Raspberry Pi Small LCD

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Revision as of 19:41, 30 June 2012 by Msemtd (talk | contribs)
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I was lucky enough to get my Raspberry Pi quite early and I've got quite a few project ideas but the first one is to create a small user interface on a cheap LCD monitor.


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120932197731?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_704wt_1189

I got this second-hand 5" LCD monitor from an ebay seller for £5.50 (plus £4.50 postage so a tenner in total). It's a CCTV monitor for inside a bus or taxi. I tracked it down to the manufacturer's website at http://www.lookcctv.com/show_spares.php?id=2 The unit came with a single 8-pin mini-DIN plug as the only external connector but the seller gave me a pinout diagram so I was able to work out the what went where. I decided to cut the original plug off and solder my own sockets - the alternative was to destroy a perfectly good Apple Mac 3-way serial port hub - my only other source of an 8-pin Mini-DIN socket.

Photos: https://plus.google.com/photos/101627167067307203883/albums/5759903374126361649

This morning I spent a good few hours working out how to connect the power, a video signal, and finally an audio signal. It took some doing as the various ground signals didn't seem to make sense and I got horribly confused and a bit miserable when it wouldn't work first time! Eventually though I was delighted to watch Debian boot on a tiny screen and then to use LXDE with teeny-weeny icons and menus. It's obviously too small to use the console or the desktop as is and that's fine as my plans for this are as a custom user interface with quite large text and buttons.