Comments on: Parts: 4×20 VFD character display (NA204SD02)

By: Santiago Suarez

Santiago Suarez — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 01:42:19 +0000

Greetings

Do you may the opposite? Emulating a VFD display with an LCD screen?

Thanks

By: CU20045-UW7J

CU20045-UW7J — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:09:36 +0000

http://www.noritake-elec.com/uversion.htm

By: acausal

acausal — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:11:45 +0000

Oh nice! I just got like eight of these in one of those “giant-grab-bag-of-components” boxes, and I’ve been trying to find this very info on them.

By: Hitek146

Hitek146 — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:03:23 +0000

filters:

http://www.matrixorbital.com/lcd-accessories-vfd-filter-c-25_26.html

By: error404

error404 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 01:11:03 +0000

VFDs can look excellent with good filters, easily better than LCDs can. You can pretty much choose any colour you like (the spectrum, while it favours blue/green colours, is quite wide), and including a filter really improves contrast and reduces the appearance of the display grid a good deal. Really a night-and-day difference, I’m just not sure what materials work well for this.

For example see this guy’s preamp project: http://is.gd/1z2Ap

By: Agent420

Agent420 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:14:09 +0000

@ james:

it may be a matter of personal preference, but i hardly view most common lcd displays as any more ‘modern’ than vfd… if anything, the ubiquitousness of lcds makes them boring to me – vfd displays tend to stand out from the crowd. It has got to the point where I even prefer led’s to lcds. and I find both vfd and led to be more easily read under most conditions.

By: Agent420

Agent420 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:07:50 +0000

oops – I stand corrected.

while there is a driver on board, it uses a low level interface requiring all the pixel data to be bit-banged over a serial connection. so this is _not_ a drop in lcd type replacement, and thus the cheap $4 price.

nonetheless, it appears that it is possible to successfully use this display with a microcontroller.

By: James

James — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:07:49 +0000

Personally think that VFDs are ugly and old-fashioned, present a project with a VFD display with no filtering to a group of normal users and they tend to ask why you’re not using LCDs in pretty colours etc. And I tend to agree, for most uses LCD are capable and cheap.

By: Agent420

Agent420 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:53:30 +0000

@ ian:
Actually, it appears all the driver circuitry is on board – I think they just have a particulary poor item description.

Google returns several hits on that part #, including one detailing a project built around it:

http://wiki.ovccorp.com/index.php?pagename=Futaba%20NA202MD13AA

By: ian lesnet

ian lesnet — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 06:47:33 +0000

@punmaster – I was excited about your link for a $4 20×2 version, but then I noticed that that VFD has no driver circuitry, so watch out.

By: PunMaster

PunMaster — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:41:26 +0000

http://www.primelec.com/Electronic-Components/LCDs-Displays/NCR-Futaba-20-x-2-NA202MD13AA-p2594144.html

By: WeblionX

WeblionX — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 22:48:15 +0000

I don’t suppose anyone knows where to get a 40×4 display from? I’m currently in need of one for one of my projects, and I might just use a 40×4 LCD since they’re available, but I’m trying to replace a VFD and would prefer to keep the look.

By: pokey

pokey — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:50:55 +0000

@marco: You know, there’s a link to the data sheet above.

By: twentyofone

twentyofone — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:35:23 +0000

I’ve been using 4×20 lcds (blue/white) from sureelectronics. not as cool as vfd but can be had for $10.80 shipped.

By: another_reader

another_reader — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 21:04:52 +0000

As an alternative, don’t forget Electronic Goldmine. http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G17177