4D Systems Intelligent Screens

The 4D Systems screens rely on their own fast micro-controller --shall it be called a GPU?— to manage the screen, touch, SD-card and sound, provide all the graphic primitives and include the fonts.

This frees memory and pins to the main micro-controller to which the screens are connected.

Only two pins are required for the UART serial connection, hardware or software. The screen works fine up to 115200 bauds with hardware serial.

The state-of-the-art screen in 2012 is an impressive 4.3" 480x270 with capacitive touch.

My First Screen

My first screen was a μLCD-32PT (SGC) 3.2” Serial LCD Display Module from 4D Systems, a true marvel with:

a 320x240 LCD 16-bit colour display,
touch control,
a micro-SD-card FAT16 reader,
and a speaker.

The 4D Systems screens operate in two modes:

stand-alone GFX mode, where the GCU acts as a MCU,
and slave SGC serial mode, where the GCU acts as a slave connected to a main board.

I've developed the Serial_LCD Library Suite based on the SGC serial mode, with high level application libraries for graphics, GUI and gallery.

Read the detailed review of the μLCD-32PT (SGC) 3.2” Serial LCD Display Module.

New 2013 Screens

The new range of screens launched early 2013 by 4D Systems includes two significant changes:

First, the screens support a specific mode to draw a graphic user interface in just a couple of minutes using drag-and-drop. This amazing new tool is called ViSi-Genie.
Second, the SGC serial mode has been replaced by the new SPE2 serial mode, unfortunately incompatible.

As the Serial_LCD Library Suite was based on the SGC serial mode, it is deprecated. Fortunately, 4D Systems provides a library for Arduino.

However, I plan to re-use most of the controls I've developed for the Serial_LCD library on the new LCD_screen Library Suite, aimed at standard screens.

Forth Generation Screens

The gen4 screens are the 4th generation of screens by 4D Systems. They use the new Diablo16 as GPU and are compatible with previous ViSi-Genie and serial SPE environments.

This new generation also features a slim and sleek design.

The gen4-IoD-28T screen combines a 2.8 touch-screen with an WiFi-ready ESP8266, perfect for IoT applications.
The gen4-uLCD-35DCT-CLB is a high-definition 3.5" screen with capacitive touch and bezel, ready to be added to any HMI project.

Fifth Generation Screens

The pixxiLCD line is the fifth generation of screens by 4D Systems. They use the new pixxi GPU and are compatible with previous ViSi-Genie and serial SPE environments.

This new generation explores unusual shapes:

The pixxiLCD-13P2-CTP-CLB screen fits in a 1.3" circle with 240x240 pixels and capacitive touch.
The pixxiLCD-25P4-CTP screen also features 240x240 pixels and capacitive touch, but with a square form of 2.5" diagonal.
The pixxiLCD-39P4-CTP screen is a 3.9" rectangular with 480x128 pixels and capacitive touch.

The screens are available with or without capacitive touch, and with an optional starter kit.