Status - on hold.

(Having too much fun with printrbot to do much else.)
I could probably do something with the N5000 but I don't really have a use for it.
The N95 is more useful because it is larger.
There is a problem sourcing sockets for both types but I think I could fudge it.
The current hurdle with the N96 is finding the pinout.
All in all I will probably use a $20 monochrome display instead.
http://www.sparkfun.com/products/710

17-April-2012

My AU$10.83 N96 display arrived from Tmark.com today (pretty slow).
I ordered 3 different sockets from element-14.
I lost one, one was discontinued and the one I have does not fit.
It is e-14 part number 1509397 - MOLEX 87820-0024 does NOT fit.
Without a socket the project is dead.
It may be possible to do some micro surgery to make this one fit.
Now I have a LCD-plug to measure I will look some more.

Next day.

Five sockets (minum for value) to replace the one I lost.
I can confirm e-14 part number 1355690 - MOLEX501591-2411 does NOT fit.
It looks like it should fit - the length looks about right but the width is wrong.

My AU$5.46 Nokia N5000 (5130 5220 7100 5320) display also arrived. The plug is a little different but appears to be the same size as the one on the n96.

One more day.

People here ....
http://www.electro-tech-online.com/electronic-projects-design-ideas-reviews/124436-what-connector-called-nokia-240x320-pixel-rgb-tft-lcd-connector.html
... think it may be a J.S.T made connector.

Digi-key's international freight charge make them useless to me for small orders.
Mouser and x-on have a good range of candidates.
As well as J.S.T. - Panasonic also have a range.
Mouser also has fairly steep delivery charges. X-on are more reasonable.
There are so many similar parts it is hard to work out what to get. I will have to take a closer look so other time.

The Panasonic AXT6 series such as the AXT624124 are worth a look.
AXK7 series also look promising.
It probably isn't AXT3 or AXT4 but I have to look at them just in case.

I can see now there too many types to order at random and hope they fit.

20'th-April.

Image

In the scan above the two LCD flexicable plugs are at the sides and my two sockets are towards the middle.
The N5000 is on the right and the N96 is on the left.
The socket on the left looks very close to being correct. The one on the right looks like it is too long and too narrow.
It also appear the two LCDs have different pinouts and no indication of where pin one is. On other nokia displays I've used the plugs had the same layout we are used to in dip ICs - ie pins are number in an anticlockwise direction - the PCB sockets are mirrored.

After seeing how close the LH socket looked I had another go and used more brute force. It actually went together but broke an end off. The contacts seem fairly well aligned. Grinding the ends off a new socket may work. The size errors are microns not millimetres.

N5000

The earth pads on the n5000 seem to match the nokia 2730 photo on http://andybrown.me.uk/ws/2012/03/06/reverse-engineering-the-nokia-2730-qvga-lcd/
I probably have enough information to attempt to interface with this display but I'm not terribly keen.
While it would be a cool hack I don't really have much use for another small display.

N96

I'm more interested in the N96 but it doesn't match this or the breakout boards at http://rossum.posterous.com/

To the wonderful web and there are dozens of sites with schematic links.
http://www.cpkb.org/wiki/Nokia_N96_service_manual_and_schematic_download

Even with the schematic the LCD pinout is not obvious. The LCD does not plug into the main board. There is a thing called a ui-fpc
which routes signal from a 50 way connector on the main board to the LCD, keyboard etc. I don't have a schematic for that.
It appears to be an 8-bit data interface but it is possible the display also has as serial mode.
It is rumored to use a ILI9325 controller.
http://www.stm32circle.com/resources/Datasheets/ILI9325DS_V0.43.pdf

At the moment I don't have enough information to use the display. Hopefully someone else has the data or has a surplus or dead phone to hack and will post the information. The N96 is a $200 phone and I'm not going to buy one. Another way would be to get a ui-fpc as a spare part if they aren't too expensive.

Panasonic

The plugs are almost exactly 0.25 inch long - one is 6.35mm and the other 6.36mm.
They do not have impact dispersion keys or the locking mechanism of the Panasonic P-4 series.
The AXK7,8 connector aren't the right length.
The same goes for the rest of the panasonic 0.4mm connectors I have data for.

Omron

XB4A is close in length at 6.1mm.

JST

The 24P-JANK-GSAN-2-TF plug is very close at 6.4 mm long.
http://www.jst-mfg.com/product/pdf/eng/eJAN.pdf
Could be the one but so far the smallest minimum order quantity I've found is 1000.

JST offer samples but I'm not really interested. If I don't have a cheap easy source of connectors there is no point in learning to use these cheap displays.


That MOLEX 87820-0024 is so close to fitting that a couple of rubs on the plug with a nail file would probably make it fit.
http://rossum.posterous.com/
http://andybrown.me.uk/ws/2012/03/06/reverse-engineering-the-nokia-2730-qvga-lcd/
http://hackaday.com/2012/08/21/use-a-nokia-n82-tft-panel-with-your-arduino/
eddie