Round panel meter by means of a display?

The evolution sometimes shows, that not everything “new” is automatically better than something „well-proven“. One of examples was also a „boom“ of digital panel meters, when it seemed for a while, that the life of analog panel meters is coming to an end. However it showed very soon, that an analog display has a huge advantage in a very fast legibility - i.e. already a brief look at a meter is enough to realize the position of a needle of a meter. Naturally, accuracy of reading of value from an analog meter is lower, than that of a digital (7-sgment) display. mainly at the beginning of a range, but this doesn´t matter in many cases and a certainty of a fast check, whether for example a given variable is in normal is often much more important.

Fortunately, classic electromechanical panel meter can be replaced by graphic displays thus obtaining a free hand at design of your own panel meter. At the same time, the combination of an analog and a digital meter can be created this way. Perhaps the best “replacement” for analog meters is a round display, which has a minimum space requirement in a target device. Novelty in this segment is the uLCD220RD (round) display module with a circle active surface (circle 220 px, 1,38“). Despite the fact, that it´s a small size display, it´s driven by the most powerful processor from 4D Systems - Diablo 16, which gives it a big versatility of usage, many interfaces and GPIO pins.

New version of a well known SW package for development of graphic applications - 4D Workshop IDE from 4D Systems already supports this new module even in the Visi Genie environment, enabling a „drag&drop“ development of application. In praxis a 220 px circle is able to display a considerable amount of information. On attached pictures we bring you a small demonstration of uLCD220RD module imaging.

Detailed information will provide you uLCD220RD and Diablo16 datasheets.

In case of interest in any 4D Systems product, please contact us at sales@soselectronic.com.