DIY Pixel Qi Screens Available

16384 was one of a surprising number of DIY types to note that the Pixel Qi screen is out. It can be installed in many netbooks. Can't wait to see what people build with them. An excerpt from the press release says "MAKE and Pixel Qi announced today the availability of a revolutionary LCD display technology from Pixel Qi — the 3Qi display. This one-of-a-kind, plug-and-play 10.1-inch display offers two modes: an easy-to-read, real color, multi-media mode or a crisp, low-power e-reader mode. Indeed, the sunlight-ready e-reader mode makes it easy to use outdoors. The 3Qi display is on sale now at makershed.com."

Comments

Re:3?

[Pojut]

Because you ask three questions about it. You've already asked one...we're waiting.

Expensive

[TuringTest]

I thought one of the advantages of the Pixel Qi screens were its low price, as it was initially targeted to the OLPC. This thing is $275.00 without an attached laptop behind it.

Is this because that's the retail price for the public at large, or are there some major differences with respect to the OLPC screen that justify the higher price?

Re:Expensive

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The Pixel Qi screens are the evolutionary descendants of the OLCP ones, and might well have not traded off cost and quality quite as agressively; but I'm assuming that at least half of this price is the "It's a quantity-one sale of a previously unavailable item to a cost-insensitive enthusiast" premium.

The ruthless margin-slashers who do purchasing for the big OEMs are just going to give you a thousand-yard-stare and a hollow laugh if your quoted price is much above a standard LCD of the same size, so Pixel Qi are either utter morons, or offer much more reasonable terms in quantities of 10,000+

Plus, while the maker shed is a noble operation, and sometimes a useful place to get stuff that would be hard to find in small quantities elsewhere, they aren't what you would call an "everyday low prices" kind of operation...

Re:Expensive

[TheRaven64]

I thought one of the advantages of the Pixel Qi screens were its low price, as it was initially targeted to the OLPC

They have a pretty picture which explains the difference. Basically, the concept is the same, but the Pixel Qi displays have much better performance in trasflective and reflective modes (in terms of response times, anyway). The OLPC display is not really meant to be used for much beyond static text in reflective mode. The Pixel Qi displays are for more general use.

The advantage is not the price so much as the fact that you can use it while sitting outside in the sun, without having to squint.

Unfortunate...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

It's such a pity that they never settled on a standardized physical connector for the LVDS+backlight power connection that virtually all laptop screens use(are there any internal displayport devices in the wild yet?) Electrically, they are usually much the same, at least within a given size class(obviously, the current required for a 17inch DTR LCD backlight is going to be a little bit higher than that needed for a 8 inch netbook LCD, so a diffferent connector might be needed); but there was no real standardization. For basic economic reasons, and the fact that there are fewer OEMs than there are brand names, there are a lot of identical connectors lurking out there if you take a screwdriver to the problem; but there is nothing resembling a proper, consumer accessible, "standard", on the order of DVI or molex...

Re:Unfortunate...

[EdZ]

Even more annoyingly, many laptop display chipsets are locked to certain EDID strings, preventing you from swapping out displays whilly-nilly. I'd love to take a cheap laptop and swap in a 15" 2048x1536 LCD for the best e-reader in the world, but even if said laptop contained a chip that can drive a display that large (i.e. not something made by Intel) the chance is pretty high that swapping out any display other than one of the same model will result in no output at all.

Re:Unfortunate...

[jawtheshark]

I've done exactly that recently... Well, okay, it was a laptop with a broken screen which I got gifted. Laptop had an XGA screen and I gambled and ordered a new SXGA+ screen of the same size. (That particular laptop was sold with both resolutions originally) It works, but really doesn't. There are several issues:

• The EDID string: When I swapped the panel, the BIOS would complain that the panel wasn't supported: "F1 to resume, F2 for setup". I simply flashed the BIOS and that went away. I suspect the BIOS will accept anything from the panel when you reflash it while it's present in the laptop.
• Before the BIOS flashing, the brightness did not work at all, making the screen very dim.
• The cable connecting to the panel is important contrary to what I expected. While they look standard, they really aren't. The panel I have now does not display every other vertical line which gives a bit of a "vertically-interlaced" feeling. Up to 1024x768, the panel is usable (but the "interlacing" is visible). Anything above, is unusable. From my researches on the net, this seems to be that the flat cable between the graphics card and the panel misses some lines... Penny savings for the laptop manufacturer, but it stops you from upgrading.

All in all, upgrading a laptop panel is a big gamble than can backfire. I already spent 118€ for the panel (+shipping and handling) and 17€ on import taxes... That's a lot of money, and now I ordered a new cable which will surely jack up the price to at least another 25€ for the cable with shipping and handling (took the more expensive and slower "by post" shipping method, because DHL and UPS are both scammer that sur-tax you on import. They have a flat fee on top of the import tax... By postal services, low fees usually get waived. I've imported stuff from Japan for about the same price of the said panel and the import tax on that was waived... The difference being that it was sent by normal post... anyway, sorry for the rant).

It was an interesting experience, but I'm not sure if the laptop was worth 160€++ and many hours of my time. (Sure, it's a Core2Duo with 1GB RAM, but you can nearly get a new netbook for a bit more and less risk).

My advice thus: replacing a laptop panel, yes, but only with exactly the same resolution. Upgrading a laptop panel: no, not even if you have to fix it anyway in the first place.

How do you know if the connector is compatible?

[nis]

I have an asus 1005PE. How do I know whether the connector is compatible without taking my screen out?

Re:Short on an important detail: resolution

[Bill_the_Engineer]

I'm thinking around 1024 x 600 since that is the resolution of the two netbook models mentioned.

Of course it could be lower....

Re:Resolution?

[Daniel_Staal]

If it's like the OLPC screen, that's a semi-difficult question. It depends on the colors in the image you are displaying, and the lighting you are viewing it under.

The OLPC's screen, in pure black-and-white mode while front-lit, has basically four times the resolution it does when in back-lit full-color mode.

Bought one; the price is perfectly fine

[davide marney]

$275 for a DIY kit of a bleeding-edge technology is entirely reasonable. I've seen the OLPC 1 screen in action, and was very impressed; I'm sure this will be even better. For those wondering, the resolution is 1024x600; see Up Close and Personal with the Pixel Qi Display.

Re:Resolution?

[tverbeek]

OK, so then allow me to rephrase the question:

What are the resolutions on this thing?

Very interested... or was anyway

[soupforare]

I was very interested when they made this announcement a year(+?) ago. Even contacted the company with some questions. The price is out of my league for my, basically toy, uses though. I hope it comes down a bit eventually.

Programmer's display

[MSBob]

I wasn't aware of this company or its technology. But to me this is something that programmers would really enjoy (and other workers stuck in front of an LCD for 8+ hours a day). They need to get the size and resolution much higher up though. I'd pay north of $900 for something like this but in a 23" format with a resolution of 1920x1200 or higher.

Re:Resolution?

[grumbel]

It is not that difficult to answer for the OLPC. The resolution of the OLPC display is 1200x900. However the difference is that unlike a normal LCD it doesn't have a RGB triplet for each pixels, but only one of R, G or B per pixel. So to display a color you need multiple pixels, instead of one. However this doesn't mean that the resolution will be lower in color mode, it will simply look more blurry, the framebuffer stays 1200x900 the whole time.

What the OLPC does is pretty similar to what you see with subpixel rendering with fonts, it just does it the other way around. So instead of gaining resolution in displaying black&white, it loses resolution when doing color rendering. But it is just blurriness, its not like you switch from 1200x900 to a crystal clear 600x450 or something like that.

Liquavista electrowetting screen

[owlstead]

This screen (in different versions) should be available in a year or so (2nd half 2011):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6tzaIgZKs0

Link to working prototype demo - long video with lots of info:
- b&w & color options
- video
- dynamic refresh rate (power consumtion)
- high transmissive (up to 45 per cent more than LCD)
- transmissive, transflective and reflective options
- can be build using adapted LCD manufacturing equipment
- competitive in price with LCD technology (well, that's subjective, isn't it)

I wonder how they would compare.