Electronic – Is it possible to wire up a cellphone screen to work with a different device

cellphonedisplaylcdmicrocontroller

I'm trying to find out if it is possible to send video to a cell phone screen (just the screen, not the phone) like this one from something like a video-mp3 player or even from maybe a mac-mini, or something simpler like a microcontroller with the video stored on an SD card perhaps. Additionally, if it is possible, how would I go about doing something like that?

It doesn't necessarily have to be a cell phone screen, but it needs to be around that size, with a very dense resolution for its size. This is why a cell phone screen seems optimal for the job. I've been trying to find other alternatives, but the screens from hobby electronics sites fro things like the Arduino seem to be very small resolution and low color depth (ie 8 bit).

Best Answer

One of the most popular items on Sparkfun is 128x128 Nokia Color LCD screen. The protocol has been reverse engineered by various people and libraries made for Arduino and other platforms.

In general, if the screen has only a few pins, it's likely to have a built-in LCD controller and use SPI or I2C for the protocol. Such protocols are usually not very hard to RE if you have the original hardware it worked with.

On the other hand, if it exposes some tens of pins like for example the PSP LCD, it usually requires a dedicated external controller and might even use LVDS or other complicated signaling. Such screens are not a good choice for small microcontrollers.

A lot of LCDs are available on eBay, see for example this store.