Fluke 8050A Display Upgrade

[kelchm]

I will be using this thread to track progress on my Fluke 8050A display upgrade project. This is really my first project of this sort. While I've tinkered with Arduinos from time to time and have a basic understanding of electronics, I wanted to take on a project that would force me to learn new things, particularly around embedded programming and driving LCDs.

The idea of replacing the 8050A display with a graphical TFT isn't a new idea and has been done several times over (1, 2, 3) already. I will be putting my own spin on it by using a 2.4" LCD rather than the 2.2" that has been used in the past. It's a tight fit, but I think the end result will be worth the effort.

At this point I've made some initial selections for hardware. I've decided to go with a Newhaven Display NHD-2.4-240320CF-CSXN#-F. This is a sunlight readable TFT with a resolution of 240x320 and a maximum brightness of 1000 cd/m2. For the microcontroller I've settled on a Teensy 3.5 for it's capable CPU, large amount of IO and 5V tolerant digital inputs.

[kelchm]

Just getting started with connecting up the display. This is my first time ever breadboarding anything. I was way too excited just to get the backlight to turn on.

Also quickly realizing that I'm going to need more than one bench power supply to complete this project.