Connecting LCD Panel & capacitive Touch panel to cubieboard

[Mat Oldaker]

I have an LCD panel that I want to connect to the Cubieboard/cubietruck, it uses a 40 pin FFC FPC Ribbon Flat Cable, is it possible to connect this to the pins on the cubieboard via some kind of connector/adapter?

Also i have a Capacitive touchscreen which connects (thru an accelerometer) to its current Allwinner A13 board (from tablet) via a 6 pin cable with the following connections (VCC, GND, RST, INT, SCK, SDA), how easy would this be to connect to the cubie?

Cheers

[George Ioakimedes]

There is a product called a Baseboard which was designed specifically for this. You can purchase it at https://www.store.iotllc.com. It is currently out of stock but will be back in stock next Tuesday.

For the capacitive touch screen the harder problem will be the drivers. There are a few available but you need to know what chip set is used.

[Patrick Wood]

Are there any cables that can convert between the Cubie/baseboard headers and a 40 or 50 pin flat LCD edge connector? I know I can use lvds, but these are pricey and hard to find in smaller sizes (I'm looking at 7-8" screens).

[Mat Oldaker]

I'm also looking for some form of cable/adapter.  I've found this http://en.esskabel.de/kabelkonfektion/datasheet/ada-flex-40p-050-set/ but unsure of it's availability and price or if they sell retail.
I need to connect my 6" LCD to the cubie.

[George Ioakimedes]

I've purchased from that company (B2B) and their products are great but not cheap by any means. Most of the smaller screens don't use LVDS. If you guys have specific screens you want to use let me know and I can whip up a small adapter board for a low cost. The reason I didn't originally add it to the Baseboard was that there's even less of a pinout standard once you move away from LVDS.

There are 2.5" to 3.5" HD adapter cables which you could modify and then use a FFC adapter board but then you'll also need to worry about hacking those up and adding external power for the panel.

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[Mat Oldaker]

Thanks for the replies George, I had one of your Baseboards previously, but no longer have my cubieboard.

When I had my cubieboard 1, I was using a 6.5" panel and a hdmi to 50pin ttl board, which worked well, due to the lack of backup battery (needed for my project) on the cubieboard, I sold it.  I have since downgraded to a 6" panel, as I have been able to get a 5 point capacitive touchscreen to go along with it.  The 6" panel has a 40pin cable that was directly connected to an Allwinner A13 board from a cheap tablet, with the upcoming release of the cubietruck, I want to replace the A13 board I'm currently with something more powerful (Bluetooth, OTG, etc) as the A13 is very limited, providing I can find some way to connect the lcd to the cubietruck.

I have included a photo of the cable, as I'm not sure what it is other than it having 40 pins.

https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=7D405BDFDC1E2707!660&authkey=!AHL-UZPF99zDsq4&v=3

[George Ioakimedes]

What's common with some of those smaller screens is they offer an option to supply the screen with the touch panel already attached. When they do this I've seen them "embed" the capacitive touch controller onto the flex cable that carries the screens signals as well as the capacitive touch which usually is USB. Can you shoot me a picture of the back of the screen which shows the markings and maybe I can find more information.

You could go with the Baseboard and the Cubie2 which makes it close to the CubieTruck. I'm also still working on the Big Brother Baseboard which adds a few features that even the Cubietruck doesn't have. Other things in life just keep jumping ahead of me finishing it! Doing a small adapter board for the smaller LCD panels has been on my list of things to do and can be done quickly so I could let this be another project to jump to the head of the line!

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[Patrick Wood]

The closest thing I've seen to a standard are the 40 and 50-pin Innolux screens. I don't know if they were the first to use these pinouts, but a plurality of the smaller (4-8"), low-cost LCD screens for sale on Aliexpress use one of these two.

I recently bought a $60 combo that included an Innolux 7" TFT screen, resistive touchpanel, 50-pin LCD to HDMI (in) converter, and 4-wire touch to Egalax USB converter. The 50-pin panels are common (and cheap) enough that these Chinese companies are starting to mass-produce VGA and HDMI converters for them. The 7" panel I got is around $25 in single quantity.

I think a small board that supports one or both of these pinouts, with a flat ribbon connector on it, would be really nice. I would have bought one instead of the HDMI board, which requires separate power and an hdmi cable. I'd still buy one just to make something more portable than what I've got now (unless you'd like to trade for an hdmi->lcd board :).

[George Ioakimedes]

30 pin is another common one,  it's used on the old iPad screen I'm working on on now.

The 7" size is very popular.  I used it in another product and have about 4-5 different screens laying around from when I was starting. Send me the model number of your screen and I'll see if I can up with something that's at least a little universal.  When the Pandaboard first came out I started a design which had an FPGA on it so you could connect to any input and output to any screen.  I wish I had finished that design.

[Patrick Wood]

On Sunday, October 6, 2013 4:45:53 PM UTC-4, George Ioakimedes wrote:

30 pin is another common one,  it's used on the old iPad screen I'm working on on now.

The 7" size is very popular.  I used it in another product and have about 4-5 different screens laying around from when I was starting. Send me the model number of your screen and I'll see if I can up with something that's at least a little universal.  When the Pandaboard first came out I started a design which had an FPGA on it so you could connect to any input and output to any screen.  I wish I had finished that design.

Innolux  AT070TN94: http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/257738933.html, although I found a whole bunch of these with the same pinouts.

An FPGA design would be interesting.  I assume you were thinking of something that could be easily programmed to switch any input pin to any output?  

[George Ioakimedes]

Yeah, the idea with the FPGA was to be able to switch the signals, both the order and input/output as well as converting between LVDS and TTL.

That Innolux panel isn't a very friendly panel! It requires a few different voltages as well as a power up sequence so we would need much more than just an adapter board. I know there were/are some panels that didn't require VGL and VGH (or at least that's what I remember) so let me dig through my old notes and panels and see what I can find out.

[Patrick Wood]

George:  do you know where to get the little 4-wire FPC edge connector to 4-pin cables?  They usually come with the USB touch converter dongles: http://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Wire-Resistive-LCD-Touch-Screen-Panel-USB-Port-Controller-Touch-Panel-Driver-/170972304802?_trksid=p2054897.l4276, but I'd rather not pay $10 just for the cable.

Pat

[George Ioakimedes]

Are you trying to connect a RTP (Resistive Touch Panel) directly to the Cubie? The picture you showed me has a cable (red, white, green, black wires) that has 0.100" pitch which can connect to my Baseboard (in a 2x2 configuration, not 1x4) but you'ld need to adapt from that to a 2x2 2mm pitch connector or individual wires. My Baseboard has a small FFC connector which many of the small RTP have so you wouldn't need an adapter.

I've got about a billion cables, connectors, wires, here so let me know what you want to do and I can take care it for you.

[Patrick Wood]

I'd just strip one end off the cable and solder them to a connector. I've got a couple of extra 2mm connectors here.

[Patrick Wood]

Too bad about the power up sequence. This panel has a nice led backlight and only draws about 2w.

[George Ioakimedes]

I've found a few good parts I can use to build a board. I just need to finish up a couple of things first that are presently kicking my butt and then I can get back to this design.

On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 7:41 PM, Patrick Wood <patric...@gmail.com> wrote:

Too bad about the power up sequence.  This panel has a nice led backlight and only draws about 2w.

[Tarek Elbarbari]

Hello George,

I have 6.5" LCD TFT screen in my Opel Astra h, it has a 30 pin FCC and I need to replace it with a higher resolution screen 6.5" or 7" with 30 pin FCC but I can not find it ! so is there any way to have screen with 40 pin or more to work with 30 pin? I just need the 30 pin to able to see the car information coming from main board to screen board. if I replace it I will able to see these data.

Regards

[George Ioakimedes]

Hi Tarek:

Yes, you can do what you want but you may need an adapter for the cabling. Sounds like your screen is using TTL signals, can you tell me what screen you currently are using? Are you using the Cubie board for this project?

George

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[Tarek Elbarbari]

Hello Geroge,

Thanks for your kind support.

Please see the below link which can show you my screen board. This site in german and is talking about add screen interface to original my OEM screen. you can see the pinout for the board and information about my screen.

 

 

http://hardwarekiller.bplaced.net/dvbtH.htm

 
Regards

[George Ioakimedes]

Is it the schematic with K1a connector? That can't be correct since it shows only VR1 and VR2 and screens are a minimum of 6 bits so it should have 6 Red, 6 Blue, and 6 Green.

[Tarek Elbarbari]

Hello George,

    Actually I found this site during my search for any information related to Opel Astra screen (CID), I will send to you a PDF sheet for installation manual for video interface card to my OEM screen. from this manual you will see some information about the display and I hope it will be good.

please see the video link as an example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnbuD4xyjek

regarding the cubieboard, I am using mini pc with windows 8 and after a week I will use android with measy U2C mini pc.

Regards

[Tarek Elbarbari]

Hello George,
I took pictures for the display i hope it helps.
The display is Toshiba LTA065B090D, TFT, LCD, 6.5"

I hope if you can help me
Regards