LCD serial/parallel? + another ?

[johndxmurphy]

I noticed that it seems that in the supply catalogs serial LCD's are much more expensive than parallel. Why is that?

Also, I noticed that a lot of devices on the market that sell for even less than most LCD's have an LCD on them. For example I have a Caller ID with a huge LCD. My question is this: Has anyone been able to hack one of these commercial devices and use the LCD, or are they maybe proprietary?

 

[alband]

regarding the hacking in devices such as a nice casio calculator, it is very hard. The single chip in a device like that has the LCD firmware build in and both may be very specialised for the job to bring cost down. Those LCD's are designed for much higher level coded drivers.
It would be possible but very difficult. If your gonna try, I'd advice an overclocked X40 and find an LCD with as fewer input pins as possible.
Just experiment.
Whilst on it original board, find the VCC and VSS on the LCD.
Match those in your own circuit and then experiment with low voltages at the other pins.
Someone who knows more on how individual cells in LCD "darken up" might be able to advise exact voltages and where.

 

[BeanieBots]

Someone who knows more on how individual cells in LCD "darken up" might be able to advise exact voltages and where..

Forget trying to drive the LCD elements directly. They require AC drive at a particular frequency, any DC component will destroy them.

Why are serial LCDs more expensive? Because they have a serial decoder.
Can you hack commercial products with LCDs?
This is only realistic if it is an LCD module with an on-board controller. If it's just the actual "LCD" part, then no.

 

[westaust55]

Forget trying to drive the LCD elements directly. They require AC drive at a particular frequency, any DC component will destroy them.

Why are serial LCDs more expensive? Because they have a serial decoder.
Can you hack commercial products with LCDs?
This is only realistic if it is an LCD module with an on-board controller. If it's just the actual "LCD" part, then no.

And even if the LCD has the on-board controller there is still the issue of finding out which controller chip is used.

In terms of your original heading, for "+ another ?"
. . . another possibility is i2c comms. The AXE033 for example has both serial and i2c options.