Running the Nokia 6610 LCD with a Raspberry Pi

A while back, I’d bought the Nokia 6610 LCD thinking of it as a nice cheap display to incorporate into certain projects.

http://www.onlinetps.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_41&products_id=776

When I finally got around to using it, I thought of looking for instructables/references on interfacing it with the RasPi, but all I found was:

Click to access Nokia%206100%20LCD%20Display%20Driver.pdf

and

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Use-a-Nokia-Color-LCD/

and slowly learnt that this particular display has been quite a challenge for the online community for a while now. I did find very nice posts about how to interface it with other platforms though:
Arduino:
http://playground.arduino.cc/Code/LCDPCF8833

AVR:
http://thomaspfeifer.net/nokia_6100_display_en.htm

But after a lot of hunting, once I started looking for projects based on the LCD’s drivers, I finally came across a github project:

https://github.com/engpedrorafael/pcf8833

I really felt a rush of gratitude towards him once I found this because the task of porting the entire C library to be used with the Raspberry Pi through Wiring Pi seemed too daunting to me. Or atleast something I’d be too lazy to do to run a simple colour LCD 😛

All the steps for running the LCD are there on his git page. In short,
1.Make the connections:

(LCD connections)

2. Get his code
3. Run it and test, convert images to the relevant dimensions (132×132 pixels) and file format, and use the python modules he’s created.

I just hope this post helps somebody else find this particular implementation much sooner that it took me considering how easy things became once I found this. Major props to Pedro. 🙂

In terms of connections, I ended up using a 330 Ohm resistor between 12V and the LED+ pin to make the display bright enough, I tried to use the 7806 but IMHO the display wasn’t really readable.

Here’s my setup:

P.S.: In case anybody’s having issues running the D-Link DWA 132 N300 Wi-Fi Dongle with the Pi, check out:

https://xneosis.wordpress.com/category/linux/raspberry-pi-linux/

Works like a charm and the dongle is one of the most reliable ones I’ve used.

P.P.S.: If you want to make your own bench power supply and haven’t seen this yet, check out my post:

DIY Bench Power Supply