll report it, it's pornographic and Alibaba yeah Inc high-resolution display kits. So here you go. Maybe something like that that looks like a really annoying ribbon interface though I'd prefer something that I could just maybe solder down onto the board perhaps. Oh, that's interesting.

Look at that. I know you're probably screaming it I Know, you know. Oh if there's a starburst display I like that one 248 digit starburst display. that would be nice for that looks time.

1.2 4-inch Yeah, that would be nice for like a calculator as you know will calculate a watch his desktop calculator. Rubbish. Well oh here we go. Flexible.

Oh there go too. but that's another eight digit job. and that one. Well I like I like the can cart.

What's can cart Calm I like the look at that anyway. I'm just like good. Like randomly googling at the moment. This is how you might start.

or of course you might jump immediately to one of your catalog suppliers like digi-key or something like that. So that's a flexible 1.2 inch. So one point two inches that's about the length I need that would be that looks like it'll do the business and you can make like you could glue that down to the board for example. and you can even put your chips under there if you're really.

you know, if you if it's flexible, you can like solder it down one end like this and then like reflow it down one end and then you could even snake it up and over your chips if you wanted a really small module something like that. Anyway, I'm just like this is don't take this video as the best way to do it I'm just randomly doing stuff so we could go like we could go to Digi-key have a squares or a paper. What is the what are they got? Display Modules: Character and Numeric only six items. Optoelectronics Let's go into display My jaws have they got one specifically for and I think they have one specifically for ink LCD Character and Numeric 1452 That yeah, incorporation.

So yep, that includes so inks are included in LCD ones. There we go. Earrings segmented display Super right? So it's only got that one category. There's no more filters there that's just like size and stuff like that.

So we only got six. only got six in there. and there you go. That one we saw before and that was a digi-key job but that is discontinued.

Discontinued to Digi-key and that's from that's actually from Ink Corporation, so that's a genuine one. Like a dot bargraph thing. isn't that cute. So like for a battery gauge or something like that.

but look at that, that's a better battery gauge. I like that one. Geeze. And that there's no interface chip? rubbish? For that, you can just drive that directly.

That's nice. So what do you do? just do you know apply that? I'm not even sure the logic levels for ink I I Just haven't played with it outside of a driver sort of thing. I've never interfaced actually directly like that. Can you just drive it? Of course, said it once.
The good idea thing about eating because that you said it in one polarity, on or off and it stays like that. which is fantastic. Um, so can you just like pulse that with a regular pin? I Don't know. Datasheet somewhat read or why have you elope? Our consumptions gonna have no power consumption 650 microns Wow Thick thickness that is doesn't give you any other drive voltage 15 volts or 5 volts 3.3 It looks like it's not going to do it though.

And sure enough, if you go into Inks one here, they've got ones for watches and and stuff like that, but we can go into shop look at these. They got like watch displays and things like that but it looks like they don't have if we go into E Ink display modules. Looks like yeah there's they've discontinued this by the looks of it, yeah it looks like they've discontinued that 7-segment Looks like Ian don't make 7-segment display modules anymore. There you go.

That's why did you keep this continued it I'm assuming. So anyway like I don't want something that's discontinued even if what they had stock left like mm. you know if you're if you know you only need like you know a ten or a hundred or something that's you know, fine you can do like a one-off buy something like that if you can find some new old stock somewhere. But anyway so it looks like did you ki don't have what we want I'm assuming MOUs aren't gonna be any better.

Well there is Parallax Micro Art of Fruit. Well Mouse are really carrying a lot of the make crowd supply, really carrying a lot of the maker stuff. display development tool adapter board. wow they're really getting into that how they don't really wanted to veldt why is it in display development tools? What? like engineering tools, embedded solutions, engineering tools for a flexible ink display? I Don't get it like I know it's like a Martin's kind of a module, but it's really just the display isn't it? I mean I I just don't understand that at all.

That's just that's silly crazy characterization. Don't like that at all. anyway I think MOUs are are a waste of space so as he is genuine ink and looks like digi keys out. So what we're going to do is okay.

it's Aliexpress time. Chair covers? spend what? I'd Search for that, it's just a font. Give me a break anyway. Um, in each segment, let's put the dash in there.

Nope. Let's try a paper not doesn't like that. 7-segment ePaper Display display A Inks segmented display. Look at this Alibaba.com Okay, was so we can go to Alibaba couldn't find anything on Aliexpress I'll express this just the if you don't know, it's just like the in stock version of Alibaba Calm.

The Alibaba.com is the marketplace where you find you might get prices if you're lucky or you get ballpark prices usually you've got to contact them. It's just a place to advertise stuff that you have available as Aliexpress you can actually specifically add it to your shopping cart by at boom it's yours. That's the difference. So Aliexpress really didn't have anything there.
so let's have a look at this so that one's yeah, it's not big on something that there we go that looks like an LCD display Inc circular. Wow, that's interesting Mindi E Inc for a watch. There you go, but it's just got to watch display I Think we need more than four digits I Think you know we need like six something. There we go.

Now it says that that looks photoshopped that does not look. oh wow, look at that that looks photoshopped as well. They don't look. pretty genuine.

This one though is interesting. Check this out. This is like is that a that that's with the backlight. Wow.

I Like that. I Don't care it like it's obviously designed for a like a scale or something like that. But it doesn't matter that it has those extra characters, you don't have to use them. Ah, they looked okay.

They they're showing their different things. So yeah, like quantity one to ten thousand? You don't know. Estimated time? Tender your days? Negotiable like they do. Can you design your own dodo and design my own? I Just want something off the shelf that looks so photoshopped doesn't it? That's the real back of it though.

That's that that's photoshopped as well. Photoshopped it. nice work. but yeah, obviously like that.

like you. You tell them you want this and they'll go. Oh oh. five thousand pieces minimum order.

But you know if they're well, they wouldn't be like cents each or tens of sense. they're gonna be like a dollar or something each? perhaps. But yeah, so it looks like. you know that's neat, but that's sort of like a custom kind of thing.

Smart electronics. What's a Smart Electronics? No one. I Like this Starburst, it's only got two decimal places. That's really interesting.

Anyway, there's a driver on that. Well there you go. You can get model number of the drive I see and stuff like that so you can start no once you go. in there and find stuff that like that, you can go.

Okay, how do I Drive these sorry search for PDF and good display repository Dalene Good display. ultra wide. There you go. So that's no, that was the no that was the product.

that's the that's the datasheet. That's not just the drive I see and yeah, that's the model number I Thought that was like the part number of the of the drive in interface. Good display comm. Check this out.

Dot light defect line defect. Is that a thing in Ian's car displays? Is it how they can like manufacturing defects in your your lines and your dots? That's interesting. Yeah, that's not. That's not the driving chip that doesn't even have a pin out.
And therein lies one of the dangers. Do I search for character eating display and see if we get I Like hello hello I Like like that. look at that that looks like a PCB mountable module. That's what I'm after.

Here's another one. the character Inc There's a pin based $1 to ten one piece minimum order. These are all eating. Yeah they they they look like LCDs there.

Alright, that did the business. It's often it's just a matter of getting the right keywords. Don't just rely on one keyword and then just give up or one string of keywords and give up and go. Oh I can't find what I Want you know? Experiment with stuff.

seven segments if you don't like seven segments. Hey, just take away the seven. It might be segmented display. It might be starburst display.

It might be character display like this one for example. So I think character was the key word. It was like yeah. 8:8 character or 8-digit he might search for digit.

Being disloyal, he papered over the search for ePaper Display yet look, look at that. I Really like that that one hasn't got pins attached. Or if they photoshopped to for like six, that'd be fine. That gives you a million tariffs.

You have one message. Look, we can talk to whoever it is over here with the fake photo. So my there you go model number and of course we don't need backlit or anything like that. Don't need anything fancy drive voltage three volts so this would have a glass and this would have a chip on glass driver I Wouldn't sue.

You know it's got to be under there I assume it's under there or is it just like a multiplex thing anyway. I Really like that. Is that saying? there's a say? and that's the same one. Okay, so it does actually have the pin.

So I think they photoshopped same as Beauty KP Beauty at Alibaba comp and it's the same as this one, but they've yet. they've just photoshopped out the pin so it's a through-hole one and I'm sure you could order them without the pins if you wanted to or as you know, sure to pin different lead lengths or something like that. Don't really want a through-hole one because if you're the problem with through-hole is that is, if you've got a board like that and the pins penetrate the bottom, then you've got these conductive pins like you've got to cut them flush. otherwise the thing doesn't flush on the board and then you crack your soul joints.

It's not great lately you can, but you know it's It's not terrific, so it's got to like sit off the board like that and then once it's if it's got pins on the bottom sitting off the board, then those side cast elations on the little Halfmoon pads on the side of the board. It doesn't surface me out nearly as well. You've got to put a lot more big solder blob on there in order to surface mount it. So yeah, it's it's not terrific.

Of course you could bend the pins out something or you can cut them off before and then like surface mount that and once again, you could have your chip because we gonna have to have a microcontroller in here. I Should just block it, shouldn't I You should Just you could have that. Your chip can easily fit under this thing so all your circuitry right on the ball could fit under this. so your board is exactly the same envelope as or shape size as the LCD and that apart from the cast elations at the side for example, so that'd be really cool.
I Know we've transitioned into LCDs now so you can buy it on eBay and looks like ePaper display com There you go I Just found a an online supplier I didn't know about ePaper Display Oh this is good display. didn't we see them before? Yeah okay there you go. They look serious. Okay so once you've found a manufacturer like this you would neutral through their website and since see we can come up with.

but yeah that looks really terrific that comes from good display. I I Assume they look like a manufacturer I Guess what are they got there? That's a little that's nice in that little 3d. I Like that. Wow little three-digit job' in a dip package with a battery indicator and a little audio display.

Oh that's cute. So there's our datasheet. There you go. So you've got all the pins.

Dimensions come standard as I said you know if you wanted? Yeah, no, that's it. It's just this segment of display. There's no driver I Guess we have to Google How to drive B paper displays. Now don't we drive in ink displays? essential scrap? no renesis.

There you go the DEF CON Devcon from 2012 which one did I go to hi was I def con in 2012 No, it was 20, 2009 2011 probably. Anyway, so this is from a Inc my gonna assume that there's not. You know huge differences between on there it could be. Let's get technical: displace all structure Wow Must have its own dedicated drive line.

The top electrode must be in opposite states when showing moves up or down in the capsule and that's how it. That's how it does its business. That's how it stays there permanently. Display driver MCU Ya don't want that? Oh yeah, here's the 5 or 15 that we saw before.

operating between 0 5 or 0 to 15 volts or segments infielder black. So there you go. so we can just alternate the thing and you can do that. If you like Zoom, you've got a 5 watt microcontroller.

you could put it on 2 I/o pins on each segment between two I/o pins. Multiplexing is a different beast, but you can put a dip in between there and they just flip you know one zero, one zero like that and you can turn your and then of course set it to tri-state when you don't want to drive it because you don't have to leave the drive outage there and that's that's cool. It looks like we can just flip it back and forth. There you go, then once again but I have not looked into E Drive voltages before so yeah I just don't know.
but it looks like yeah, they come in a couple of different types I Only want This is kind of like a one offer and do-it-yourself project and other people can build like the one offs and stuff like that so a dip would be fine and what I do is actually cut the leads off right at the base there and then I don't have like small holes so it could like self-aligned it just drops in and then you solder it on the top so then you don't get any penetration of the pins through to the bottom and then that would leave enough. you could actually measure that you can. You know that's this to scale. You could actually print that out and figure out what the distance between there and there is so that so the gap in there that would be the height.

you have to put all your circuitry underneath there and that that looks like plenty. Oh what is that? Seven and a half from there? So I'm gonna guesstimate that. CLO two millimeters, something like that? You know that's that's plenty of height to put your chips under. Yeah, little Si packages or whatever so you might.

You know you might have to get some thinner ones if you're doing that, but and your purses won't be a problem so that's anyway. I think we're filming like yeah these ribbon cables are just you know if a certain products they're great but in this case I just want like a little board like this I just solder the LCD aren't like a soda. my chip on my driving chip on I so do the LCD slash y'all say they the e paper Ian can't display on it and Bob's your uncle. A few of those and we can just experiment.

A good thing about the dip one. just whack it in a breadboard and we can just have a play around with this thing. Experiment using a dip microcontroller. we can do all this on a breadboard.

This is great. Like you know, we don't have to get any sort of board manufactured or anything. We will get one at like 2008 that's really quite. That's really quite old isn't it? No hang on like LCD driving voltage.

This is LCD oh oh I've come a gutter completely coming out. so this is an LCD Yep, they do LCDs as well and monochrome LCD I think if we go in there yeah I think we've come a gutter. damn it's not an ePaper display. Ah segmented ePaper display.

That's what I want. Maybe you can't get them with just like a direct drive can you? Ah man got all excited there. look at this point. 9 inch flexible I don't know what? flag someone huh? No no I just got crapping on about all the advantages of the pin based one and I completely come and gut.

So I'm just going to leave that in the video I'm not gonna edit it out. this is me like you know, doing my thing like learning about what's available in the ePaper display market, just bumming around and once again, yeah, this is all the work you've got to do. Like it's not like it used to. lilo.

Oh yeah, I could just get that particular part number Eating display: I Don't know that I'm just bumming around looking to see what's available. Yeah, and I look, this is not eating right. this is. this is LCD It looks like an LCD smells like an LCD alright.
and I think they just put a link in there to get you in. So yeah, you've got to watch out for that twelve o'clock yet viewing angle. Yeah, like we're a biased ratio. a third: we're talking about an LCD completely.

Come ago. see I Got all excited thinking that we can get these pin based ink modules and nope. Note: once again, static drive one. Yeah.

Unbias. Yep, no that that's all that type. Tn Twisted nematic. You don't see twisted nematic associated with eating displays because it's an LCD thing.

Ah, give me a well there you go. learn something. I Hope you've learned something to that. Why can't I have that? And here's where you start.

like second-guessing yourself and going. Oh, maybe we can have an LCD display and there's Solo powerful. We could have one of those super slim super caps on there that would just keep it all be always on. It is keep there and every time you power it up it'll reach out to Super Cap and you know you could it.

could it make? uh Mickey It may come down to that all right now. I'm thinking that you know that's a good idea because you can get these really thin Super Caps now. and yeah, the amount of power required to drive a little LCD Leave it in the comments down below. If you think that's a more sensible idea to have the LCD with like a Super Cap is that is that a more exciting project? I Think like no LCD they're lying.

Once again, that's a good display one. ePaper display and I've seen these at the checkouts. look the promotion I've seen these at some supermarkets have these. They have these little ink tag displays now and of course they don't need power to run.

Fantastic that they can just go up with a little programming machine and just reprogram the thing or they might have more nib now. I Don't think their network they might have to go up and just manually change or never like they did with the paper prices and stuff like that. so you know they've got a whole bunch of employees going around putting on you know, 50% off special stickers and stuff like that. Well, they can just stick on their little low programmer and change the display so that looks so photo shot it's terrible Muriel Anyway, I'm not having much luck.

It looks like the segmented ePaper displays are in a form I don't physically like I don't know, it's just like I can make it work, but it's just annoying that that's it. That's all they got. like it's suitable. Do the business Two, four six and well.

one with a little. but you know that's fine. No any more chocolate. It's not actually chocolate.

it's carob. It milk carob. Highly recommended. Beauty: I Do actually have these sharp memory display LCDs in the right form factor.
Of course, with a bit of annoying ribbon cable, you don't have to put a connector and all that they aren't actually en core ePaper display is do actually still need power to make these available, don't have to continuously drive them and they're incredibly low power though. like ridiculous. like a couple of micro amps or something like smell of an oily rag stuff. So yeah, like if you're going for a potentially some sort of like super cap solution or something like that, you know in one of these memory.

LCD displays is a possibility. but segmented ePaper display it displays as graphic one so we might have to go for a graphic big solution. I Guess it's not what I want because I don't have to implement like fonts and everything in my microcontroller and all that just want to be I would like to have some real simple code that just like derives segments and and has a count I like and we don't want color ePaper display and stuff like that. Anyway, let's go back.

be paper display generically. Yeah, there's there's an example of those tags. the supermarket shelf label display. You know that was a full life full-color job'.

That's nice. Seven bucks though. So yeah, it looks. yeah, it looks like you can get these these these tags that's just like out of curiosity.

let's just have a look at these because these are. they actually sell them like in a framed module. Like is it like a tag that actually just goes straight on? That's that. That's really quite cool.

I Like that. What's what's the interface? Yeah, yeah. look. look, they they sell the the label machine.

They saw the label machine and everything and what's what's that one? What is what? What is number one there? It looks like it's some sort of oh, is that it not? Is that a charge in it I Think good because they wouldn't need these are ePaper Display: I shouldn't need any sort of charge in any way. That's another whole fascinating like electronic like it's a whole segment. Now it's a whole industry segment and there's just tons of those if you really wanted to get into it. I want one in like a long thin form factor like this one I showed and it maybe I'm mixing up I thought I had an ink version of what a V like a similar shape to this but maybe is not.

Maybe I'm actually thinking of the sharp memory LCD Once again, they claim that this one is an ePaper display. Don't know LCD Display screen. No Once again, it's got LCD this is not a paper I Squared C Serial interface refreshed I reflectivities of contrast that could genuinely be EE Yeah, once again, you can request data sheets and stuff like that I Go. Obviously can't do that right now so don't want square I Want like that's really not pulling up, that's really getting out of ink.

A paper to slays pervasive. our crystal fonts? Yeah I Thought you know I Didn't think to go to a one of my regular LCD suppliers and check those out. Looks like pervasive displays. They're really targeting that that that shopping thing you'll see that everywhere eventually.
like even in the mom-and-pop stores. you'll find those there so you know these are still like too thick. I Just want even if I went for a it's not looking great is that this is nice so you know you can get load nice with a lot SPI Adapter board. that's that's really great for our development so that's that's there.

ePaper Displays Hmm. Open-source demonstration code works on the seed. we know nice. Yeah I Just don't want a dot matrix and maybe this one over here I might try and get some data on that, but I really don't like the unify I'm not liking this at all.

It's it's driving. another one of these projects that you know you think is quick and simple I Just find a little ink display module just you know shape like this and and maybe with like a nice flat you know P term or maybe not a pian interface but you know it's something easy to easy to do onto a little module board and well, no, no, it's not looking great I mean you know I'm what if I only only been at this for like an hour or something, but it's it's not looking terrific so it's always pushing me towards that silly idea of may not be so silly of a like a super cap and a and an LCD or a sharp memory LCD but I really like that display that I saw I really like that pin one with the six digit or whatever that it's near perfect. Anyway, maybe that'll be a more interesting project to get it like a little Super Capita micro or something and it's just like yeah. but unfortunately the problem with that is to keep it update if you don't use.

The good thing about these sharp memory. LCDs is that basically you just need power on it, but you don't need to keep updating and refreshing and stuff like that. whereas if you had an LCD equivalent and you were driving it with an LCD micro control of course that microcontrollers already, it's got to be constantly keep running. Of course you're running it, you know, 32, 32 kilohertz like low power mode or something.

but still. you know it's gonna. It's gonna suck some juice, but it might be adequate cuz I don't necessarily want what is the battery life I want for this thing I don't know, it's a shoulder shrug. Um, like it's got to be like twelve months or something like that.

It's gonna like be twelve months or a couple of years. something like that from each charge. So maybe we can go through in another video. perhaps.

Give me a thumbs up if you want to see that where we could like look at thin, but potentially, even if we don't go that way, we can look at thin super caps and how they can, potentially or you know, any sort of formats. Supercop You can even get surface-mount super caps now. Maybe one of those little surface mountable like you can get them in like 12:06 type surface mount packages now, which is really amazing. Maybe we can get one of those on.
Do the calculations for the current drawer of a typical microcontroller. typical LCD just to keep a number displayed on there. And is that possible? to like get a year's worth out of a single charge from a super cap? probably doughten it like just off the top of my head like I Wouldn't expect it to last that long, like a year or two, but hey, you know you never know until you do the calculation. So ah, have a coming out so it's probably this video is probably long enough.

So anyway I know there's not a happy end in here I haven't found a like you know, is that like is that really either. Like this photoshopped one though. like a what? what the like that that could be good if that's real like is that a real thing? like once again I'd have to get a datasheet the model number Wow and that one seems like it could be an actual Inc ePaper Yeah I paid EK e DK E Group Park covers an area 25,000 square meters constructs like they got there. That's a serious DK E.

Okay, and this is actually DK e DK E Limited Okay, so this is an actual ink display manufacturer so it turns out DK E is our China ePaper Calm and yep, they have a whole segmented display type here. So these are the real deal. and unfortunately there is no like kind of for more information yeah, product specs so you've got to contact them to get your respect which I'll do. It's 54 millimeters by 14.

Bit bigger than I want but you know I can work with that in Milton does now point 1 millimeters? No I think it's point 5. There you go. So I'm not sure what the deal is there but anyway, uh yeah, we can contact them online, chat, send them an email I Get the datasheet for that. but anyway, they do.

This is they have segmented code type. Here we go: Oh wow Wow hello hello McFly Custom ePaper Alright, that's just their custom rivet. The active area conveys 600 segments with six chips. Cascade Connection Modular flexible ePaper Display blah blah blah.

So yeah, if you want to custom ePaper the slate. maybe I could do a custom ePaper display for some use I wouldn't do it for this. but like you like I did for the LCD my custom LCD video series that was that was popular. anyway.

um 5 there's a five digit job' look at that so you know we we have a few options. This one here could be smaller than that. 133 are by 70. Okay, our bit, that's that includes the ribbon and stuff like that.

but once again, damn ribbon. you got a yeah anyway that that looks really funky doesn't it? It's really remarkable. like they don't show any gap between the segments in there. so I'm not sure what the deal is.

anyway. twenty eight and a half by fourteen that looks like the go and that one's got like a hot bar attachment. you could hear. Well you could reflow that down.
You could just get your hot air gun on there and should even a soldering iron across there. Or if you once you had your tinned or your whatever will you solder paste pads on their pin pitch. Looks like a mongrel though. don't like that.

but anyway. um yeah, kind of get tired of sheets on these. but China ePaper display. So it looks like we've got some solutions here.

so you know recently, Happy Ending there. But if you know of any others, please leave them in the comments down below. I'll talk to my good mate Sophia Do Yeah, it's a thousand quantity minimum. Yeah, it's not really what I want.

but I don't know. maybe the ad revenue from this video series can pay for. Even though I only want a couple, it can pay for my thousand minimum pieces. So if you're gonna link to a suitable um ePaper display not to be confused that LCD rubbish.

leave it in the comments down below. please and let me know what you think about. if you've got any other ideas for this little project, that just simply, that's all it does. Is it.

It's just designed to, you know, solder into your product and it just counts it increments once. That's it when you power it up. but it increments once and Bob's your uncle. That's all.

I Want it for? It's all I Want to do not know? Feature creep. That's all it's gonna be. So anyway, there you go. Let us know what you think down below And as always I hope you found that interesting.

If you did, please give it a big thumbs up. Comments: down below: Eevblog for all that sort of stuff. Anyway, catch you next time.

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By YTB

20 thoughts on “Eevblog #1241 – power up display counter project – part 1”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Bonnie says:

    Chocolate!!

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Red Squirrel says:

    Another totally different option, though a bit more barbaric, might be an actual mechanical counter. Not sure how easy it would be to find that though and it might be expensive. Like the odometer in old cars.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars TOMKAT PEDALS says:

    I recently got a new debit card from my bank that has a constantly updating security code on the back. It looks to be e paper and the card says it contains a lithium battery. Surprisingly it is still the same thickness as a regular credit card.

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Charles Babbadge says:

    Just drop the ridiculous requirement that it must be a 7 segment display. Use a graphic display and make up a simple 7 segment font in software. Use e.g. the GDEP014TT1 from Good Display. There is (some) documentation on their site. It's a bit pricy and it's flat flex, but sometimes you have to make compromises.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mark Day says:

    You dismissed graphical e-ink because of fonts. But if you're just displaying digits, and especially 7-segment style, you don't need the full generality of fonts. You could get the 7-segment effect with rectangles, and maybe some triangles for the ends of the segments. The downside is that, depending on the process for updating the display, you might need to maintain a bitmap in memory for some or all of the display. You might be able to get away with buffering just a single digit's pixels at a time (in which case 10 hard-coded bitmaps in ROM are your "font").

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Uwe Zimmermann says:

    I have wondered during recent years how the shop displays obviously must have become dead cheap and available, while there is almost nothing on the hobby market. If Dave would make a "universal" custom display I would most probably be interested in buying some for own projects.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars AppliedCryogenics says:

    At Sea World Aquatica last weekend, I noticed an emergency defribulator that had an eink display showing service life remaing. It was a ~30mm x ~20mm display.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars The Kaiser says:

    There is, obviously, no such thing as back-lit e-paper. E-paper is opaque.
    Your choice is clearly a LCD. Moreover, e-paper holds its writing for only like 3 weeks, not 12 month. It's fluid oil… as you might remember from the data-sheet you showed.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars YeahCat says:

    It's a common practice for dealers on alibaba/taobao to put the relevant keywords in an product's name for SEO (search engine optimization).
    On the Chinese site, the product would be called something like "xxx LCD module, not e-ink, not e-paper, an alternative to e-ink, …" . I guess they didn't bother to do the same for English speaking users.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Emil Harder says:

    These "how it's done" series, as the uSupply and the fundamentals series, are your best.
    It might seem as a waste of time watching a person looking around for a specific kind of display, but there's loads of tips and tricks. Thank you!

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Integrated Electronics says:

    You got me triggered for 10 minutes not realizing it's an LCD! On the photo it looked like one, then the datasheet clearly specified it's a TN LCD

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars JAY says:

    Did he say calculator watch with a straight face? I had one when I was ten but I wouldnt be caught dead wearing one now

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars TheChemixInc says:

    I would actually be really interested in that super cap business.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mitch 3D says:

    I've been looking for e-paper displays but I've been looking for a square dot matrix 12mm square, smallest I find is the 25mm 1" modules. Stick with E-paper, the contrast is the main feature,

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars wesley00042 says:

    LCD should work. If my wristwatch can last 5 years on a couple of button cells…

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars rolvs says:

    You speak about shop price tags. Here in norway most shops have ir blasters in the roof that updates the price tags automatic, no need to go around and do it manualy.

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars MFeinstein says:

    Some of those tags are in a network, but most aren't as it's much more expensive, so they use a device to manually upgrade them all, but smartly, the device identifies the tag and update it automatically from what's in the system.

  18. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Andrew York says:

    I'm seeing an active 6 digit E Ink display on Digikey, but nothing in the datasheet on how to drive.

  19. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Andy Lee says:

    How about a solenoid on a clicker-counter? Steam punk!

  20. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rodrigo A. Pantoja says:

    Do you really need the display to be always on? Turning it on for a few seconds on power up or on request by a push button or capacitive sensor could work fine with an LCD.

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