Another forum member recently posted a link to this LCD screen as a killer deal:
http://iteadstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3&products_id=54I decided to purchase one to play with. It comes with a 3.2" TFT LCD screen, HX8347-A controller, touch screen, and SD card reader. I would like to interface this device between various Atmel AVR products but I see one road block. Apparently the board requires 40 pins for the LCD control. This would blow a lot of my development board out of the water if the device was plugged directly in. Some would not have enough pins to operate the LCD + touch and others would be able to operate the device but provide no room for additional sensors.
My question therefore is...Does a chip exist (such as a shift register or something) that would limit the pins? Could I possibly take this design and convert it to a serial/spi interface? Should I instead incorporate one MCU that would handle the user interface and pair it with another that would perform the other needed functions?
I am concerned about which route to take. I do not want to degrade performance of the screen, touch, sd etc. I do not want to use all of my mcu pins. Nor do I want to over complicate and under utilize components in my design.
Note: I am currently looking at 8-bit all the way up to arm for potential solutions for this and other projects as I would like to possibly make this screen part of my dev kit for any projects that might warrant a touch screen LCD.
As always, thx in advance for your suggestions.