In this video, I reverse engineered an LCD from a Uniden cordless phone. For technical details and Arduino code, please take a look at www.kerrywong.c...
This is amazing... Two or three weeks ago I was contemplating exactly the same thing, with the exact same handset, and someone beat me to it! Great work! The display is really quite nice. Should be pretty easy to transplant it into a custom project with a new backlight, too.
Even 6 years ago, we had much nicer OLED displays for cheap, but it's still worth reverse engineering to stick it to the secretive LCD manufacturers who deliberately make interfacing with their products nearly impossible.
I recently reversed the OLED screens in the LG cordless phones I had here.. what a pain in the ass. The radios in those phones are easier to reverse though, pretty much serial data and they are modules usually just daughtered on the main board and have a fair amount of GPIO's you can use if you can work out the firmware and so on..
I think I'm gonna stop dragging my feet and finally buy a Bus Pirate or/and a Shikra. Shikra looks more robust and powerful, but their course summary mentions using a Bus Pirate in class too, even though it looks like the Shikra handles the same and more protocols (I think maybe the bus pirate can auto-detect some things that the shikra needs specified, like baud rate?)
Yeah. This thing is working. But I'm getting problems with charge pump. But when I manage to give around 2 volts from external source to PIN 1. IT WORKS AND 1uf CAP ALONE WON'T WORK I think
You should have 100 x the subscribers. Your videos are great. Maybe start leaving comments on Clive's, AeV's, w2aew, etc., sites and any others that are not sponsor driven. Those sites will get you branded as a channel seeking free stuff for good reviews. You don't want that.
How do you figure out what pins are to power the backlight and what voltage to supply to it? I have a screen from a 3d printer that shows the information from it but you cannot see what is on the screen as the backlight quit. How would you go about trouble shooting the backlight? I found a 6 pin driver I believe by the coil and diode for the backlight but cannot find information on the chip anywhere! (07AA) Thanks for any help.
Even though you reverse engineered the display, what could you use the LCD for apart from just this example. What project did you have in mind. Have you done anything with it?
Do you think this procedure works with other kinds of phones? I looked around at thrift stores and couldn't find any Unidens but there are lots of Panasonics.
It depends on what kind of LCD is used in the phones. If you see a zebra strip or a lot of wires chances are that the LCD is parallel and it would be very cumbersome to work with. But LCDs with serial protocols can be decoded using the method I used.
Except for the ground, only the four pins on the right are used. These are CMD (pin 9) SCK (pin 13) MOSI (pin 11) and CS (pin 10). MISO is not used. Hope it helps. MOSI is not explicitly specified in the code as it is only used in the SPI library.
That was fun! Thanks Kerry. Joel
You are welcome!
This is amazing... Two or three weeks ago I was contemplating exactly the same thing, with the exact same handset, and someone beat me to it! Great work!
The display is really quite nice. Should be pretty easy to transplant it into a custom project with a new backlight, too.
Super interesting video. Would love to see more reverse engineering.
Being a yard sale and thrift shop troll I now have a new mission...very good presentation...
Even 6 years ago, we had much nicer OLED displays for cheap, but it's still worth reverse engineering to stick it to the secretive LCD manufacturers who deliberately make interfacing with their products nearly impossible.
There's a lovely cordless phone with a heavy aluminum base (can't remember the make off hand) that has an ARM processor and clearly marked
Perfect timing, Kerry. I recently salvaged some similar handsets. Big thumbs up.
Thanks Peter!
Good video!
Thanks!
I recently reversed the OLED screens in the LG cordless phones I had here.. what a pain in the ass. The radios in those phones are easier to reverse though, pretty much serial data and they are modules usually just daughtered on the main board and have a fair amount of GPIO's you can use if you can work out the firmware and so on..
Great work, I learned a lot :-)
Glad you learned something!
I think I'm gonna stop dragging my feet and finally buy a Bus Pirate or/and a Shikra.
Shikra looks more robust and powerful, but their course summary mentions using a Bus Pirate in class too, even though it looks like the Shikra handles the same and more protocols (I think maybe the bus pirate can auto-detect some things that the shikra needs specified, like baud rate?)
doesnt get much easier than that! nice little display salvage:)
Yeah. This thing is working. But I'm getting problems with charge pump.
But when I manage to give around 2 volts from external source to PIN 1. IT WORKS AND 1uf CAP ALONE WON'T WORK I think
You should have 100 x the subscribers. Your videos are great. Maybe start leaving comments on Clive's, AeV's, w2aew, etc., sites and any others that are not sponsor driven.
Those sites will get you branded as a channel seeking free stuff for good reviews. You don't want that.
Thank for your advice! I appreciate it.
I must own a multi analyzer now. You can make an ardphoino remote controller with IR and RF / wifi
I loved this video man! Do you have more like this!
Well done
spying the spi protocol
How do you figure out what pins are to power the backlight and what voltage to supply to it? I have a screen from a 3d printer that shows the information from it but you cannot see what is on the screen as the backlight quit. How would you go about trouble shooting the backlight? I found a 6 pin driver I believe by the coil and diode for the backlight but cannot find information on the chip anywhere! (07AA) Thanks for any help.
where does pin 5,6,7 and 8 go?
Even though you reverse engineered the display, what could you use the LCD for apart from just this example. What project did you have in mind. Have you done anything with it?
Do you think this procedure works with other kinds of phones? I looked around at thrift stores and couldn't find any Unidens but there are lots of Panasonics.
It depends on what kind of LCD is used in the phones. If you see a zebra strip or a lot of wires chances are that the LCD is parallel and it would be very cumbersome to work with. But LCDs with serial protocols can be decoded using the method I used.
Did you ever make a list of what all the LCD pins do and which Arduino pins they go to in order to make it work?
what the heck is a house phone?
LOL, it's the phone in my house.
Were you able to find out what pins 4 and 5 were for?
pin 4 is always pulled to Vcc so it could be just an enable pin, pin 5 is the command pin (see my code which it is tied to Arduino D9)
In the Arduino code you list 5 pins: MOSI, MISO, SCK, CS and CMD but never defined all of them. Is SCK pin6? Which one is MISO?
Except for the ground, only the four pins on the right are used. These are CMD (pin 9) SCK (pin 13) MOSI (pin 11) and CS (pin 10). MISO is not used. Hope it helps. MOSI is not explicitly specified in the code as it is only used in the SPI library.
I literally have those phones too
im screwd with my 128 pin screen XD