Sony ACX705AKM LCD

Experiments with a Sony ACX705AKM LCD...

First-off, sorry for the ton of large-filesize photos... just had to get 'em up, or I'd probably never get around to it.

Per today's standards this guy's not too hot. But it can still be useful, plausibly in ways it wasn't intended.

For one thing, it's front-lit, rather than back-lit. So, it can be removed from its housing and lit from an external source (spotlights on wall-hangings? Who knows what-all)

When front-lit, it looks metallic, "white" looks a bit like steel, "yellow" a bit like brass, "red" a bit like copper. Blue has a nice effect, as well, a bit like heat-treated metals.

Interfacing: This display does not have onboard memory, it must constantly be refreshed, pixel-by-pixel, row by row. THAT SAID: it's much more flexible, in its timings, than the documentation states. I've refreshed at rates as low as once per second with no problem. This can easily be handled by a simple microcontroller, like an arduino, and a little bit of coding.

Resolution, etc.: 240x160, 512 colors (9 bits per pixel, 3 bits per R/G/B).

The interface is pretty standard... This guy should be connectable to e.g. a Raspberry Pi's Display-Parallel-Interface without much trouble. Though, 240x160... hmmm. It should also be connectable to e.g. a TFP401 DVI/HDMI receiver, or any number of other "parallel" video-sources.

Or you could do some hacking...

I drive it straight from an Atmega ATtiny84, tying the low bit of each color to the high bit gives 6bpp, or 64 colors. This system is described in more detail at Drive an old Laptop Display from an AVR. And is for sale! Scroll down or search this page for "MarioThing" to see a bunch of (probably too many) photos.

Solid Colors... (TODO) The '704 (rather than this '705) allegedly had the ability to switch between Hsync/Vsync mode and Data-Enable-Only mode. Often I've found that DE-Only displays can be supplied with nothing but a single clock input like that output from a crystal-oscillator (cheap and easy) (tied to the pixel-clock), and color-values to the RGB bits, to display *something* (often a solid color). The same might be possible with this hsync/vsync display, or there may be a test-point that can be pulled high/low to change it to DE-Only... Or you could try to throw random timing-signals to the h/v signals and see what shows up. Often interesting stuff comes from that sort of experimenting.

I've lots of ideas regarding hacking LCDs in various links 'round this site... really simple "oscilloscopes," adjustable color-filters for stage-lights, whatnot.

There're also some experiments, here, showing viewing angles, and lighting, as well as some interesting experiments with modifying the polarizer and "other" film...

Hopefully some of these pictures might inspire some ideas (and give a realistic sense of what it's capable, in case you were thinking it looks as crisp as today's phones).

Have fun!

Oh, here's some datasheets:

ACX705AKM - DSA0058216.pdf

acx705.pdf

CXD3508TQ - for ACX704AKM (NOT 705).pdf - though may be similar...

CXD2475TQ - for both 704 and 705.pdf

Backside, testpoints!

Viewable side (note, this's had its polarizer film replaced)

Polarizer and... another sheet

Natural lighting

Natural lighting, not reflecting

Thickness of bare panel + PCB (no frontlight/housing)

More polarizer/whatever film

Looking through the backside (I've experimented with *really bright* backlighting, long ago, to little avail)

MarioThing (This is a product I tried to sell... I still have a few, as well as a few that aren't in housings, feel free to email eric waz hung at gmail dot com)

Another "scene" (whoops, got a goomba better smash him!)

Viewing angle (Whoops, these experiments were run with MarioThing's clear overlay... that affects viewing-angle a little bit)

More viewing-angle

Another "scene" (Mario 3, this time)

When you hit the underside, you get a reward (or sometimes a goomba). Note clear housing this time... part of the right-side of the display is covered with the frame, the image is centered in the "window"

Sony ACX705AKM's original housing (no 'MarioThing' overlay/window covering it)

Attempting to get some shots of the display's viewability when *NOT* front-lit (panel removed from housing/frontlight)

More Here's one of the early prototypes, before I'd designed a PCB. The PCB shown in the background is actually the back of the ACX705AKM used in this 'MarioThing'