原创 LCD selection tool for caveman time portal

In her message, Dawn informed me that the folks at Focus Display Solutions have joined forces with the guys and gals at Allied Electronics to make my life easier. Well, actually, she said this was to "Improve the LCD purchasing experience for engineers," but I could read between the lines and I know what she meant.

What they've done is to launch a new LCD Selector Tool. This little beauty allows LCD designers and engineers to select the correct LCD technology for their new design, and it also provides them with the ability to order samples with one click. Furthermore, it also allows customers to cross over discontinued LCDs to Focus Display Solutions in stock at Allied Electronics.

And why is this of interest to me? Well, I have an on-going Caveman Diorama Project. Originally, I was planning on including an H.G. Wells Time Machine in the scene -- the one from the 1960 movie, not the one from the 2002 film -- thereby explaining my presence in the diorama. In fact, I was planning on modifying the machine a tad to make it a two-seater, which would allow me to take my wife (Gina the Gorgeous) with me.

The problem is that I'm working at 1/32 scale, which means a 6' tall man is only 2.25" tall in the diorama. In turn, this means that an inordinate amount of detail has to be crammed into a very small space if I wish to include a realistic looking time machine. Thus it was that I started to ponder the advantages of a Time Portal. As I mentioned in an earlier column: "It's nice to be able to relax in a comfy chair whilst travelling through time, but it's hard to ignore the convenience afforded by a time portal."

Now, as you may recall from my previous column on this topic, I've been debating with myself as to whether a floor-standing portal will satisfy my time-travelling requirements, or whether a portal that appears to hover above the ground is the way to go.

I decided to whip up a couple of prototypes out of paper and cardboard. Below we see the floor-standing model to the left and the floating version lying on the floor with its cardboard mount just behind.

(Source: Max Maxfield)

Next, we see the read view of the floating version of the portal attached to its cardboard support.

(Source: Max Maxfield)

 

Below, we see the floor-standing model positioned in one corner of the cave.

(Source: Max Maxfield)

And, last but not least, we see the floating version of the portal appearing to hover above the floor (this actually looks pretty impressive in real life).

(Source: Max Maxfield)

 

The blue "ripple" in the above images was just something I printed out. In the final implementation, we want to have an LCD display that randomly switches between this ripple effect to scenes like the pyramids in Egypt, mountains, jungles, beaches, and even alien landscapes. I could live with still images, but ideally I would prefer something upon which we could display video.

The starting point is getting the right size. Using the new selector tool from Focus Display Solutions, I quickly honed in on their E24RG12432LW2M300-N product, which is 42.72 mm x 60.26 mm in size (pretty darned close to the 38mm by 62mm I was looking for.

(Source: Focus Display Solutions)

 

Apparently, this little scamp boasts 8/9/16/18 bit MCU, 3/4 wire SPI, and 16/18 bit RGB interface options along with 300 NITS. Now all I have to do is work out what all of this means in my version of the real world (is 300 NITS enough -- would 301 NITS be better -- what's a NIT?). I'm also not sure how to handle the cable coming out of the bottom of the display -- any suggestions?