Changing Display to OLED

Having successfully constructed my MAKERbuino Inventor’s Edition, the first thing I wanted was to have more space on the screen for displaying data etc.

I decided to get a 1.5 inch OLED SSD1327 (128x128 pixels), which is similar in shape to the Nokia 5110, and can use the same pins. I desoldered the Nokia and replaced it with an 8-pin angled header to allow me to swap in different screens for experiments. I cut a small u-shaped plexiglass mount for my new screen, and using most of the original screws, I managed to fit it reasonably neatly in place.

I tested it using an example file from the arduino library U8g2, and it fired up successfully (photo below).

OLED-SSD1327

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@scotus,

wow, this is neat! How did you manage to cut the plexiglass like this? Did you use a CNC machine?

@albertgajsak

For prototyping like this - I just sketch the shape on plexiglass with a pigment liner pen, then use an old-fashioned jigsaw, cleaning up with a flat metal file. Small holes are pre-drilled at changes of sawing direction - makes life easier with plastics.

Draw-Cut-File-Fit-Repeat works most of the time…

I’m more of a Hackspace person than a Fablabber - so hand tools are always my first choice, although for me a pillar drill for the 3mm fixing holes is a must-have.

Today I decided to create a small angled bracket for the original Nokia5110 Display (photo below). Simple shape - minimal materials - hand-made. I borrowed my wife’s craft heat gun to do the bending, and it all worked out OK I think.


Angled acrylic bracket for Nokia5110 Display

I have noticed one problem with the top acrylic plate of my MAKERbuino - it was slightly bowed, most likely from laser cutting, and fixing my display mounting plate has straightened this up. The buttons previously moved freely enough, but now they are getting stuck under the plate. (You’ll see from the photo that I’ve temporarily removed the cap for button A). I’ll get the holes filed later…

My MAKERbuino is the “Inventor’s Kit” version, and it struck me that an angled display for a table-top experiment would be a useful mod. I’ve used the jumper cables from the kit to wire it up.

Now if only creating a new bootloader could be this easy …

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Hello Scotus and Albert,
Can you please give a litte more information about this Display Change?
I find the little nokia display too small for my miopy. I project to installa a new one like this:

Overview
This is a general LCD display Module, IPS screen, 2inch diagonal, 240Ă—320 resolution, with embedded controller, communicating via SPI interface.
Features
SPI interface, requires minimum GPIO for controlling
Comes with development resources and manual (examples for Raspberry Pi/Jetson Nano/Arduino/STM32)
Specifications
Driver: ST7789
Interface: SPI
Display color: RGB, 262K color
Resolution: 240Ă—320
Backlight: LED
Operating voltage: 3.3V
Wiki : www.waveshare.com/wiki/2inch_LCD_Module?Amazon
PACKAGE CONTENT
inch LCD Module x1
PH2.0 20cm 8Pin x1

It is only necesary that are all pin the same?
It is any programing nedeed?

Thank you!

Carlos

Hey Carlos!

This project you’re thinking about would require a lot of programming since everything is coded based on the Nokia screen dimensions and without real colours. Pretty much everything would have to be rewritten in order to get the functionalities of the screen such as big size and colours working.

The replacement itself shouldn’t be too hard. The pins seem to be the same and that should work off the bat (only the arrangement of the pins would be a little different).

The problem with this is the chip itself - the screen is really big compared to the original and it has colours, so that means that a lot more data would be needed to push each frame onto the screen. That takes up a lot of RAM and ATMega doesn’t have enough of that.

Robert

Hi Robert,
Thank you very much for your answer.
Dont let you confuse with my link about the posible Display, that what only a posibility.
Really i don´t want to have colors or another resolution. It is for me enought the same screen in a bigger display, not tft or oled, same techology, lcd is enought. I have a old makerbuino with a wrong display, and i want to buy a new display, but maybe i can buy a bigger one if it possible, can you tell me wich is full compatible?, without to need to reinvented the wheel?
Somethink like Scotus do it up as first post here.

Thanks Carlos

Okay then - you should be able to do this rather easily.

Since these types of screens use SPI protocol (you can read about it here) you really shouldn’t have too many problems since they work pretty much the same way.

So just look for the ones that support SPI connection and that’s about it. Also, this screen you pointed out here is really big and would be a huge reach even for a project like this. Keep it smaller so you can still fit the screen properly on to the device and that you don’t have too many extra pixels.

Robert