Which LCD to get right now?

[gizmo]

I've been sitting on ordering a screen for AGES, mainly due to the Adafruit one being constantly out of stock and me umming and erring over alternative screens. However I'd really like to get one finally and stop all this prevaricating!

When I first decided to attempt this project I thought I'd best stick to the Adafruit screen due to my inexperience. However, I'm now more than tempted to get an alternative screen due mainly now to cost. The Adafruit is very expensive compared to the alternatives available, plus they don't seem to be that difficult to mod if needed.

So with this in mind and after consulting the wiki, would members' suggest I purchase the BW screen from Amazon UK? It appears to be the best bet as I'm in the UK and may even luck out with a 5V version. If not, it's my understanding that modding the controller board should be quite easy.

What do people here think? Any advice and suggestions welcome.

[Tamasco]

Not really sure, but I think even with the Amazon UK BW screen, there are several different boards, so you are not 100% sure of what you are getting. You could purchase the one of gearbest, that it´s without the case, so you see what you would get.

http://www.gearbest.com/development-boa ... 29447.html

[gizmo]

Thanks for the reply Tamasco. Yeah it's a good point about the boards and the main reason why I've kept continually putting off the decision. There just seems to be no definitive LCD that people can go for. Except of course the Adafruit one, which is never in stock and when it is is very expensive, imo.

Ok so that's 1 vote for the gearbest. Anyone else?

[Camble]

I also vote for Gearbest. No chance involved, you know what you're getting and a really nice compact driver board.

[ChunkeeMunkee]

I personally went with the Amazon UK option. I saw that there were a few different 3.5" screens available, and decided on this one based on user reviews (a couple of which directly referred to the compatability with the GB0 project!), and also the position of the buttons on the back:

BW 3.5 inch TFT LCD Car Monitor Digital Car Rearview Monitor ,Car Parking Monitor for Car / Automobile and Vehicle Backup Cameras https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0056WJP1M/ ... MxbHM19DS0

This one was BW branded and sold directly by BW - turned out to be a very project-friendly Variant 7. As others have said, there is an element of luck with Amazon, but I'm sure I've seen others on the Sudomod.com boards saying they've bought V7 screens through the same method.

Good luck!

[gizmo]

I personally went with the Amazon UK option. I saw that there were a few different 3.5" screens available, and decided on this one based on user reviews (a couple of which directly referred to the compatability with the GB0 project!), and also the position of the buttons on the back:

BW 3.5 inch TFT LCD Car Monitor Digital Car Rearview Monitor ,Car Parking Monitor for Car / Automobile and Vehicle Backup Cameras https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0056WJP1M/ ... MxbHM19DS0

This one was BW branded and sold directly by BW - turned out to be a very project-friendly Variant 7. As others have said, there is an element of luck with Amazon, but I'm sure I've seen others on the Sudomod.com boards saying they've bought V7 screens through the same method.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info ChunkeeMunkee. 2-1 in favour of the Bestgear currently. Would you say that the BW controller board was a decent size? It looks a little bigger than the Gearbest's.

Decisions decisions, my main issue with the BW is the pot luck aspect. If I could get a guaranteed V7 then perfect. I'm sure other modders would be pleased too! Unfortunately there seems to be too much luck involved. For instance one poor member seems to have had 3 seperate orders turn out to be non V7!

[ChunkeeMunkee]

Would you say that the BW controller board was a decent size?

The board's tiny! It probably takes up about 30% of the total area of the screen itself:

1469807028596-854797600.jpg (1.14 MiB) Viewed 11001 times

Though it works on 5v straight out of the box, I added a bypass wire to eliminate some slight phasing. No chip removal necessary either!

[asilentovation]

As of writing this 1730 EST, there are 15 now available from adafruit.

https://www.adafruit.com/products/913

[eludebear]

Would you say that the BW controller board was a decent size?

The board's tiny! It probably takes up about 30% of the total area of the screen itself:

1469807028596-854797600.jpg

Though it works on 5v straight out of the box, I added a bypass wire to eliminate some slight phasing. No chip removal necessary either!

Chunkee, I just bought this same screen from BW sold by e-life on Amazon USA and it looks identical. But it noticed on black screens that it has some white wavy action going on is this what the Phasing is? Will that go away if I add the bypass wire like you did?

Thanks!

[ChunkeeMunkee]

I'd say go for it! If you do have the same Variant 7 board as mine then whilst it works straight out of the box on 5v, it's lacking that little bit of juice to consistently produce a stable image. For me, adding the jumper wire found in the wiki totally removed the wariness.

As long as you're sure it's a V7 then go ahead. You don't need to remove the chip from the board, so if you find that the wire doesn't really do anything you can just devolved it, and you're back to stock.