Dangerous Prototypes

These are Displays from ebay (http://http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BRAND-NEW-LCD-DISPLAY-SCREEN-REPLACEMENT-NOKIA-1202-/260913220743?pt=PDA_Accessories&hash=item3cbfa3cc87) are small B/W displays from the nokia 1202 and a few other models. They do not require a tricky to use "membrane" to connect ITO, on-glass, traces of the screen to your PCB's traces. and they do not require expensive or hard to find connectors. They feature a 12 pin 0.6mm pitch solderable tab.  Ohh and they have a built in Whiteish blue LED backlight.

Here are some I bought from the link above (Note I'm not associated with the ebay seller) at the time of writing the cost ~$2.80 ea
[attachment=1]

The connector is 12 pins.

0: N/C
1: Reset
2: CS
3: Gnd
4: SDA
5: SCLK
6: VDDI
7: VDD
8: GND
9: LED-
10: LED+
11: N/C

The controller is the STE2007 ( link (http://http://tuxotronic.org/wiki/_media/component/lcd/ste2007.pdf) ). The display is interfaced with a 9 bit serial interface, 8 data bits and a Data/Command bit. The display area is 96x68 pixels.

Here is a demo of what the display looks like when on, controlled by a cheap MSP430 IC.
[attachment=0]

I'll be doing some measurements and testing soon, for current consumption etc. I imagine these will be similar to other cheap Nokia LCDs like the 5110's. I would like to make a watch with one of these displays hopefully they are low power enough.

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thanks for the heads up, Greeeg!  These are probably the least expensive that I've seen with back light and known interface (although I haven't looked around too much either)

Immediately ordered two, not sure what i'll use them for but I'm sure they'll come in handy somewhere along the road.

I'm very curious about power consumption too. logic is 3V3, what's the VDD needed for the backlight?

[quote author="Rubu"]Immediately ordered two, not sure what i'll use them for but I'm sure they'll come in handy somewhere along the road.[/quote]
same here.  I have some ideas but I never know when i'll get around to them. . .projects vs. time :)

I bought 10 :3

Some Initial test show up ~200µA @ 3.6v on the VDD and VDDI (Analog and digital voltages)
LED backlight is a single LED so it also runs on the same 3.6v line consuming about 22mA with no external resistor. With a small series resistor consumption can be brought down to 8mA with minimal difference in visible brightness. Probably safer with the resistor.

I have some really basic example code that prints strings to the display. (If anyone has one of these and is stumped for how to get it to work.)

Edit: I have found this page (http://http://tuxotronic.org/wiki/component/lcd/ste2007). it features an eagle footprint for the display along with some example code, Downside...It's in Russian :P

This is the basic connection I'm using to test out the display. The MSP430 has an inbuilt USI module but this software driven routine should be easier to port to any micro you want.
[attachment=1]
Here is some simple code. Designed for the MSP430 but should be easy to port to anything. just chage the P2OUT/DIR to your particular micro's port control regs.

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Thanks a lot for sharing this code here! It is going to be useful.

Thanks for the power figures, looks good. I'm pretty excited to get working on them!

Has anyone found the .6mm FPC/FFC connector by chance?

[quote author="bseishen"]Has anyone found the .6mm FPC/FFC connector by chance?[/quote]

at first glance, it didn't look like digikey had anything but cables, which is pretty surprising. google only turned up high pin count connectors - mouser had something that was 80 pins, but the connector was more than the display:).

hopefully something will turn up with a bit more searching. . .I only looked for a minute or so . . .

[quote author="bseishen"]Has anyone found the .6mm FPC/FFC connector by chance?[/quote]

The FFC on my displays is designed to be soldered directly onto a PCB. i.e. it has "vias" on the exposed FFC pads that allow the solder to flow through between the board and the FFC. I'm not sure how well this would work in a connector, however if your display does not have these "vias" then a connector would probably be wise.

I've managed to solder wires to the FPC pads, using 0.25mm wire-wrap wire, a microscope and a fine soldering iron bit. My version of the display had no track leading to pin 1, RESET. Mine's also numbered 1-12, but in the reverse order to that shown above -- I realised I had it reversed when I saw the backlight LED light up dimly when probing with a multimeter for continuity. As for the software, I've hacked the MSP430 ccode to run on the smaller MSP430G2231 on the LaunchPad board. Greeeg, do you mind if I post the modified version here?

[quote author="anachrocomputer"]Greeeg, do you mind if I post the modified version here?[/quote]

Go ahead I don't mind. My original code was to help people start up with the displays, If you've improved it I'm sure others will benefit :D

I only used the larger MSP so that I'd have access to the specialized Peripheral ICs of the device: PWM/Timer capture input/Clk out, etc. combine that with a screen and you have a neat testing platform.

OK, here's my first modified version of the demo. Sorry for the delay -- I've been laid low by a nasty bout of the 'flu! This one doesn't do much more than the original, but does run on the MSP430G2231 chip.

Right, next demo program: this one displays a 96x68 pixel bit-mapped image onto the LCD. I've included a demo image in PPM format that I did for Dorkbot Bristol, but never showed there due to that darned 'flu. There's also a small C program that will convert a PPM file into a C header file suitable for inclusion in the MSP430 program. Flash memory is tight on this one -- I think there's only about 10 bytes left unused.

And here's my version.  PCB came out a little bit messy but first time using thermo-transfer on a magazine paper :D

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Good stuff!  I was considering making a PCB to suit the display. What are the SMD parts on the board for? Backlight control?

Hi, I've used the PCB project from that Russian website from the beginning of the post to avoid soldering wires. Soldering the tape connector was preatty easy.  The smd parts are used to pull the spi signals and limit the led current.  All in all very easy exercise considering the display was immediately working after hooking up to power.

Here's basic frequency counter using msp430launchpad and simple preamp.
Code is based on the original works by Mr oposum from 43oh.com forum.

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What is the range of this counter and is it limited to 4 digits?

[quote author="Sleepwalker3"]What is the range of this counter and is it limited to 4 digits?[/quote]
It should go to 16MHz (max input frequency of MSP430 Launchpad).  The display shows max 8 digits ATM.

For those coming over from the 'USB to serial with com port LCD display' thread, I checked the display pitch against the DP 0.65mm board and as half expected it was too big - a simple calculation would have told me that, but anyway...
It's out by one pitch by the time it gets to the 12 track on the LCD. The 0.65mm board would do if you soldered small wires on to lead down to the DP board tracks, but the LCD flex strip would need to be kept clear on the board tracks. Obviously the better way would be to use a 0.6mm pitch board. Maybe Mats can turn this into one of his weekly board projects? A breakout board for this would be easy and helpful and perhaps a batch could be made if there is enough interest?

[quote author="Sleepwalker3"] Obviously the better way would be to use a 0.6mm pitch board. Maybe Mats can turn this into one of his weekly board projects? A breakout board for this would be easy and helpful and perhaps a batch could be made if there is enough interest?[/quote]
Well, I spent a while this afternoon making some plain breakouts for experimenting with random oleds....  Do you mean a plain board like this or a board more dedicated for the 1202 displays?

[attachment=0]

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Did some searching for 0.6mm pitch fpc sockets last night and found avnet had a selector box for 0.6mm but when i started looking thru the results they were all 0.3mm. However I believe most of these could be made to work.

What are the outside dimensions of these connectors?
Are they reinforced, do they have PCB on the flex connector already?
What are the pin hole measurements? (Above the connection portion they should be for alignment or hold downs)

Molex part number, 501616-2540 or 501616-2740. Datasheet, http://www.molex.com/pdm_docs/sd/5016162575_sd.pdf (http://www.molex.com/pdm_docs/sd/5016162575_sd.pdf)
The 27 pin part lines up at 7.2mm, see measurement C on page 2. If you only insert it half way it won't short out against the other/offset pins.
The 25pin part lines up at 7.2mm on the deeper set of pins, measurement B page 2.

FCIconnect part number, 10064555-25211LF http://portal.fciconnect.com/Comergent/ ... 064555.pdf (http://portal.fciconnect.com/Comergent/fci/drawing/10064555.pdf)
                              or 10061122-251120HLF http://portal.fciconnect.com/Comergent/ ... 061122.pdf (http://portal.fciconnect.com/Comergent/fci/drawing/10061122.pdf)

Tyco
http://www.te.com/catalog/pn/en/1-1746237-8 (http://www.te.com/catalog/pn/en/1-1746237-8) (Obsolete but maybe still available)

[quote author="matseng"]
Well, I spent a while this afternoon making some plain breakouts for experimenting with random oleds....  Do you mean a plain board like this or a board more dedicated for the 1202 displays?

[attachment=0][/quote]

Much like that. In the first post you'll notice it's a SSOP to DIP board.  I can imagine two versions.

The first would be like the oled boards you have. Modified to fit the snap connector of the nokia lcd, it would fold under the lcd  and snap on.

The second would have tabs or an extension for the snaps, and mount it more like the SSOP or other examples already posted.
Something like this or just a plain rectangle.

╔═╗░░░░░░░░╔═╗
║░╚════════╝░║
╚═╗░░░░░░░░╔═╝
░░╚════════╝░░

@AndThen - Thanks for that. Yeah I did think about using 0.3 when I first got one of these, but I was concerned it may end up shorting the flex. I was going to get one of the connectors to try out, but forgot about it. I'll have to look into your suggestion in a bit more detail in the coming days (more likely weeks, I've got a lot on lately) and see if that might work. I haven't measured all the flex details, so don't know as yet, perhaps somebody else here has already done it?

@ Matseng - That looks pretty good, I think it would work. Are you going to get some of those made up? If so I might chip in and grab one or two and see how they go. If AndThen's idea works that would be great, certainly much nicer to be able to just push the cable in and snap it in place rather than having to solder the flex to the PCB. I wonder how Nokia did it originally? I had a look on ebay to see if I could get an old one cheap, but the only one I could find was about $55!

I wonder how Nokia did it originally?

Solder oddly enough.

I have an old Nokia 3390, but it is the one with smiley faces and 8 pressure fingers on the back.

 Here is some nokia youtube
>=) teardown (http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-71sDeQszvI)
Here is a display replacement, 1202,1203,1661,1662 hot display changing solution (http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms43eeCdfUs)

Here is a slightly different (maybe the same, the display swap is not great resolution) nokia connector, Disassembly nokia 1208 (http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxbSwWYpUKA). This appears to be a similar/same display unit where the one flex connector is soldered onto another.

[quote author="AndThen"]

Much like that. In the first post you'll notice it's a SSOP to DIP board.  I can imagine two versions.

The first would be like the oled boards you have. Modified to fit the snap connector of the nokia lcd, it would fold under the lcd  and snap on.

The second would have tabs or an extension for the snaps, and mount it more like the SSOP or other examples already posted.
Something like this or just a plain rectangle.

╔═╗░░░░░░░░╔═╗
║░╚════════╝░║
╚═╗░░░░░░░░╔═╝
░░╚════════╝░░

[/quote]
Hmmm... I have a hard time visualizing this, what "snaps" / "snap connector" is there something on the lcd itself or is it a FPC connector?  I think I need to order a bunch of them and see for myself.

[quote author="Sleepwalker3"]@ Matseng - That looks pretty good, I think it would work. Are you going to get some of those made up? If so I might chip in and grab one or two and see how they go.![/quote]
Yes, I think these will be PAW #5 in order to alternate between real projects and breakout-style stuff.

The break out boards you provided renders are great as is.

Sorry I don't have one to send pictures of. I thought it had the round sloted snap type stand offs at each corner.
(from the first page 2nd picture) But looking at it now I think it is just glued down, the far side isn't the corner.
There are indexing extensions (same picture, just above the breakouts pcb very small ones)

Thats not great ascii art, I put in the blocky parts to make sure it formated correctly. The double lines would be the pcb edges. The offset cut to save PCB material, so say four of them nest into one pcb and there is only 3 pieces of waste.

 For an LCD with pcb attachments, there would be holes in the upper tabs for the standoff/snap-connector.  (these aren't that type but just to clarify the idea)

The break out boards you provided renders are great as is. (repeating yes.. great)

For general purpose display modules, just like all the others found on seeed adafruit I assume you have seen, you want the module pcb similar sized to the display. With the connectors coming out of the back, bottom, sides or top.

I think the availability of the nokia replacement lcd still is to difficult to warrant a custom pcb.
(I'm getting long winded and ramblish, it's past my bed time SORRY)

Ok, I just bought 20 of them for $30 inclusive shipping...

What are the exact measurements of them - i.e. will they fit on a 5x5 cm pcb?

If we're doing this as a PAW should it be just a simple breakout or might it be a good idea to (at least have as an option) have a cheap microcontroller and some other stuff on the board so it could be a i2c slave that can print characters and simple graphics on the screen?

Sorry Mats, didn't see this post and I don't have the unit with me at the moment. For my uses just at the moment, just the breakout is probably best, others may prefer the other way. Perhaps it could be a bit of both - i.e. bring the pins out to normal 0.1" headers and have a small micro as well, maybe with a snap-off section like some other boards have (eg. 430 launchpad). Not sure if that's too much or not.

[quote author="matseng"]Ok, I just bought 20 of them for $30 inclusive shipping...

What are the exact measurements of them - i.e. will they fit on a 5x5 cm pcb?

If we're doing this as a PAW should it be just a simple breakout or might it be a good idea to (at least have as an option) have a cheap microcontroller and some other stuff on the board so it could be a i2c slave that can print characters and simple graphics on the screen?[/quote]

I'd lean towards a simple breakout to make prototyping with a breadboard easy.  That way people can use whatever MCU they want.

As noted elsewhere I now have two handfuls of the LCDs and wired one of them up on a perfboard.  It works, but unfortunately the LCD have one dead line and one weak line...  I hope that the rest of the displays are of better quality. 

Anyhow, now I can do a PAW breakout board for them. I'll probably  add a microcontroller on it as well so is can be used as either a regular point-to-point breakout where the 12 pads are just brought out straight to a 10 pin header (first & last pad is N/C), or the board can be populated with a microcontroller and it can be a "smart" breakout board with built-in graphics primitives and text generation.

[attachment=0]

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Mats, is that a game or some sort of sensor application?

It's a game from Ludum Dare MiniLD #34 competition. http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-3 ... &uid=13730 (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-34/?action=preview&uid=13730)

I haven't hooked up a joystick yet so I haven't actually played it, but it looks cool.

OK, thought it might be some sort of sensor app, maybe something like this http://http://jpmandon.blogspot.com.au/2010/12/pinguino-ir-radar.html

Hmm, seems you buying a bunch (and possibly other DPers might have set the ebay seller off again, he's increased his price again.

What seller are you looking at?  I bought mine from a store named http://stores.ebay.com/All-Spares-Hong-Kong (http://stores.ebay.com/All-Spares-Hong-Kong) but the delivery came very professionally packaged with a branded box an everything from http://gsmserver.com/ (http://gsmserver.com/)

GSM Server sells them for $1.09 each but are currently out of stock in three of their warehouses, only the one in Ukraine still have them.

http://www.gsmserver.com/shop/spares/lc ... a_1202.php (http://www.gsmserver.com/shop/spares/lcd/nokia/lcd_for_nokia_1202.php)

Apparently there are even cheaper lcd's out there! The small "outside" LCD on a Nokia 2760 (96 x 68 pixel according to Wikipedia) sells for $0.32 each at http://gsmserver.com/shop/spares/lcd/no ... utside.php (http://gsmserver.com/shop/spares/lcd/nokia/lcd_for_nokia_6085_6086_outside.php). 

Need to look up the driver chip of it so see it it is usable for anything...

Hey, nice find Mats!

I was looking at the ebay merchant 'smartphonestation' who I got my unit from who now shows it as $4.48 USD, however if I click the link from the original post, it's about $2.98 USD, so it's just like many of those Ebay sellers, they try to make the extra $ for those that don't look around and with what little they make, I can't blame them.
Mine came very nicely packaged in a fairly sturdy little box, then in bubble wrap, then properly heat-sealed in an anti-stat bag and I was impressed - until I took it out and found the plastic protective sheet was quite badly scuffed in many directions and had obviously been dragged around in a box with heaps of other displays before it was packaged up for presentation. I can't complain for the price, but it's not surprising you had a faulty line.

I just got a mail from the Gsm Server company telling me that there will be local stock after the spring festival, so I put in an order for 50 pcs at a dollar a pop.

So now (or at least soon) I'll have enough of them to last a while.

Then I only need to develop a small and cheap backback to turn them into intelligent smartdisplays to be included in future projects.

Way to go Mats! They look like nice little displays that can display heaps of info very cheaply with tiny little projects. I haven't hooked mine up yet, but I thought they were great for the price when Greeeg first posted them, very versatile and dirt cheap, the biggest problem was the pitch of the flex connector, but a breakout would help this.

[quote author="Sleepwalker3"]Way to go Mats! They look like nice little displays that can display heaps of info very cheaply with tiny little projects. I haven't hooked mine up yet, but I thought they were great for the price when Greeeg first posted them, very versatile and dirt cheap, the biggest problem was the pitch of the flex connector, but a breakout would help this.[/quote]

It looks more difficult then it is. A good footprint and decent pcb will help a lot. use lots of flux (as with all smd :P) and the drag solder method. After a couple of times you can solder them like a pro. When I first got a display with flatflex like this i was scared. All the product photo's it looks like you got large pads, untill you have them at hand.

Yeah the soldering is no real issue, tons of experience with that and trained in HRHS, but I was initially trying to find a flex connector of the same pitch, but with the vias in it, it's not really made for that. Also I didn't have any BOB's that had a 0.6mm pitch and whilst I could have just used link wires, I figured I'd make a suitable pitch later when I was making a project. Having a BOB will certainly make it a lot quicker and easier  :)
It's great these things are so cheap and small, makes it more practical to do things that may not have been worth it otherwise, I just hope they're reliable enough.

[quote author="Sjaak"] When I first got a display with flatflex like this i was scared. All the product photo's it looks like you got large pads, untill you have them at hand.[/quote]
With some of the soldering I'd seen you do in the vids, I didn't think a little flex board would even make you blink! :D

[quote author="Sleepwalker3"][quote author="Sjaak"] When I first got a display with flatflex like this i was scared. All the product photo's it looks like you got large pads, untill you have them at hand.[/quote]
With some of the soldering I'd seen you do in the vids, I didn't think a little flex board would even make you blink! :D[/quote]

Just do it I guess :D

So my displays don't have the vias in the connectors, they're just single-sided flexi. The first one, I soldered enamelled wires on by hand, but what would be the 'normal' method of connecting one to a PCB (in the absence of a proper flex connector).

1. Board and connector facing the same way and solder bridging from pad to connector
2. Board and connector tinned and then placed face-to-face and heated to reflow the solder.
3. Something else?

I'm pondering a backpack for these as my first foray into PCBs, thanks to Mat's PAW inspiration :-)

Option 2 seems the most reliable method to me.

Yeah, I think you could use either method 1 or 2, but I agree with Sjaak, 1 seems to be the most logical (bearing in mind I haven't tried it yet).

for somebody who has tried these, do they need to be buffered or do you just throw the data at them and they retain it?

They've got their own internal framebuffer, so just throw the data at them. However, it's not readable, and a bit of an awkward layout for bitmapped graphics, so if you're intending on doing anything clever, you'll probably want to have your own, and only send deltas.

For straight text output, it's a doddle (as that's what the layout is designed for).

Thanks, that sounds OK. At this point I only want to use them for text, so should be fine.  Got a couple of little projects in mind where a cheap, easy, small and thin display could be useful, was thinking about LadyAda's tiny OLED http://https://www.adafruit.com/products/661 which would have been nice, but it needs to be buffered and I just want to use a simple thing with minimal programming.

1202 is the worst ever phone released by nokia
very cheap pcb

Hi Guys,
I haven't been around much lately due to some personal, health and work matters, but thought I'd let you guys know about this. I happened to be over at the 43Oh forum a while back looking at the 'PowerScope' project after it was mentioned on DP (thanks Ian). Some people were talking about the cost of LCD displays and I suggested they try out this Nokia display and advised about the code already written for the 430 by Toxic239 and Opossum. Turns out Bluehash (the site admin) liked that and has built a 'Booster Pack' (what the Arduino crowd would call a shield I guess) to suit the 430 Launchpad.  I can't really take much credit other than letting the 430 guys know about it, the work of Greeeg, Toxix239, Opssum, Mats and others (sorry if I've missed you!) are the ones that deserve the credit, so I figured I'd drop in and mention it.

If you're interested in following the 430 stuff or seeing the boosterpack, then drop over to the 430 forum
http://http://forum.43oh.com/topic/3430-powerscope/page-2#entry32812

Cheers!

hope things start going better for you, Sleepwalker3.

It's always nice to see cross-pollination at work!

[quote author="Sleepwalker3"]Hi Guys,
I haven't been around much lately due to some personal, health and work matters, but thought I'd let you guys know about this. I happened to be over at the 43Oh forum a while back looking at the 'PowerScope' project after it was mentioned on DP (thanks Ian). Some people were talking about the cost of LCD displays and I suggested they try out this Nokia display and advised about the code already written for the 430 by Toxic239 and Opossum. Turns out Bluehash (the site admin) liked that and has built a 'Booster Pack' (what the Arduino crowd would call a shield I guess) to suit the 430 Launchpad.  I can't really take much credit other than letting the 430 guys know about it, the work of Greeeg, Toxix239, Opssum, Mats and others (sorry if I've missed you!) are the ones that deserve the credit, so I figured I'd drop in and mention it.

If you're interested in following the 430 stuff or seeing the boosterpack, then drop over to the 430 forum
http://http://forum.43oh.com/topic/3430-powerscope/page-2#entry32812

Cheers![/quote]

Thanks SleepWalker.. hope all goes well with you.
I just wanted to drop in and say thank you for the LCD mention and also the work in this thread. I have two boosterpacks to spare, with LCDs which I can send over to any of you guys. They won't be assembled. Just the PCB and the LCD, which I'm sure you can put together.
Thanks again.

Thanks guys for your support, it's much appreciated  :)

[quote author="matseng"]It's a game from Ludum Dare MiniLD #34 competition. http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-3 ... &uid=13730 (http://www.ludumdare.com/compo/minild-34/?action=preview&uid=13730)

I haven't hooked up a joystick yet so I haven't actually played it, but it looks cool.[/quote]

Wow! Great to see that someone has wired up a display and got my game running! Have you tried it with a joystick yet? I have to confess, it's not a very exciting game, though.

Thanks for sharing code!

can i read a byte from this LCD ??
i want to set pixels individually so i think  i have to read a byte of data and change that pixel and write it again.

[quote author="mghicho"]can i read a byte from this LCD ??
i want to set pixels individually so i think  i have to read a byte of data and change that pixel and write it again.[/quote]

There's no read capability at all on these LCDs - you'll have to keep a local copy of the display, and just push the updated area over to the LCD. Such things are generally called 'dirty regions' in graphics library land, so googling for that may help give you ideas.

I'm not sure, but I think there's a good chance that Googling "Dirty Regions" might well bring up a lot of 'other' unexpected material, not related in any way to LCD's - lol        ;)

it is not real, i think its fake. you need to chack some ware.....

[quote author="Sleepwalker3"]I'm not sure, but I think there's a good chance that Googling "Dirty Regions" might well bring up a lot of 'other' unexpected material, not related in any way to LCD's - lol        ;)[/quote]

Oops... Here's a link to make up for it - and it seems dirty rectangles is an easier and safer search :-)

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DirtyRectangles (http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?DirtyRectangles)

Hi,  I made up a quick break-out for these LCDs and had some made up at Seeed.

The foot-print is modelled on the Sparkfun Nokia 5110 break-out. This does means it has one unused pin as the 5110 uses 8bit SPI with a D/C pin whereas this one uses 9bit and no discrete D/C pin. The advantage for me is that it is a drop-in for my project.
The layout was done in Eagle, it's available for download on my github. I also have 4 spare (without LCD) if any one wants one for the cost of postage.
http://https://github.com/Catmacey/Nokia1202LCD-breakout

(UPDATE)
I added some better images and also the layout and schematic

The boards from Seeed.

A built up board.

The PCB top layer, there's nothing much on the bottom layer.

The schematic.  I included the option to use the backlight LED in three ways. 

• Populate R1 with something sensible (1k?) and connect directly to GND or a GPIO for the simplest solution.
• Populate R1 with zero ohms (or a solder bridge) and connect to a constant current driver. I using it this way with a MAX6957.
• Leave R1 un-populated and populate R2,R3 and Q1 for a simple transistor driven version.  Not sure it's that useful but saw that others had done similar and there was space to include it.

Nicely done!  Yes I think the multiple methods for the LED is a good idea, some things it's good to be able to turn on/off the led, vary the brightness, flash it (to alert something), etc. Suggestion though, not sure, but I think the BC847 (100mA) might be too light-on to supply some of the LCD's, though not sure about the Nokia ones.  I would suggest something like a BCX19 (500mA).
Nice board, you should put it up on one of the sale sites for this sort of thing.

2n7002, up to 500mA, costs next to nothing and would obsolete R3.

@Sleepwalker3
Thanks. I might do a revision based on feedback from you guys and if there is interest, order a larger batch from Seeed with a corresponding batch of LCDs. Then try my luck on Tindie.
Not sure that the current handling capability of the transistor is really all that important. The backlight pretty bright even at very low currents. In my project I have the BL running from a MAX6957 that's set up to provide a max. constant current of 16mA per port and If found running it at 1/4 of that - so 4mA - seems more than bright enough for indoor use.

@matseng
That's a good idea thanks. Didn't think of that. One less component to populate.
The whole "use a transistor" thing was a bit of an afterthought really...

Welcome Catmacey.

The breakout - and project - look good ( I especially like your use of the display!).

I'll happily take two of the breakouts if you're still offering them (as long as Paypal is OK).  Not sure where you are - I'm located in Pennsylvania, USA.  Feel free to PM me to work out the details.

Thanks for the welcome Bearmos.
I've been lurking for a while but not gotten round to posting before now.
RE: postage. I've sent you a PM.

Nice board! How are you mounting the tab to the board - overlapping solder holding it on, or do you have the LCDs with tiny vias in the pads (mine don't)?

The one I've got has a peel off cover for a self-adhesive pad that covers most of the back - just stick it on :)

[quote author="Sleepwalker3"]The one I've got has a peel off cover for a self-adhesive pad that covers most of the back - just stick it on :)[/quote]
I meant the connector end of the flexi cable. Previously this was discussed and it was thought that solder-side-to-board would be the most successful - this is the other way up, so I'm intrigued

Mine have little vias in the flex. It was really easy to solder. First I dolloped a nice blob of flux over the whole area then tinned each pad to get some "free" solder on the pads

Then I placed the LCD on the board aligned with the pads and put two drops of super glue to hold it in place. 

To make my life easier I snipped off about 1mm from the end of the flex, this exposed a little more of the PCB pads for me to heat with the iron. A revision of the board will have longer pads to facilitate hand soldering.

Once the glue was dry I dolloped a bit more flux and just dabbed the iron on the end of each PCB pad whilst aplying a little bit of presure to the flex with a toothpick. The solder just wicks up under the pad. Easy, took two minutes.

Here's a better photo.  Sorry I don't have a high rez version here at work...

[quote author="Catmacey"]Mine have little vias in the flex. It was really easy to solder. First I dolloped a nice blob of flux over the whole area then tinned each pad to get some "free" solder on the pads

Then I placed the LCD on the board aligned with the pads and put two drops of super glue to hold it in place. 

To make my life easier I snipped off about 1mm from the end of the flex, this exposed a little more of the PCB pads for me to heat with the iron. A revision of the board will have longer pads to facilitate hand soldering.

Once the glue was dry I dolloped a bit more flux and just dabbed the iron on the end of each PCB pad whilst aplying a little bit of presure to the flex with a toothpick. The solder just wicks up under the pad. Easy, took two minutes.

Here's a better photo.  Sorry I don't have a high rez version here at work...
[/quote]

Looks good, and explains it nicely - thanks.

[quote author="v8rush"]
I meant the connector end of the flexi cable. Previously this was discussed and it was thought that solder-side-to-board would be the most successful - this is the other way up, so I'm intrigued[/quote]

Oops! , Sorry, didn't quite read it properly when first read.  I used Mats' (Small Room Labs) OLEDY board, I tinned the pads on both the board and the display and then reheated the pads on the board and just melted it on, was quite easy. Hardest part was just keeping it steady so that it was in alignment.

having buying after one week Nokia 1202 has charging problem, after that i clamped my set dealer has been changed my set.

Charging problem? Hmm, 1 post and a name like that?  Sounds like SPAM to me

I have a board where I rotated the lcd 180 degrees - so the flex connector is down instead of up.

The displays command set have some parameters to handle this:

*Common driver direction select
This command can reverse the correspondence between the DDRAM line address and the
common driver output. 0xC0=Normal 0xC8=Reversed

*Segment driver direction select
This command can reverse the correspondence between the DDRAM column address and the
segment driver output.  0xA0=Normal, 0xA1-Reversed


The 0xC0/0xC8 works just fine the text starts from the top of my rotated lcd again.  But the 0xA0/A1 that should reverse the column addresses on each line doesn't affect anything at all.  The first pixel always starts at the rightmost edge after rotation.

That is very annoying.  Have anybody used this lcd in rotated 180 degree mode?

I think I have, but it's so long ago that I played with this I don't really recall.

Looking at the init code, I had 0xA0 and 0xC8, and my graphics origin in the top left.  The font was LSB=lowest pixel (so ' was 0x00, 0x60, 0x00).

Don't know whether that helps or whether I just wrote everything to work in that single orientation...

Do you guys know how to best optimize a current consumption of this LCD ?

I was thinking about a tiny wall clock with a low power PIC powered by cr2032, but 200uA is too much for it (who wants to replace battery in clock every month...?)

Many thanks
George

Probably as few black pixels as possible and run it on the lowest voltage it can manage - seems like 1.6 volts.

There's a Power Save -mode, but that turns off the display so it's not much of use for a wall clock. :-)

You could always go with an e-paper display or similar instead, though probably quite a lot more expensive