Posts Tagged ‘lcd’

What happens to LCD’s when they become cold?

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Response Time Graph

What happens to LCD’s when they become cold?

Liquid crystal displays are just like their name… they contain a liquid between two layers of glass. Liquids begin to freeze as the temperature drops. As the display freezes their response time slows down. In other words, it takes longer for the numbers and letters on the display to change (Turn ON or Turn OFF).

Above is a graph showing the response time of a display at -30°C (-22°F).

The best way I can think to explain this is a ceiling fan. When you turn off the ceiling fan the blades continue to turn for a few minutes, even though the power if OFF. When you turn ON a ceiling fan the blades will be at full speed in a shorter period of time. At most the blades will be at their max speed within 30 seconds. When talking about an LCD, we talk about when the display is ON (the characters can be seen) or OFF (the characters cannot be seen).

On the graph above there are two measurements. The left side is how dark the letters are; the larger the number the darker the letter. Along the bottom of the graph is the amount of time it takes to go from ON to OFF, or to go from OFF to ON. (Note: 1000mS is the same as 1 second).

Line ‘A’ displays the amount of time it takes for a character or segment on the display to turn OFF. That is, once you turn OFF the segment, how long does it take before it disappears? The graph above shows that the character actually ‘disappears’ 3500 milliseconds (3.5 seconds) after the display is turned OFF.

Line ‘B’ displays the amount of time it takes for the character or segment to turn ON. In the above graph the segment is only 55% ‘ON’ at 8000 milliseconds (8 seconds). That means the character is only ½ (half) ON. It will look grey and not very dark. It requires more time for the display to turn ON than to turn OFF… just the opposite of a ceiling fan.

We do not recommend operating our wide temperature (extended temperature) displays below -20°C (-4°F). This is true for all segment displays (static displays or glass displays), 7 (seven) segment, 14 (fourteen) segment and 16 (sixteen) segment LCD’s.

Alphanumeric LCD displays such as: 8×1 LCD Display, 8×2 LCD Display, 16×1 LCD Display, 16×2 LCD Display, 16×4 LCD Display, 20×2 LCD Display, 20×4 LCD Display, 24×2 LCD Display, 40×1 LCD Display, 40×2 LCD Display, 40×4 LCD Display will react the same way.

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What is all the fuss about FOB?

Friday, July 30th, 2010

FOB is short for Free On Board or Freight On Board. In other words, who pays the freight from the factory to you?

We offer three options.

  1. F.O.B Origin: This term means that the customer is responsible for the international and domestic shipping on the product from the origin (China, Taiwan or some other origination point) to their dock.
  2. F.O.B Ship point: This means that the customer is responsible for the shipping from our (Focus) warehouse in Mesa, AZ to their dock.
  3. F.O.B Destination: This means that Focus is responsible for all shipping costs from the manufacturer to the end customer’s dock.

So what is the best option?  At Focus Display Solutions we recommend option 2, FOB ship point. This allows the customer to ship from AZ to their location on either their UPS, Fed Ex account or on the focus UPS account.

Our character and static LCD display modules are not as large as TFT liquid crystal displays.

Segment displays (static displays or glass displays), 7 (seven) segment, 14 (fourteen) segment and 16 (sixteen) segments are smaller and less expensive to ship then Alphanumeric LCD displays (aka: Character LCD’s).

The smaller character displays such as 8×1 LCD display, 8×2 LCD display, 16×1 LCD display, 16×2 LCD display, 16×4 LCD display are less expensive to ship than the 20×2 LCD display, 20×4 LCD display, 24×2 LCD display, 40×1 LCD display, 40×2 LCD display, 40×4 LCD display.

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Changing Market Conditions in China may effect Pricing and Lead Time on LCD Modules

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Does “this quote is valid today only” sound like something you would hear from a salesman at the car dealership?

In the Liquid Crystal Display (LCD display module) industry we have enjoyed the luxury of honoring a customer’s quote for 30 days. In fact, if someone waited 45 days to place the PO, we would still honor the 30-day quote.

The cost of character, static and graphic monochrome LCD’s has not changed that much over the last few years.

This may be changing soon.

Why this drastic change in LCD display module prices? China is looking to increase minimum wage by as much as 20%. (see http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTOE62F07R20100316).

The main concern I have is that the change in price could come very rapidly and with very little notice. End-users of our LCD modules need to be able to forecast their cost and profits for months in advance.

Could the price of LCD monochrome displays and custom lcd displays change every month or week and by a significant percentage as was the case of gas prices? Do you remember how businesses would charge a “fuel surcharge” onto your shipping cost as gas prices increased?

The impact that this could have is staggering.

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To Drill or Not to Drill

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

I am not talking about off shore drilling of oil, but the drilling out of the mounting holes on a LCD module.

LCD’s with a PCB (printed circuit board) attached are called a chip on board. They come with two or four mounting holes to attach the LCD display module to the customer’s product. This is true for both a character LCD module and a monochrome Graphics display.

Mounting Holes on PCB

The standard diameter of this hole is 3.5mm. Sometimes a customer needs a larger hole to accommodate a larger screw.

The danger in drilling out the mounting hole to a larger diameter is that you stand a good chance of cutting a trace (see FAQ for trace). When this trace is cut, one of two things can happen.

  1. The connection between one part of the display will be severed from another part of the display. This may cause the backlight or the LCD module to stop functioning.
  2. The trace is now exposed to the environment and will allow moisture and other contaminants to come into contact with the copper. This may allow the display to continue working for some time and then after an extended period of time the LCD display module will fail. Or worse yet, become intermittent.

If you need the mounting holes to be larger, please contact us. We can redesign the PCB to accommodate any size of mounting hole that you require.

LCD display modules with a PCB (printed circuit board) attached are called a chip on board. They come with two or four mounting holes to attach the display to the customer’s product. This is true for both a character LCD module and a Graphic LCD display.

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How can a volcano affect deliveries in Arizona?

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

How does a Volcano in Iceland affect LCD modules in Arizona?

http://www.sixsigmatraining.org/news-blog/volcano-throwing-off-just-in-time.html.

We have not had a volcano in Arizona for some time. At least, not one I remember. The ash from the volcano in Iceland has caused delays in shipments for companies that keep a very strict JIT (just-in-time).

We have always had a policy to make every effort to hold stock of our customer’s inventory before they need them.

  1. We ship all our character LCD modules, static segment displays, and graphic LCD’s (displays) by air (UPS), not boat. That means they will be arrive weeks before the boat arrives.
  2. We order the LCD display moduless to arrive a few weeks before a customer’s MRP requests delivery.

JIT (just in time) is a way to save cost, but we think that it is more important to have inventory for our customers before they need it. Maybe we should start a new industry key word such as JBD (Just Before it is Due)?

We strive to have what you need before you need it and at a cost to help you maintain your profits.

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A Labor Shortage in China?

Saturday, April 10th, 2010

See the article posted at http://www.displaysearchblog.com/2010/02/labor-shortage-in-china-impacting-the-supply-chain/

I never thought I would see a labor shortage in China! But, it is true. We are starting to see an increase in lead-times from the LCD module manufacturers.

We are also finding that many of the manufacturers are no longer interested in smaller quantities. This is requiring us to purchase larger quantities and hold them in inventory for our customers for longer periods of time.

How will this affect smaller customers that cannot afford to purchase larger LCD module volumes?

How will the longer lead-times affect manufacturing in the US and Canada?

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