6 reasons why the character display still remains relevant

A simple character display still holds its place even in today's era of graphical displays. We have summarised six reasons why these displays are still very popular when developing simpler applications.
This is an archive article published 08/26/2021. Some information may no longer be up to date and in line with the current state. Please contact us in case of interest.

When looking at today’s devices, mainly from the commercial segment, one can easily feel that the best days of character (alphanumeric) displays are already gone.

However, the offer of graphic displays is still getting bigger, whether monochromatic or full-colour (RGB) TFT, while the offer of character displays is more-less stable or decreases.

The graphic display, where you can control every pixel, has undeniable advantages in displaying virtually anything. However, the constant interest in character displays proves that they still hold their place, especially in applications that do not require sophisticated graphic output.

6 reasons to choose a character display when developing a product

  1. Extremely simple operation. Even a new designer is usually able to run an application with a character display. You only need to study basic information about the communication interface of the display, its initialisation and timing (depending on the controller used), and the character set contains.
  2. Minimal memory and performance requirements of the superior microcontroller, resulting in lower total equipment costs.
  3. Easy migration between different versions of character displays thanks to standard controllers, which are often almost 100% compatible with each other.
  4. Relatively simple upgrade from a smaller display to a display with more characters.
  5. Almost every controller allows you to define several custom characters and symbols that the controller did not have predefined. 
  6. When we add the possibility to make a "quantum leap" in the form of the transition from LCD to increasingly affordable OLED character displays, moreover with a minimal redesign of the device, we get enough reasons to stick to character displays for some applications.

The decision about the colour (technology) of the display + backlight is solely up to you. The combination that you prefer is many times just about personal preferences. Still popular are yellow-green positives, blue-white negatives, as well as black-white positives and other combinations. 

A wide range of LCD character modules and OLED character displays Bolymin can be found in our stock offer. We can also provide any character display from Winstar upon request.

If you are interested in any displays, we will be happy to help you choose the right one for your application at sales@soselectronic.com.

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