Support for new LCD?

I'd like to know if it's possible to add support for a new LCD that would use the same graphic/data as the 128x64 I see everywhere on the Web.

The problem with the current 128x64 is that it is quite big for tiny, compact or portable 3D printers/CNCs.

The new LCD I'm talking about is the ST7735S 128x160 TFT LCD Display Module listed on eBay by multiple vendors, usually available for around 5$USD.

The advantages are:

• smaller size (important for projects like Tantillus or FoldaRap)
• the ability to display more information than a 20x4 characters display
• lower cost (at least 1/3 the price of the 128x64 LCD and at least 2$ cheaper than a 20x4 characters display)
• better contrast than the usual displays
• even if we only use two at a time, thousands of colour are available to the end-user (some will prefer black on blue, others dark green on light green, etc)

Here's a few images to show what it could look like.

First, we could simply center the usual bitmap in the center of the display (I left the rest of the pixels in black to see the difference vs 128x64):


Or we could rotate the display in landscape mode and simply fill the rest of the display with the background colour:


Here's the same thing with a different palette (we could either allow the user to set the RGB for the foreground and background or just offer a dozen pre-set palettes):


Here's an idea to use the rest of the space to display a preview of what has been/is being printed. I guess it would be easy to simply draw pixels while moving the printing head (there's 128x96 pixels available for the print preview):


Another idea would be to display a preview of the whole layer. I'm quite certain it would be nearly impossible however since it would require reading the data for a whole layer in advance without stopping the print between each layer. Or can a 3D printer be paused between each layer?


A workaround would be to add some kind of bitmap data inside the g-code for each layer and then modify the slicing software and the firmwares to support such a feature. A lot of trouble for almost nothing.

Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2015 02:03PM by Yvan256.

Here's the eight palette choices I'm thinking about. The first four are based on the photo shown on this page. The last four are "green CRT monitor", "Game Boy" and the basic and neutral "black on white" and "white on black".





edit: I can't seem to be able to display my attached image at its native size for some reason, anyone know a workaround for that? I tried the two types of parameters on the [ img ] tag but none worked.

Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/2015 05:03PM by Yvan256.