Poll

What is your favorite technolgy used for displays?

LED
12 (25.5%)
Numeric LCD (7 segment, 14/16 segment, 5x7 matrix)
4 (8.5%)
Graphic LCD (Pixels)
13 (27.7%)
VFD
11 (23.4%)
Other (Name Below)
7 (14.9%)

Total Members Voted: 47

Author Topic: Poll: Favorite Display Technology  (Read 4193 times)

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Offline Infrared_FredTopic starter

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Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« on: February 18, 2021, 06:55:53 pm »
Tell us about your favorite display technology and why.  (Computer Screens, TVs, etc. don't count for this, please)

Edit:
JSYK I found this Maxim Integrated application Note (#1193) comparing various display technologies. 
« Last Edit: February 22, 2021, 03:29:21 pm by Infrared_Fred »
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Offline jpanhalt

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2021, 07:11:04 pm »
I choose the best display for the project at hand.  As they say, different horses for different courses.

No favorite per se of the ones you mention, however, OLED's are nice.
 
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Offline james_s

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2021, 07:42:01 pm »
My favorite is still CRT, OLED is next on the list though. High contrast ratio, wide viewing angle, no color distortion as viewing angle changes.
 
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Offline wraper

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2021, 08:02:08 pm »
OLED is very dubious to use if you want long term reliability. Sure OLED TVs produced right now have decent lifetime. But good luck assessing how long some small display will last. They degrade even when not in operation.
 

Offline bd139

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2021, 08:06:10 pm »
Graphic LCD:

- works in the dark with backlight
- works in the light with sunlight
- cheap
- lasts long time
- generally easy to source replacements.
 

Offline tom66

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #5 on: February 18, 2021, 08:07:41 pm »
Graphic VFD, or OLED for cost/power constrained applications.
 

Offline bdunham7

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #6 on: February 18, 2021, 08:24:25 pm »
The question doesn't specify exactly what information you are displaying, but if it is simple enough to use a 7-segment display, I routinely see equipment with 7-segment LEDs that work fine after 40+ years of hard use.  Nothing comes close in durability.  If you need a more complex display, LED-backlit LCD is probably the way to go. 

OLED is very dubious to use if you want long term reliability. Sure OLED TVs produced right now have decent lifetime. But good luck assessing how long some small display will last. They degrade even when not in operation.

They're beyond dubious.  We'll see about the TVs, but for consumer electronics and test equipment alike, a dead unobtanium OLED is becoming a leading cause of some pretty nice stuff turning into e-waste.  It's infuriating and entirely unnecessary.
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Offline schmitt trigger

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #7 on: February 18, 2021, 08:49:38 pm »
Nixies rule the World!  :horse:

Now seriously, for ultra low power products, LCDs are the way to go.
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Offline penfold

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #8 on: February 18, 2021, 09:32:40 pm »
(Since you didn't mention a purpose, my mind just assumed context of a bench top multimeter or psu as something one might pitch each of those technologies against one another... otherwise, its totally application specific)

I would never question somebody's decision to design in a graphic LCD, they are just so configurable. But I do like the simplicity and old-school aesthetic of single row of segment LEDs or VFD. I've not found an instrument with a graphic LCD and menu interface I prefer over having a PC app for anything more advanced than visually reading a single value from the front panel.
 
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Offline Cyberdragon

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2021, 01:54:06 am »
Nimo tubes...
*BZZZZZZAAAAAP*
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Offline AntiProtonBoy

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #10 on: February 19, 2021, 02:03:00 am »
VFD always fascinated me.
 

Offline Sal Ammoniac

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #11 on: February 19, 2021, 03:16:17 am »
OLED is very dubious to use if you want long term reliability.

^^This. I have several boards and devices with small OLED displays and most of them have blocks of dead and/or dim pixels already, after only a few years. I also have several similar boards/devices with small LCD displays, and none of them have display degradation like the boards with OLED displays, despite some of them being much older than the ones with OLEDs.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2021, 04:11:47 pm by Sal Ammoniac »
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Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #12 on: February 19, 2021, 03:38:21 am »
The Charactron or whatever generated those amazing screens of data in Mission Control back in the Apollo days.

https://moon.nasa.gov/resources/234/view-of-activity-in-mission-control-center-during-apollo-15-eva/

And, of course, the Eidophor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eidophor

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Offline james_s

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #13 on: February 19, 2021, 05:40:19 am »
The Eidophor is fascinating, it's one of those things that is more like the experiment of a mad scientist and hard to believe that it was viable as a commercial product but it sure was neat. It's too bad more of them haven't survived.
 

Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #14 on: February 19, 2021, 06:38:40 am »
I wonder if Shirley Bassey singing This is My Life has an Eidophor doing that rear projection thing



It's still impressive today.
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Offline steve30

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #15 on: February 19, 2021, 10:30:35 am »
I'll have to vote for VFD, as they just look really nice. However, in practice, it will depend on the application.
 

Online Siwastaja

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #16 on: February 19, 2021, 10:42:30 am »
Nothing beats 7-segment LEDs for numerical display, indicator LEDs for status, and so on, as long as the application is simple enough (and non-changing). I try to go that way whenever possible. Do use modern high-intensity LEDs though to make the display sunlight-readable. Automatic intensity adjustment with ambient light sensor recommended.
 

Offline gnuarm

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #17 on: February 19, 2021, 10:49:38 am »
I like ePaper.  Most or at least *many* displays do not require frequent updating.  My house thermostat updates maybe every five seconds.  Easy peasy for ePaper.  They are still a bit pricey if they aren't tiny though.  So not for the low end.  But their clarity and contrast simply can't be beat... in any lighting. 
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Offline Syntax Error

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #18 on: February 19, 2021, 12:15:17 pm »
Best, IPS monitors.

OLED is very dubious to use if you want long term reliability. Sure OLED TVs produced right now have decent lifetime. But good luck assessing how long some small display will last. They degrade even when not in operation.
I was going to add exactly the same point. My original Oled display is somewhat dimmer than when new. I understand being 'organic' means the molecules fall apart in UV daylight.

I would rate e-ink/paper if it didn't do that annoying inverse-blink thing on rewrite.

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« Last Edit: February 19, 2021, 12:24:31 pm by Syntax Error »
 

Offline james_s

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #19 on: February 19, 2021, 05:23:34 pm »
OLED seems to be highly variable. I have had some small (cheap) displays deteriorate very quickly while others have lasted a long time and still look nice. My friend got an OLED TV about 3 years ago and it's still going strong but that's only one data point. My brother bought one more recently so that will eventually be another. They look amazing, and I suppose a TV is a bit different than something like a piece of test gear. The display in a TV is for all practical purposes the entire TV, it's not like an expensive piece of test gear where the display is only a small component of the overall unit.
 

Offline Nusa

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #20 on: February 19, 2021, 05:30:30 pm »
Mechanical. Like airport display boards used to be decades ago.

Nixie. Actually not quite dead, but expensive compared to alternatives.

Neon. Think Famous Vegas animated signs from the past, a few of which survive.

Skywriting. No refresh, slow erase, very expensive.
 
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Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #21 on: February 19, 2021, 10:07:45 pm »
I like the funky easy and cheap "annunciators" on the Tektronix 1S2 plugin.

https://w140.com/tekwiki/images/thumb/f/f1/Tek_1s2_e_2.jpg/800px-Tek_1s2_e_2.jpg
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Offline daqq

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #22 on: February 19, 2021, 10:15:07 pm »
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Offline IDEngineer

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #23 on: February 20, 2021, 05:20:34 pm »
My analysis is based on the primary role of a "display": To convey information. All other considerations are secondary, though they might matter based on environment.

Overall winner: LCD. Can be made visible in any amount of light from absolute darkness to intense sunlight. Ultra-low power and "normal" voltages. Reasonably rugged. Near-infinite design options from seven-segment to dot matrix to full-on custom graphics. Monochrome or color. Reasonably fast refresh rates (but can suffer in cold temps). Straightforward control algorithms (can be real-time from MCU/CPU in many cases).

LED's win for longevity and ruggedness but suffer in bright ambient light.

I have an emotional fondness for a traditional CRT but let's be honest, it's inferior to at least one other modern display technology in every parameter. Hard to manufacture, fragile, require (usually) otherwise unnecessary high voltages, awkward form factor, bulky, burn-in, requires post-manufacture alignment, sensitive to external fields, the list is endless. They're basically a crutch until technology made better options possible. In some ways it's amazing that they could be manufactured in any volume for the prices that were ultimately achieved; those electron gun assemblies were simultaneously the most precision and the least appreciated devices most people would encounter in their lives.

By extension, any display technology relying on a vacuum is near the bottom of the list for many of the same reasons: Fragility, usually voltage, volume consumed, usually susceptible to some form of aging, etc.

ePaper is very clever for the niches it can serve. So too are the various other mechanical indicators like those used in very large outdoor signs, but again limited to specific applications.

Overally it's hard to beat LCD's for the wide range of use cases they satisfy while consuming almost no power doing it. You might need a backlight in near darkness, but otherwise they actually get more visible with increasing illumination... and after all, the job of a display is to be visible.
 

Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: Poll: Favorite Display Technology
« Reply #24 on: February 20, 2021, 05:25:31 pm »
those electron gun assemblies were simultaneously the most precision and the least appreciated devices most people would encounter in their lives.

I'd go for VCR head drum for that title, with hard disk and floppy disk heads as runners up, and honorable mentions to reel to reel heads.
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