What kind of displays are there?

[Thinkcat]

Hello

My own intention is to use a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B as a small desktop computer or a toy server. This might not be the actual or final use case, but this determines the kind of display I'm interested in. Something priced clearly below 200 € and clearly smaller than 15 inches.

In eBay, Amazon and such there are displays that are

• only panels with some control circuitry
• panels with an enclosure and a place for the Pi
• normal encased displays with connectors

Then, of all these, there are

• displays with some kind of touch functionality
• displays without any touch functionality

And there are cases where

• display's maximum resolution is its physical resolution
• display advertises a large resolution and can accept it, but only has a meager physical resolution

And there are displays which

• can be powered using any USB connection
• can be powered via USB 3 or USB C
• need a 12 V power source or a power brick

Then there are displays which

• are intended for monitoring, and have screw holes for a VESA 75 mount
• are intended for embedding, and lack compatibility with mounting hardware

It seems like there are displays of quite many sizes and resolutions available, at least without touch. I am really interested in the actual, physical resolution of a display, and I wonder if anyone has any use for a display that can take FHD signal but only has a 480 x 320 physical resolution.

There are Eyoyo displays for sale in both German and UK Amazon. Once one looks at the product description of any display, there is some confusion about resolutions and such. A 1280 x 800 display is suddenly 1024 x 800. Then there is a display with 1920 x 1280 resolution in the title, and in product details it's 1920 x 1200, but one is left guessing if it is 1920 x 1080 after all.

Then there are some 2560 x 1440 displays, which do mention Raspberry Pi in the product description, even though I wonder how is the maximum resolution going to work. One example is Ashata 13.3" which can be powered by USB if you have 2 A available.

Then there are Johnwill FHD monitors that are of the type that is suitable to be used as a secondary display with a laptop. But they do seem to also have the VESA 75 mount.

I could imagine some different use cases for the non-embedded purposes. Lots of these have to do with getting one display and then using it in a dual-purpose fashion with either Pi and a laptop or another computer or with Pi in different situations.

Use case one is a console for a home server. An USB-powered and HDMI-connected, smaller than 10".

Use case two is a laptop companion display, 10" to 15.6", FHD, USB powered.

Use case three is a plain standalone monitor, like an ordinary PC monitor, except smaller.

Decisions, decisions. All good decisions start with gathering enough information.

[Andyroo]

A lot of the home server software does not need a display on it.

Samba (the basis of lots of file sharing software) can be controlled via a plain file. This can be edited via SSH

More complex system such as FreeNAS and Nextcloud use a web server to give you access from any computer on the network.

Even if you do have a desktop controlled NAS (I’m actually struggling to think of one) then you could tuck the machine away and use VNC to control it the few times that you need to.

I find the NAS boxes I’ve set up over the years are just left to chug away in the corner of the room (or roof in one case) and checked on every now and then with status via email. The only time they had a screen attached was during initial set up of the OS and that’s minutes with the Pi. Synology boxes cannot have a screen put on them

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

well, some things don't make sense to me ... i.e. USB powering a 15.6in display .. might be challenging.

Why don't you i.e.buy something like this https://www.pollin.de/p/raspberry-pi-lc ... ung-121564

There are tons of such 'small monitors' available to the market.

[B.Goode]

All good decisions start with gathering enough information.

You don't mention having gathered information about the Raspberry Pi Foundation touchscreen display for the RPi: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/ra ... h-display/

[Thinkcat]

well, some things don't make sense to me ... i.e. USB powering a 15.6in display .. might be challenging.

There are many such "laptop companion" displays. This monitor by Asus I think is one of the earliest and most well known. There are versions of it for both usual USB and USB-C.

[Thinkcat]

You don't mention having gathered information about the Raspberry Pi Foundation touchscreen display for the RPi: https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/ra ... h-display/

I already have a case for my Pi, and I am not that interested in touch. Apart from that, is the foundation's display still somehow exemplary?

[Andyroo]

The advantage of the Foundations display are:

1) It provides money for the Foundations charitable works and future development of the Pi range
2) It does not use HDMI - connecting instead to the onboard interface
3) Cases and power connectors are available from third parties
4) It’s support is available here and will be checked as part of on-going OS updates (Buster and SID for example)

I also think it’s the device being used for the dual screen / frame buffer testing.

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

well, some things don't make sense to me ... i.e. USB powering a 15.6in display .. might be challenging.

There are many such "laptop companion" displays. This monitor by Asus I think is one of the earliest and most well known. There are versions of it for both usual USB and USB-C.

I said it might be challanging; didn't say impossible!

The product you've linked to is > 200EUR retail price and bigger than 15in --> beyond your targets from your first post!

[B.Goode]

{ Contribution overtaken by events so no longer relevant. }

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

The person who linked to that out-of-spec device IS the OP!

Noted .. that's why I changed my working fractions of seconds after submitting the post

[Thinkcat]

Use case one is a console for a home server. An USB-powered and HDMI-connected, smaller than 10".

Do you have anything for this use case?

I could use it with my little ESXi server, with the Pi and with FreeNAS if I lose the IPMI network settings again.

I'd even prefer a 4:3 one, because when used as a text console, most resolutions still expect that.

I'm just asking because someone might have this knowledge handy. I found a thread from 2014 with the same question, but I doubt that the information is useful to me anymore. But I'll also report back here if I find something interesting in eBay or Amazon.

[Andyroo]

Just be careful on eBay - a lot of nice screens do not have a controller board or have a controller board but no HDMI output!

It’s a regular question on here from folk who have purchased a screen and it arrives with a flat ribbon cable and no guide or sometimes the guide just gives the cable description. These all look like a good deal based on the price BUT the chance of ending up with an HDMI connection (or touch interface) is limited...

Caveat Emptor

[Thinkcat]

Found this: WIMAXIT 8 Inch IPS 1280x800 USB Powered DIY HDMI Display Screen for Raspberry Pi (eBay)

Positives: Uses USB power (5 V, 2 A), has HDMI input, is in a case, the resolution is good enough.
Negatives: The controller board is outside the case, there is no VGA connector, there is no wall mount possibility.
Neutrals (to me): There is no touch functionality.

[Gavinmc42]

Waveshare and others now have HDMI displays from 4.3" up to Full HD 13.6"?
HDMI does not require drivers, most DPI/DSI drivers are Raspbian Debian only which could be an issue if you are using another OS.
Choice of Touch SPI or USB.
HDMI with USB touch can be used with PC's too.

You can get versions that are bare with PCB built in or separate, or fully cased displays.

[aBUGSworstnightmare]

Found this: WIMAXIT 8 Inch IPS 1280x800 USB Powered DIY HDMI Display Screen for Raspberry Pi (eBay)

Positives: Uses USB power (5 V, 2 A), has HDMI input, is in a case, the resolution is good enough.
Negatives: The controller board is outside the case, there is no VGA connector, there is no wall mount possibility.
Neutrals (to me): There is no touch functionality.

remove the 'case' and you'll end up with something like this
https://www.pollin.de/p/raspberry-pi-lc ... -av-121565
https://www.pollin.de/p/raspberry-pi-lc ... -av-810717
https://www.pollin.de/p/raspberry-pi-tf ... -av-121566
https://www.pollin.de/p/raspberry-pi-lc ... -av-810719
https://www.pollin.de/p/7-17-78-cm-disp ... vbs-120942


Want touch too?

https://www.pollin.de/p/joy-it-10-touch ... -pi-810824
https://www.pollin.de/p/joy-it-10-ips-t ... -pi-810823
https://www.pollin.de/p/lc-display-7-17 ... era-810843

4:3 aspect ratio + touch?

https://www.pollin.de/p/20-3-cm-8-displ ... vbs-121058

As you can see all the products can be purchased from a single seller (sorry, but as I'm located in Germany I always try to purchase here in order to save time and import taxes) --> you should be able to dind 100.000 more possibilities when searching the web.

And .. by the way .. Maybe better not stick ro USB powered!

No longer an option as out-of-stock for a while already https://www.thing-printer.com/product/manga-screen/

Luckily I got some from the kickstarter campaign

[k-pi]

I haven't read the whole thread, but,

My own intention is to use a Raspberry Pi 3 Model B as a small desktop computer

I use Eyoyo HTML monitors, I have an 8" SVGA 800x600, a 10" XGA 1024x768 (my favourite size, actually connected to my Intel SOC desktop & RPi3B+ via an adapter cable), & a 11.6" WXGA 1366x768.

Sometimes the HTML size doesn't correspond to the VGA designations, but mine are all good working monitors, very pleased with them.

[Thinkcat]

remove the 'case' and you'll end up with something like this

But I really need a case and I prefer a non-touch version. Do you have any good ideas for that?

Those five are of course good for someone who does not need a case. Here I reposted the links for further reference:

Raspberry Pi LC Display 10,1" (25,65 cm), 1366x768, HDMI, VGA, AV
Raspberry Pi LC Display 10,1" (25,65 cm), 1280x800, HDMI, VGA, AV
Raspberry Pi TFT LC Display 7" (17,78 cm), 1024x600, HDMI, VGA, AV
Raspberry Pi LC Display 10,1" (25,65 cm), 1024x600, HDMI, VGA, AV
7" (17,78 cm) Display-Set LS-7, HDMI/DVI/VGA/CVBS (1024 x 600)

JOY-IT 10" Touch Display im Metallgehäuse für Raspberry Pi (1280 x 800)
JOY-IT 10" IPS Touch-Display 1280x800 für Raspberry Pi
LC-Display 7" (17,8 cm), mit kapazitivem Touchscreen, HDMI, Kamera

20,3 cm (8") Display-Set mit Touchscreen LS-8T, HDMI/DVI/VGA/CVBS (1024 x 768)