Review of the SGX-120L LCD Screen

Recently I was able to get a hold of a Scott Edward’s SGX-120L Serial Graphics display on sale for $80 (reg. $100). Unfortunately, it’s not mine, but the company I work for, so I can’t put it on a robot. The basic specs. on it are as follows: (from www.seetron.com)

SGX-120L G12032 Serial Graphics LCD

• 2400/9600 bps
• 120×32-pixel graphics
• Terminal-style protocol
• Software-controlled LED backlight
• EEPROM storage of 6 screens
• Editable font: 6×8-pixel characters
• Font scalable to four sizes

(really cool features in bold)

 

Setting Up:

 Setting up the display is quite a easy procedure. Just hook up a regulated 5v source, or a 7-10v (standard 9v transistor battery works great) source to the separate pins. Then, hook up the serial data line to some that will send serial data (OOPic, Basic Stamp, Windows terminal program), and send the data.

The 120L receives serial data with no parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit … standard fare for most programs.

One handy feature of about the 120L is that is come pre-loaded with a slide show previewing its many functions. To run the show just set the small switch on the back to ‘set’, and plug in the power.

For preliminary testing purposes I connected the screen up to my Basic Stamp 2 Board Of Education, via the PDX-CBL connector, which has a handy little connector that fits right onto the LCD’s connect, and has a female DB9 serial connector and power pins as pictured below. Needless to say, this connector is very useful, and I don’t think I recommend buying a LCD without one.

 

Warning! The power pins on the socket connect up to the 5V REGULATED pins on the LCD. Don’t give them over 5.5v!

So, now I’m sure your wondering how you send data to the LCD. Well … just send it! That simple. If you want the LCD to display “hello world” then just tell your serial program to send the text ‘hello world.’ Oh, one quick note, the 120L can receive data in either 9600 baud or 2400 baud. You set this via the little switches on the back. Don’t worry if your totally confused, because the LCD come with a very comprehensive HTML manual on a disk along with code for Qbasic, and Basic Stamps.

Graphics:

 The 120L has very extensive graphic functions. 120 x 32 pixels may not seem like a lot of space, but you can fit quite a bit on it. The LCD has 8 memory banks to put pictures, in normal operation banks 1 and 2 are taken up by the character sets. The LCD also has function for drawing lines, dot, reversing pixels, etc, not to mention is four different font sizes.

Final Notes:

Overall the SGX-120L display is a very nice piece of work. At 20×4 characters in its smallest font mode to 2×10 in its largest, 8 memory banks of full screen graphics, comprehensive drawing operations, and its simple and easy to use serial interface, I say is a great buy at $100 dollars.


To purchase a display or any of the products mentioned above please visit http://www.seetron.com for a wide selection of serial LCDs, serial Servo Controllers, or Basic Stamp products.