Hackers have a multitude of skills, many are well-versed in the ways of all things that blink and flash. These abilities have often be applied to the field of jewelry and human adornment, and many LEDs have been employed in this work. [Deshipu] has been attempting something a touch different however, by constructing a tiny TFT pendant.
The basic idea is not dissimilar from those USB photo keychains of recent history. A SAMD21 Cortex M0+ serves as the brains of the operation, with the tiny microcontroller being soldered to a custom PCB that makes up the body of the pendant. A ST7735S TFT LCD screen is then attached to act as the display. Charging and delivery of images is done over USB, which can be handled natively by the SAMD21.
Currently, the pendant is capable of displaying 16-color BMPs, with the intention to create a converter for animated GIFs in the pipeline. Potential upgrades also involve creating a larger battery pack to sit behind the wearer’s neck, as currently the device has just 8 mAh to work with.
It’s a nicely designed piece, with the pendant appearing barely bigger than the screen itself. It’s not the first time we’ve seen a hacker take on a pendant, and we’re sure it won’t be the last. If you’ve got the goods, be sure to hit up the tip line.
Ummm… care to post a link to this project?
http://www.electronics-lab.com/wearable-tiny-video-pendant/
and…
https://hackaday.io/project/158701-video-pendant
Just as idea. You could also use the pcb, battery and display of one of these cheap fitness tracker.
See here with arduino:
https://youtu.be/0H17iZJA-oQ
Here is a Hackaday Post about it: https://hackaday.com/2019/02/20/custom-firmware-for-cheap-fitness-trackers/
how about a tiny solar cell that trickle charges that tiny cell at every opportunity? being around the neck it will get plenty of opportunities to stow away some power especially when outdoors.
I love these mini IPS display. They have a high resolution with 160×80 on 0.9 inch and 240×240 on 1.3 inch. The colours are brilliant and the viewing angle is astonishing. They are now my favourite and will replace the small OLEDs in my project.
My last project with ESP32 and 240xs240: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_a-GZTio2s
BTW: a good lib for the ESP32 is Bodmer/TFT_eSPI
There is one little problem: the bright LED backlit draws to much current for small battery projects.
You will have to dim it with the help of pwm to save energy.
The Ucglib supports only ST7735S (160×80). It seems, the Adafruit ST77XX driver does not work for the cheap Chinese 1.3 inch ST7789.
Well done and thanks for posting more info :-)
Nice smooth display appearance, Esp 32 calculating viewpoints on the fly or as download channel ?
(Left you comment on YouTube)
Could a lowly big standard Esp 8266 do as well with the math and update rate – if just as calculating 3D viewpoints or maxes out hence relegated to merely being a download channel ?
Hi Deshipu,
This is great. Would love to turn it into a cufflink (My Project: https://hackaday.com/2012/10/17/traffic-light-cufflinks/ )
The display being on the front with the softwires to the power/charing unti on the back.
…. off to read to full log in the project.
Wow, an 8 mah battery? I didn’t know that was even a thing! That display and micro must barely sip juice. I haven’t clicked to the article yet but I’m now intrigued!