A siemens C75 lcd-display on an Atmel micro-controller

Hello All,

  I'm not quite sure if I'm posting in the right newsgroup, but here goes :

I've just removed the display outof a Siemens C75 phone (which suffered a
broken "joystick" and is therefore discarded), and would like to connect it
to an Atmel microcontroller.

The problem is that I can't even seem to be able to find anthing about the
connections of that display (10 of them), let alone anything in relation to
how to communicate with it.

My question is therefore : Does anyone here know where I could find
information and/or datasheets to the above-mentioned display ?

Regards,
  Rudy Wieser

R.Wieser schreef:
> Hello All,
> 
>   I'm not quite sure if I'm posting in the right newsgroup, but here goes :
> 
> I've just removed the display outof a Siemens C75 phone (which suffered a
> broken "joystick" and is therefore discarded), and would like to connect it
> to an Atmel microcontroller.
> 
> The problem is that I can't even seem to be able to find anthing about the
> connections of that display (10 of them), let alone anything in relation to
> how to communicate with it.
> 
> My question is therefore : Does anyone here know where I could find
> information and/or datasheets to the above-mentioned display ?

Here http://www.ddrservice.net/download/GSM/Siemens/CX70.rar.html You 
can download a package with the schematics of that telephone, there is 
nothing in there about the internals of the display however, I hope You 
will get something usefull out of it.

Is there nowhere some small print on the diplay indicating a type number 
or so?

Wishing You good luck!
Yours sincerely,
Rene

P.S. I know it is not what You want but nowadays You can find relatively 
cheap pretty LCD's e.g. on Ebay, they usually come with documentation.

On Jun 6, 6:20=A0pm, "R.Wieser" <addr...@not.available> wrote:

> I've just removed the display outof a Siemens C75 phone (which suffered a
> broken "joystick" and is therefore discarded), and would like to connect =
it
> to an Atmel microcontroller.

Getting data can be very, *very* challenging. I use recycled cellphone
LCDs in personal projects quite frequently, and I've found the best
approach is to start by buying phones for which someone has already
reverse-engineered the connections and init code, or at least knows
what the display controller chip is. Even once you have this
information, it is often not trivial to work out how to turn on the
LCD, particularly color LCDs, because many options in the chip
datasheet will say "adjust for specific application" or will be mask-
programmed/strapped to special settings. I have boxes of hundreds of
phones here for which I have still not been able to get the LCDs
working for any useful project. However I found a surplus vendor who
sold me a load of Ericsson T68 LCDs (color) and Nokia 51xx and
22x0/33x0 LCDs (mono) and these have been occupying me happily for a
while. <http://www.larwe.com/technical/2260lcd.html>

Given the small number of pins, the interface on your display is 99%
certain to be either SPI, or "half-SPI" (no MISO line) or I2C. So
begin by scoping out the original PCB, which will let you work out the
interface and power pins. Then - and yes it's tedious - work out
exactly what the phone tells the LCD between powerup and first data
appearing on the display. You can then compare against various
datasheets and do some detective work based on the command bytes you
see, the resolution of the display, and any other characteristics you
can identify.

On Jun 7, 6:25=A0am, Rene <a...@b.c> wrote:

> Herehttp://www.ddrservice.net/download/GSM/Siemens/CX70.rar.htmlYou

ARGH! They did not set their MIME types correctly, and the link is
hidden behind JavaScript, so it can only be opened in a browser
window. I hate that! But interesting site....

Hello Rene,

> Here http://www.ddrservice.net/download/GSM/Siemens/CX70.rar.html
> You can download a package with the schematics of that telephone, there
> is nothing in there about the internals of the display however, I hope You
> will get something usefull out of it.

Thanks for the link.  I've even found a document or the C75 (the one the
display comes from), but as its hidden behind obsfucated JavaScript I
currently cannot download it.  It'll have to wait until I get accessto a
computer that does ...

> Is there nowhere some small print on the diplay indicating a type
> number or so?

I can only partially decipher a number, and not even with certainty.   It
starts with a vertically-mirrored R connected to an U.  Than comes UC, DLB
or DL8, 4305 or 43DS, followed by cv4 in even smaller print.

I've googeled for a few combinations, but had no luck in finding anything.

> P.S. I know it is not what You want but nowadays You can find
> relatively cheap pretty LCD's e.g. on Ebay, they usually come
> with documentation.

Yes, that would be a lot easier.  But somehow getting those to work is not
as interresting as getting this one to work ... What can I say, I'm a
hobbyist. :-)

Regards,
  Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message
Rene <a@b.c> schreef in berichtnieuws 4a2b95b1$1_4@news4us.nl...
> R.Wieser schreef:
> > Hello All,
> >
> >   I'm not quite sure if I'm posting in the right newsgroup, but here
goes :
> >
> > I've just removed the display outof a Siemens C75 phone (which suffered
a
> > broken "joystick" and is therefore discarded), and would like to connect
it
> > to an Atmel microcontroller.
> >
> > The problem is that I can't even seem to be able to find anthing about
the
> > connections of that display (10 of them), let alone anything in relation
to
> > how to communicate with it.
> >
> > My question is therefore : Does anyone here know where I could find
> > information and/or datasheets to the above-mentioned display ?
>
> Here http://www.ddrservice.net/download/GSM/Siemens/CX70.rar.html You
> can download a package with the schematics of that telephone, there is
> nothing in there about the internals of the display however, I hope You
> will get something usefull out of it.
>
> Is there nowhere some small print on the diplay indicating a type number
> or so?
>
> Wishing You good luck!
> Yours sincerely,
> Rene
>
> P.S. I know it is not what You want but nowadays You can find relatively
> cheap pretty LCD's e.g. on Ebay, they usually come with documentation.

On Jun 7, 5:15=A0pm, "R.Wieser" <addr...@not.available> wrote:

> starts with a vertically-mirrored R connected to an U. =A0Than comes UC, =
DLB

That's an Underwriters' Labs marking, not the part number..

In fact the schematic will not help you much, because it only tells
you the p/n for the connector. However it does give you the pinout and
it seems to be the modified SPI type interface.

1 - DISPLAY_RS
2 - DISPLAY_RESET
3 - DISPLAY_CS1
4 - DISPLAY_CLK
5 - DISPLAY_DAT
6 - 2.9V [appears to be Vcc for the driver]
7 - GND
8 - 1.8V_CIF [appears to be Vio supply]
9 - VBOOST
10 - LIGHT_DISP

From the schematic it appears some variants have EL backlighting. This
will be a pain to get working.

You have many happy hours with your oscilloscope ahead of you.

In article <4a2c2d0c$0$5070$e4fe514c@dreader29.news.xs4all.nl>, 
address@not.available says...
> Hello Rene,
> 
> > Here http://www.ddrservice.net/download/GSM/Siemens/CX70.rar.html
> > You can download a package with the schematics of that telephone, there
> > is nothing in there about the internals of the display however, I hope You
> > will get something usefull out of it.
> 
> Thanks for the link.  I've even found a document or the C75 (the one the
> display comes from), but as its hidden behind obsfucated JavaScript I
> currently cannot download it.  It'll have to wait until I get accessto a
> computer that does ...
> 
> > Is there nowhere some small print on the diplay indicating a type
> > number or so?
> 
> I can only partially decipher a number, and not even with certainty.   It
> starts with a vertically-mirrored R connected to an U. 

That's a symbol indicating that the display is UL Recognized, or that 
the manufacturer is UL Registered, so it's possible it was submitted to 
UL for testing or compliance with some rating.

--Gene

Hello zws(?)

> > starts with a vertically-mirrored R connected to an U. Than comes UC,
DLB

> That's an Underwriters' Labs marking, not the part number..

Its the only number that comes near to looking like a serial-number.  The
only other number was on a sticker (6301.4), which I don't think is it.

--- Oops ...

I only looked at the print itself.  It appears there is another number on
the side of the display : LPH9157-2 G5481502.

I've just did a quick google for that first part, and came up with
(effective) 1.5 pages of results, most of them datasheet search sites and a
number in Russian.  In short, not directly helpfull

> However it does give you the pinout and
> it seems to be the modified SPI type interface.
<snip pinout>

Thanks.  Thats more than I've been able to find myself.

> You have many happy hours with your oscilloscope ahead of you.

:-) Either that or I'll throw the thing away.

Regards,
  Rudy Wieser


-- Origional message
<zwsdotcom@gmail.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
aa9095d1-eb40-444d-ae01-0436cfdf19b5@21g2000vbk.googlegroups.com...
On Jun 7, 5:15 pm, "R.Wieser" <addr...@not.available> wrote:

> starts with a vertically-mirrored R connected to an U. Than comes UC, DLB

That's an Underwriters' Labs marking, not the part number..

In fact the schematic will not help you much, because it only tells
you the p/n for the connector. However it does give you the pinout and
it seems to be the modified SPI type interface.

1 - DISPLAY_RS
2 - DISPLAY_RESET
3 - DISPLAY_CS1
4 - DISPLAY_CLK
5 - DISPLAY_DAT
6 - 2.9V [appears to be Vcc for the driver]
7 - GND
8 - 1.8V_CIF [appears to be Vio supply]
9 - VBOOST
10 - LIGHT_DISP

From the schematic it appears some variants have EL backlighting. This
will be a pain to get working.

You have many happy hours with your oscilloscope ahead of you.

On Jun 10, 4:35=A0am, "R.Wieser" <addr...@not.available> wrote:
> Hello zws(?)

Lewin :) <http://www.zws.com/>

> I only looked at the print itself. =A0It appears there is another number =
on
> the side of the display : LPH9157-2 G5481502.

Ah. I don't know who makes them - I guess Sharp but could easily be
wrong - but very many cellphones use LCDs with part numbers beginning
with LPH (google "LPH LCD display").

> (effective) 1.5 pages of results, most of them datasheet search sites and=
 a
> number in Russian. =A0In short, not directly helpfull

The datasheet does exist, you just can't get it without maybe paying
for it :)

> > You have many happy hours with your oscilloscope ahead of you.
>
> :-) Either that or I'll throw the thing away.

I have not generally found it worth my while to reverse-engineer and
tinker for days if I have only one of any particular device.

If you give up and could use some smaller (101x80) 256-color displays
for which I can actually give you the pinout and known-good
initialization code, let me know. I would donate a couple to an
interesting project. They come from Ericsson T68 phones I believe.

I also have lots of the Nokia 84x48 monochrome LCDs lying about, I
could part with a few of them if they would be helpful. Very easy to
use, again I have some sample code you could have but there is also a
lot around on the net.

Oh, and I have something like 250 Motorola CDMA phones waiting to be
salvaged, they are tragically very difficult to repurpose but they do
contain a module featuring one large (QVGA-ish) resolution color TFT
LCD and a small monochrome LCD :) Unfortunately the display part of
these phones is a metal can spot-welded together, and inside we find
an enormous and complicated flexible circuit heat-bonded onto the
LCDs. One look at the main LCD and I can see that it is a parallel
type requiring an external controller IC - not something you could
drive easily from an 8-bit micro. So I have kind of given up on those,
and they are in two large boxes in my attic.