Elekstube IPS displays - does anybody know them?

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

I am a big fan of "glow-in-the-dark"-displays of all kind, for calculators as well as for other objects. This includes Nixie clocks (I have two readymade ones, two selfmade ones and engough parts to make two or three more...).

Recently I have come across the "Elekstube IPS" clock, made in China obviously. A description and review can be found here: http://www.tubeclockdb.com/non-tube-cloc...ul-andrews Every digit is a little color LCD screen about 25mm (one inch) high and with a good resolution (135x240 pixels). One can select from a range of supplied display styles but it is also possible to upload one's own images. Even grey-on-grey 14 segment HP-41 style digits if one would wish so...

Now these displays would be very useful for a DIY desktop calculator if only one could buy them separately. Therefore my question: Has anyone seen anything like it yet or happens to know a source for them?

Of course I coudn't resist and ordered one of these clocks from Aliexpress (101 Euros shipping included). But it will take a couple of weeks until it gets here.

Regards
Max

[toml_12953]

(01-18-2021 02:40 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Recently I have come across the "Elekstube IPS" clock, made in China obviously. Every digit is a little color LCD screen about 25mm (one inch) high and with a good resolution (135x240 pixels). One can select from a range of supplied display styles but it is also possible to upload one's own images. Even grey-on-grey 14 segment HP-41 style digits if one would wish so...

Those are so cool! I've always been partial to orange-colored displays and these give the user even more options (always a good thing)

[Martin Hepperle]

(01-18-2021 02:40 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  [...] a little color LCD screen about 25mm (one inch) high and with a good resolution (135x240 pixels).
[...]

Max,

to me this looks just like one of the usual displays like this one
https://www.ebay.de/itm/1-14-Inch-TFT-Di...Sw7qRdzYP~
Costs about $10 per display.

I think the "trick" lies in creating the photorealistic images for e.g. LED or Nixie digits. The result is really nice, I agree.

Martin

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello Martin,

(01-19-2021 01:08 PM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  to me this looks just like one of the usual displays like this one
https://www.ebay.de/itm/1-14-Inch-TFT-Di...Sw7qRdzYP~
Costs about $10 per display.

It looks as these are the displays used by the clock. Just the PCBs are different. With that input I found them on Alixepress as well, at 2,07 Euros a piece (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/400014396...web201603_).
There is also a square (240 by 240 pixel) version for 2,19 Euros (https://de.aliexpress.com/item/329959532...web201603_).
The latter ones look even better for a DIY calculator because they provide enough extra space for signs and decimal points.

The controller used by these displays (ST7789) seems to be quite capable and can do a lot on it's own. It is controlled by an SPI interface which requires just three wires for all digits and a chip select line for each single one. Even a multi-digit display can easily be handled by an Arduino unless one wants to upload complete bitmaps to the displays: One single bitmap would be 120kB large - three times the memory space of an Arduino Uno or Nano.

(01-19-2021 01:08 PM)Martin Hepperle Wrote:  I think the "trick" lies in creating the photorealistic images for e.g. LED or Nixie digits. The result is really nice, I agree.

The easiest way would probably to take (macro) photographs of real displays and use these. An ESP8266 / NodeMCU type microcontroller board should easily be able to handle the amount of Bytes required.

I will wait for my clock to arrive and if it looks good order some of these 2-Euro-Displays and see what can be done...

Regards
Max

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello,

old thread, but after a veeeery long and patient wait I finally got my "Elekstube" clock last week. The first seller on Aliexpress cancelled my order after four weeks - the status had already been set to "shipped" for some reason so I expected it's delivery every day - saying that he was out of stock, and reimbursed my money. Next I bought if from a different seller on eBay for 10 Euros more. After a few days he sent a mail apologising that his supplier only makes the clocks in batches and is currently out of stock, and if I wanted to wait a couple of weeks of have my money back instead. I chose to wait and finally got my clock. Luckily it went straight through customs without any extra duties.

It is by far the best made Chinese gadget that I ever bought. The housing is made of anodised aluminium, the little glass (or rather polycarbonate) domes over the "tubes" make the LCDs really look like nixies. It works perfectly well and the virtual nixie tubes look really nice. The screens are bright enough to read them in sunlight.

So next I am going to order a dozen of the display screens and see if I can use them for a calculator project. If they are on the same short supply as the clocks then this may take another three months or so.

Regards
Max

NB: This is a photo of the "Elekstube" next to a real nixie clock

[Terje Vallestad]

Looks good, may need to get one of these
Thank you for posting.

Cheers, Terje

[BobVA]

Those would make an interesting calculator! Particularly with split-card numbers :-)
Thanks for the update!!


FYI Mat did a recent video review: