Help to identify this display screen...

[strangelysaucy]

Hi all,
I'm an electronics virgin and need some help from somebody a little more in the know...
I'm building a replica of a prop from a movie that contains the following component screen...

I've found a 16x2 Oled screen that's blue text on black and pretty much the same dimensions (roughly 80 x 36 x 10 mm) but even in my ignorance I can see it's more than x2 at least, what with the blocks and other information displayed...which incidentally as you can see from the screen, the information displayed can be cycled somehow.

Does anyone have ANY inkling as to what this particular component could be?

Thanks in avance for your time

Respect
P.

 

[betwixt]

Having just worked on a prop for a movie promotion, I can tell you it may not even be a real display component. It could be blue paper/ black ink and a backlight. Movie makers usually go for the cheapest option when it's a custom part that will only be used once.

If it is a real display, judging by the resolution and brightness it's a plasma type or OLED but near in mind that OLEDs are relatively new and your movie may pre-date that technology.

Brian.

 

[strangelysaucy]

Having just worked on a prop for a movie promotion, I can tell you it may not even be a real display component. It could be blue paper/ black ink and a backlight. Movie makers usually go for the cheapest option when it's a custom part that will only be used once.

If it is a real display, judging by the resolution and brightness it's a plasma type or OLED but near in mind that OLEDs are relatively new and your movie may pre-date that technology.

Brian.

Hi Brian,
it's a functioning display from a movie made last year - Dredd 3D so I guess it might be the latter.

What's a plasma type? (excuse ignorance) :-D

 

[betwixt]

OLEDs are still extremely expensive in custom sizes so I would go a cheaper option. It appears to be a relatively high resolution module and I think LCD can be ruled out because of it's contrast ratio and viewing angle, that leaves plasma. In a plasma display, either a gas that glows blue is excited by high voltage or a fluorescent target is excited by firing electrons at it. The latter type are very commonly used in consumer equipment such as satellite boxes, microwave cookers and so on, in fact most applications with a blue or green display. They have the drawback that like consumer LCD displays, there is a large fixed 'segment' area which is either on or off which is fine for displaying digits and some letters but not for graphics or thin lines. A high voltage plasma display works in a similar way to a plasma TV, it produces light as the gas (plasma) ionizes and glows.

Custom plasma is probably cheaper than custom OLED although both are very expensive. I haven't seen the movie myself, it hasn't been released here yet, in fact there isn't even a release date yet so it will be interesting to see it 'live' to get a better impression. I still thnk the props department have probably disguised somethig else to look like a clever display.

Brian.

 

[strangelysaucy]

Thanks again Brian,
I have had my suspicions that it could perhaps be some sort of mini digital photoframe or some such device that can be fed a small video file to appear to be interactive.
However I've yet to find any that have the correct dimensions.

I won't be too upset if I manage to locate something that can at least duplicate just ONE of the above image sequences...it's only for a replica prop after all!

Where are you based? I thought Dredd had a UK wide release date of 7/09/12 and rest of the world 27/9/12! it's well worth seeing!!!!

 

[betwixt]

I think the movie has been released but not the 3D Blu-Ray version yet. I'm on the west coast of Wales, if I go further west more than a few steps I get my feet wet until I reach Ireland! Where are you?
It hasn't been shown locally but with only one cinema within about 30 miles radius that's no suprise! I usually wait for the BD to be released, watching it at home in 3D is better than a cinema experience.
If you don't need the display to change on your replica, Just get some blue paper, laser print an image on to it so you get dense black then illuminate it from behind with a flashlight bulb.

Brian.

 

[strangelysaucy]

aah I thought you maybe lived in a strange foreign province that didn't have any cinema..I was kinda right

I'm in south east England.

I don't think my perfectionist streak will allow me to have a cheat in the prop. It's all or nothing for this project...the mission continues...

 

[betwixt]

I spent last weekend at the TV conference in Basingstoke. This may be a strange province but I'd rather be here than in what most people consider "civilization". :grin:

Back to your display, for sake of costs, can you use a larger display and mask it off with a facia?

Brian.

 

[strangelysaucy]

I did think of using a pocket digital photo frame and having the image sit in the bottom of the screen like you say, but I'm kinda pushed for space in the frame of the prop itself.

This looks like it will take a while to get resolved!!

Thanks for your input tho, it's certainly given me food for thought and a bunch of further research material

 

[bigdogguru]

Due to the bright single blue color, dense background blacks and some of its other characteristics,
it looks remarkably like some custom blue thin film electroluminescent (EL) displays, I worked with a year or two ago.

Although most readily available EL displays are yellow/orange in color.

As betwixt mentioned it could very well be a Custom/Application Specific display manufactured for a specific OEM.



You might contact Densitron, they manufacture quite a wide range of displays,
even a few ELs, some in the approximate size range of your display.





PLANAR is another manufacture of EL displays, although I believe the only produce the yellow/orange color units for stock,
although they can manufacture custom colored units at a price.

**broken link removed**

They also offer a 80mm x 40mm active area display in their TFEL technology, the ELT160.80.50.



Another option is to make a mockup of the display using electroluminescent materials which glow when energized,
blue is a common color for such materials and on a black background would look quite similar to your display.

EL Wire, Panels and Tape


BigDog

 

[strangelysaucy]

WOW! thanks! I've contacted all the folks in those links for some advice/costings etc...
The EL stuff looks reaaaaaallly interesting! How would I go about creating a mockup and getting it EL'd? is it something I could do myself?

Thanks again, very interesting stuff!
P.

 

[betwixt]

You can do it yourself but be aware that EL backlights require quite high voltages to operate, typically around 100V AC. Usually the voltage comes from a high frequency inverter, I'm not sure if they would work very well on 50Hz, you might get strobing effects, either with the display itself or if you are making a movie of your own, with the cameras "shutter" speed.

Brian.

 

[strangelysaucy]

Thanks Brian,

The project is not for a movie this time, just for display/costuming.

Sorry again to be an ignoramus but would I be able to get 100V AC from a compact battery of any sort? there's a bit of space in the shell of the prop roughly about 110mmx20mm

 

[betwixt]

Not economically is the simple answer. Batteries produce DC but I'm pretty sure an EL backlight has to be AC. I just typed "electroluminescent" into ebay and it came up with several UK sources of panels and inverters for very reasonable prices. Note that the EL is the backlight only, it isn't the part that produces the character shapes. The ones labelled "Tron" or "aqua" are similar in color to the one you showed.

Alternatively - and this will sound daft - you can get T-Shirts that glow in the dark, usually with a sound operated activator in them. they are popular in Discos (so I'm told!) They have a small pocket in them to hold the battery and inverter module and the glowing parts are stitched on EL panels. It might be worth checking their prices for salvage value!

Brian.

 

[bigdogguru]

Yes, there are battery powered inverters available, of course battery life largely depends on the load, size of display, and there typically is a recommend minimum load:





Adafruit offers a reasonably priced line of EL materials and a nice tutorial as well:





And if you ambitious enough, you can certainly make your own custom displays:

ELEN 4193 - Print Your Own Electroluminescent Displays

BigDog

 

[strangelysaucy]

Okay so I've got to the stage in my prop build that I'm ready to get cracking on the display screen...

I picked up this from ebay....
its a 5.7cm (2.23") PASSIVE MATRIX OLED :- model # UG2832ALBCG01 (mono)

and it fits perfectly....

I'm only missing one thing...the next step to make it live!
Can I program it with an arduino nano? and will I need anything else to get it to work? I know I will need a battery pack but then do I need to program with the nano and then install the battery pack along with the nano inside the prop to power it?

Sorry to be a dullard but I have NO idea!

P.