Hi guys, so I got the PicoCalc.
First time screen was broken. in hindsight, I think i broke that screen during assembly.
PicoCalc sent me a replacement even through a typhoon that their shipping facility was going through.
guess what happened, screen works. i put the shell on, screen broken. this is how i knew i broke the first one.
so, since this is openSource, did anyone figure out the specs or replacement screens i can buy from Mouser, Amazon or equivalent?
the screen controller is ST7365P and the 40-pin pinout can be inferred from the board schematics, beyond that, no. it’s not uncommon for systems manufacturers like clockworkpi to commission custom panels to panel manufacturers, so it’s possible it’s not even an off-the-shelf part
your easiest solution is to get another replacement directly from clockworkpi
You are best off just buying another screen from ClockworkPi and next time carefully taping down the screen to the front of the shell and extra-carefully assembling the PicoCalc. No one has had luck in a compatible screen from just about anywhere.
The panel is custom, you won’t find a third-party replacement. Get another panel from ClockworkPi, and this time look through all the discussion here about the screen (taping it down, etc) before attempting reassembly.
The key to not breaking the panel is to close the case fully by hand before putting in a single screw, and not ever letting it open again. If you just put the Picocalc down on the table to put the screws in, it will open back up, and you’ll break the screen when applying force with the screws. So you have to keep holding the case closed until you have two screws on opposite corners in.
A few months back I was talking with a screen manufacturer. The tooling costs & the shipping costs were close to 100$ The screens sat at customs for almost 2 weeks and ended up not working at all with the pico. Im sure if you really put the time and effort into contacting a secondary supplier you could get one made for you BUT It’s not going to be cheap.
You know, I’ve been playing around with building Picomites, and I’ve seen some LCD panels that are really close, if not the same size, as the stock PicoCalc’s, and I wonder if it would be possible to basically just physically bypass the stock panel and connect directly to the Pico and use a modified, or possible stock PicoMite, firmware?
Size isn’t the issue, it’s the pinout of the connector. There’s no standard, not even a defacto one. And it’s non-trivial to adapt an incompatible pinout.
I’m suggesting bypassing the PicoCalc board all together and connecting the panel directly to the Pico itself, and possibly not bringing some pins down from from the pico to the header to bypass any conflicts.
As The majority of functionality sits on the Pico itself, for just a basic setup all we really need from the the PicoCalc board is power, SD card, the keyboard, and the audio circuitry as a bonus.
Best part is it’s 100% non-invasive to the PicoCalc, and the only thing that’s needed is an adapter board for the new panel to access its pins.
That’s the theory at least. The Picomites I’m building are so ridiculously simple to build, If we can access the peripherals then it’s pretty much a no-brainer.
Almost broke my screen assembling, ended up just displacing some LCD for a day. Make sure this thing is aligned before tightening the screws and look for backlight lensing when fastening. If the corners look brighter than the middle of the screen, IT’S OUT OF ALIGNMENT, STOP SCREWING! 