Hi there!
I thought I’d just share a quick idea with you all. Framework said a while back that a display input module would be really hard to make due to the height restriction of 3.7mm.
It might however be possible to cram a 7-segment display in there, for example to display CPU, GPU and RAM stats. Moreover, this would probably lead to less power consumption than an LCD display.
Does anyone have an idea if this is possible or viable to make? I myself am unable to make these since I have very little technical knowledge. Maybe someone else wants to make this. Thanks in advance for the ideas!
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There are electroluminescent paints that are very very thin… but I think they might require high voltage to run.
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That could be an option, but you will probably run into the problem of the segments interfering with eachother. Thanks for the idea!
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I bet surface-mount LEDs with a diffuser would work!
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Bringing the Apollo drip to a framework near you.
Considering how expensive the replica apollo displays were to make you’d probably be coming out cheaper using a smartwatch oled or something for each digit or something.
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Here’s the thinnest one I found on on DigiKey, perfect size to have 3 in a row:
https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/vishay-semiconductor-opto-division/VDMR10A1/4327669
Depth is 1.50mm (2.1mm with the PCB), comes in red and yellow. I’m not an EE, but I’m sure someone could make it work.
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I’d buy this. Looks super cool.
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You might have to do something weird where you have holes in the module PCB that these then fill and then get held by the soldier instead of being placed on top of the module PCB.
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They are designed for surface mount, so there would be no holes in the PCB unless vias are needed to feed the signals through to a different track layer.
However another possibility could be to make a hole large enough for the body of the display and have the display mounted on the back. This would also help if using the VDMR10A0 displays which are about another 1mm thicker - but also come in 4 colours instead of 2. I twigged to the A0 version by following the ‘you may also like …’ links at the bottom of the link in Jacobs post.
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I apologize for my lack of clarity. I did mean something like what you suggest as a possibility in the second paragraph. But you suggest mounting the top face of the digits’ PCBs to the back of the module’s PCB whereas I suggested attaching the edge of the digits’ PCB to the inside of holes cut into the module’s PCB.
I hope that is more clear.
That would make a very fragile mounting of the display, producing unreliable solder connections. It will also be mechanically unreliable.
The castellated PCB is designed for surface mount to achieve a good mechanical mounting to withstand mechanical shock and temperature cycling.
I can speak with some authority on this as up to my retirement I was an ESA certified soldering inspector for space flight electronics.
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Those are nice looking displays!
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So I got inspired, and I had some free time on vacation:
As much as I like that black solder mask, I think I’m going to make one tweak before I sent this off to JLCPCB – instead of printing the logos on the board itself, I’m going to add a few white LEDs, and I’ll 3d print a frame to tidy everything up with an opening for the legends, and then cover the entire front face with a sheet of grey mylar. Then you’d be able to swap out whatever legends you like by making an appropriate transparency and have the legends be backlit.
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FYI you don’t need to do the JLCJLCJLC business anymore as they will remove the order number for free now.
@C_Scott_Ananian Woah that’s sick! I’d love to get one if you end up releasing the final schematics, whether or not you release software
It uses more or less the same LED driver chip as the Framework LED module does, so in theory should be able to use the same firmware as well. Maybe a tweak or two is needed, I can take care of that.
Of course you’d want to hook it up to actually display CPU/GPU/RAM usage, and that part I’ll probably leave up to others.
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Continuing a thread/idea started by @Rowanlikesdonuts in this thread, later buried in a megathread.
Here’s the PCB and bezel design for a seven segment display input module which I’m sending out to have fabbed by JLCPCB;
The idea is to print out your desired legends for the three displays on 4mil transparency, and then cover the entire thing with a 0.2mm ND filter for a clean look. The electrical design is very similar to the framework LED matrix, so very similar firmware/driver should work.
The design files are published at GitHub - cscott/SevenSegmentInputModule: 7-segment display input module for Framework 16
Schematic:
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