There’s no lower common denominator than HD44780-based character LCDs. They’re cheap, easy to find, easy to interface to, and don’t have the uC memory overhead of storing fonts and icons. Moving on up, there are the Nokia 6100 LCDs (color, 128×128 graphics, SPI).

Posted at 11:06 pm on Jun 8th, 2008 by pokey

i have used flipdown monitors from minivans, theyre small and can accept all kinds of inputs.

Posted at 11:14 pm on Jun 8th, 2008 by teddy kluge

Matrices of LED’s FTW! :D

Posted at 11:14 pm on Jun 8th, 2008 by Brandon

^seconded

Posted at 11:16 pm on Jun 8th, 2008 by killerpiggypie@gmail.com

Wait…the PSOne LCD isn’t the go-to display anymore? Nobody’s told me.

Posted at 11:43 pm on Jun 8th, 2008 by klintor

anybody use a usb tv tuner for the laptops? i have cheap one here i use once in a while when on the road.

Posted at 11:54 pm on Jun 8th, 2008 by chr0n1c

I got one of these for $5 at a yard sale the other day. Works great.

http://www.warrantyvoid.us/cyberhomedvdplayer.html

Posted at 11:58 pm on Jun 8th, 2008 by Reezy

Old Palm LifeDrive screens seem to work fine. Plus if you want just flash over what your running to the pcb’s ROM (works great out of Linux), and runn it of that. TGfHH! (Thank G*d for Hardware Hacking)

Posted at 11:58 pm on Jun 8th, 2008 by [will]

I’ve used a 4X20 character LCD on a parallel cable for WinAmp. It’s the cheapest alternative to a touchscreen for use in a car if you don’t want the touch part. I’m sure the boom viewfinder on a camcorder would also work, even if it would be illegal.

Posted at 12:33 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by BigD145

Yes.. Slights mods to a Digital Picture Frame to make something to display messages and logo’s for a client. Its features fitted the requirements but had to keep weight, noise down to a minimum… So converted its USB to use a SMA coax fittings with a switch and a mount… And used brass in a wooden body.

Completed. It looks like this in operation…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDDdUJO7vQM

Blog starts here…
http://nightwing2012.wordpress.com/2008/03/30/hello-world/

Posted at 12:41 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by nightwing

Use a wireless camera system. Just look out for sets with a portable screen, it’s what I used for my senior project at school.

Posted at 12:54 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by Joe R.

i have not done it yet, but the chumby might make a good device to display data…

Posted at 1:08 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by deoryp

I’ve purchased an old Sony viewfinder for an old VHS camcorder as a display. It used a standard PAL composite in, once I found what wires did what. Ran on 8v though, so its a bit different.

Posted at 2:33 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by sherman

picframe – reuse a cheap photo frame ($20) as external display. picframe home at http://picframe.spritesserver.nl/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

here is a action shot http://www.neophob.com/serendipity/index.php?/archives/143-Mini-Photo-Frame-Hack.html

there is support for lcd4linux and mplayer…

cheers

Posted at 3:01 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by michu

{PROBABLY NOT THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE FOR THIS, BUT I FEEL IT’S NECESSARY}
what’s wrong, [will]? do you not believe in God, or are you afraid that thanking Him for the blessings he gives us is considered profanity by the general public?

*NOTE: no disrespect toward Will Bueti is intended in this post.

Posted at 8:34 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by fluxorz

It would lower the sites ratings, praising the lord in the media is risky business particularly online to a multi national, multi cultural fan base. Some people who read hackaday may be insulted by a prayer to god, many less will be insulted by the lack thereof due to the fact that their own prayers in their own homes and places of worship are enough for them, while for others they feel they must encourage others to partake when it would not be in their best interests.

If you wish to respond I recommend doing it privately at edward.nardella@gmail.com.

Posted at 8:56 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by Edward Nardella

#14:

What on earth are you talking about? Did I miss something?

Posted at 9:52 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by keenan

You can get small car displays with quite reasonable resolutions, touchscreen & even cd drives. Most of which take composite or occasionally VGA.
I’m planning on using one of these for a home control system, and being a sysadmin, a compact monitor is invaluable.

Posted at 10:19 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by Doug

Cool. I was thinking about something similar for my multimedia 2.5 HDD usb box

Posted at 10:34 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by bvl

Check your local second hand stores. Sometimes you can find cheap DVD players that have a video input. They are usually already set up to use vehicle power. Sometimes a set will have a secondary monitor, that you can use just as it is.

Posted at 11:46 am on Jun 9th, 2008 by Aud1073cH

Im pretty much ignorant about the whole subject matter. So I have a question really. I found replacement iPhone screens on ebay for about $50. What would be the possibilities or limitations in using one of these touchscreens as a display?

Posted at 12:17 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by HaxSir

#17

fluxorz is referring to post #6, which states “TGfHH! (Thank G*d for Hardware Hacking)”

I also find it odd not only that will not only makes up acronyms, but censors the word god with an asterisk. Under normal conditions I wouldn’t find it odd enough to say, but I felt a need for clarity with post #14 sounding like a non-canonical atheistic jab.

Posted at 12:36 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by Solenoidclock

well as far as i know the iphone touchscreens arent documented so you’re going to have a hard time trying to figure out what the pinout is and how to get the multitouch working.

Posted at 12:50 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by Franklyn

iphone one is missing the controller, controller is in the SoC
controllers are a pita

Posted at 1:05 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by rasz

I like using the lcds from portable dvd players that dont play dvds anymore, they are very cheap or even free! :)

Posted at 2:19 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by Hal_The_Hacker

Audiovox D1500A screen (search benheck.com forums), or many other DVD screens, look for models with video input. Also computergeeks.com has a 1.5″ screen on a 3.5″ DVD player that is said to accept video inputs for $20 and also comes with a battery and charger. (you could always use this to watch a 3.5″ DVD too ;)

Posted at 3:02 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by Miles

I guess the two comments were about the “g*d” comment above, getting some xtians all riled up. Doesn’t matter though since Cthulhu will eat them regardless ;)

Anyway, Nokia 6100 LCDs will do nicely.

Posted at 3:59 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by Cross_

What about http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.3175 ?
(Note: Is not touch sensitive.)

Posted at 4:00 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by N256

It would be great to put colour touchscreen into Psion 5 case. Ehh, dreams…

Posted at 4:02 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by Kyllan

Well, I’m not sure it’s *quite* what you meant, but I’ve been using my PSP as a display.

Connect to my laptop via the wireless card, then run an SSH app or VNC app to control it.

Great for wireless penetration testing on the move – laptop in my backpack, PSP in hand. Inconspicuous.

I did make a portable disply a while ago though, based on one of the hacks on this site – the portable dvd player/video-in hack. I found one and all I had to do was build a custom housing and solder in a traditional rca socket for the video. Worked a charm.

Posted at 6:28 pm on Jun 9th, 2008 by tino_b

Do the Nokia 6100 displays get a decent framerate when interfaced to a linux box? In 5 minutes of googling I only found lpt interfaces to this display and I doubt those would go >1 frame/sec.

Posted at 2:43 am on Jun 10th, 2008 by Terry

That old Sony viewfinder idea is great !
Full PAL/NTSC resolution and very very tiny !
You have some image of that ?
Are you referring to a studio viewfinder (large) or a viewfinder from a handycam ?

Posted at 2:54 am on Jun 10th, 2008 by Rachid Heffels

@ #31, it’s a bit of a work in progress but there are some photos of the viewfinder option here: http://snipurl.com/2exaq. I went for a 3″ Samsung which contains a Sony chipset and accepts composite or s-video signals. It seems there are plenty of 3.5″ and 4″ options around too.

Posted at 5:47 pm on Jun 10th, 2008 by Nes

#14:

“G*d” and similar constructs are sometimes used by Jews to avoid writing the name of God, which they consider disrespectful.

Posted at 11:36 pm on Jun 10th, 2008 by alex

I think that one of the most readily available screens would be from that of cell phones. You can get a cell phone starting at 10 bucks with color screens that don’t do too bad considering the price tag. If i knew how, i would gladly buy them for pc case mods and the like. Virgin mobile has one of the cheapest and most readily avialable cheap phones that i have found.

Posted at 3:00 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by nachowarrior

Heres a hack that someone did that allows you to use those cheap ~20 keychain digital picture frames as a monitor

http://www.planetsurfer.net/2008/06/05/use-a-cheap-digital-picture-frame-as-a-secondary-display/

working on porting it to windows..

Posted at 6:25 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by edman

A PSP screen can be had cheaply on sites such as eBay or dealextreme. It’s a very nice display

Posted at 4:58 am on Jun 12th, 2008 by Uranium

Ebay is a good source for cell phone replacement screens, and they’re usually very cheap. Many of them can be interfaced with a serial connection (check for example http://serdisplib.sourceforge.net/)

Posted at 3:50 am on Jun 13th, 2008 by BlueArchon

This discussion seems a little dead but, no one had mention digital camera displays. I haven’t looked into this peronally but some can be had cheap with nice res and color. Also the Jews don’t use g*d to replace Gods name as his name is actually Yhwh or in modern english Jehovah. This is according to Jewish and also the Catholic church. The Jews were afraid to say it wrong as ancient hebrew had no vowels. Just had to add what I know to the conversation.

Posted at 7:12 pm on Mar 6th, 2009 by RFXCasey

how about leaving the praying for church and in ur own homes, I am a religious man but this isnt really the place for imposing your want to pray on others including me if you really want to thank god that much turn off your pc and go to church (ps dont hack anything there)
bullet points
1 church for praying
hackaday for hacking

Posted at 5:19 pm on Mar 9th, 2009 by scott

I have been trying to follow the Picframe mod for a while. Where you can use a cheap digital photo frame as a second monitor. (see http://spritesmods.com/?art=picframe&page=1 and http://picframe.spritesserver.nl/wiki/index.php/Main_Page ) but I don’t have a linux machine at the moment. Anybody know of any progress on a windows version?

Posted at 4:59 am on May 8th, 2009 by vermiculite