Wayne Stallwood wrote:
On 11/05/12 20:41, Anthony Anson wrote:
Andy Taylor wrote:
On 10 May 2012 21:52, Anthony Anson tony.anson@girolle.co.uk wrote:
-- Tony Anson www.girolle.co.uk/
I'm going to play with one of those 'digital' photo frsmes for a screen.
Unless someone tells me it won't work...
I wouldn't go that far but you'd have to find a digital photo frame with an LCD that uses the MIPI DSI specification and fits with what it looks like on the schematic ( the RPi gives 1 clock and 2 data lanes...that I think rules out a few salvage screens like the one I have here from an iPhone) That said if you can find a datasheet for the manufacturer specific extensions to the standard command set then I think it is possible to configure some screens to only use the data lanes you can feed, or maybe it is automagic and if you only supply 2 bytes at a time the display figures out that you only have 2 lanes.
Then the hardware documentation on the RPi is pretty scant but I am not sure if the raw LCD interface is even properly supported in the current linux images.
Finally the DSI pinout on the RPi lacks the voltage supplies you will need for most most screens. It is quite common for them to need a few sometimes helpfully +- supplies as well as whatever the backlight needs. So you'd need to knock up a daughterboard with some DC-DC converters at a minimum.
It'd be an interesting little project if you can find out the display type used in the picture frame in advance and then look it up on panelook.com and the interface type is listed as DSI or MIPI then you are in with a chance.
Food for thought and experiment. Some of your caveats are no problem, as the charity shop (£10) purchase came with a PSU.
Thanks for the stuff to chew on.
Unfortunately, I can find no maker's name on the thing, nor b going into its setup. In the data on the back it proclaims: 'Digital Picture Frame' and it has a USB socket and a card slot marked 'SD/MMC/XD/MS'.
It may have to be suck-it-and-see.