Where can I easily find these components in Canada?

[kelvinhall05]

I'm looking to build a project for school and I need a few parts. I'm going to attempt to recreate the thing that 8bitguy made in his "How does a character LCD work" series. I've found SPDT switches and potentiometers (although I don't know which one to get, I have no clue what the differences are between the many different types), but I haven't found the actual LCD and little plastic box anywhere in Canada, either local or on eBay or something. I really need it since I don't want to put my project on the line by waiting for stuff to arrive from China. Any ideas? Thanks!

[Hackentosher]

If you just need a box can you 3d print something either at school or a local makerspace? 

[Unimportant]

8 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

but I haven't found the actual LCD

Those displays are all based on the Hitachi HD44780 controller or a compatible clone.

Search ebay for "HD44780 LCD" and you should get lots of hits.

[kelvinhall05]

7 hours ago, Hackentosher said:

If you just need a box can you 3d print something either at school or a local makerspace? 

I don't have a 3D printer and even if I did, I don't know either where to find things I can download and print, or how to make my own to print.

4 hours ago, Unimportant said:

Those displays are all based on the Hitachi HD44780 controller or a compatible clone.

Search ebay for "HD44780 LCD" and you should get lots of hits.

I know, I did find lots of what I was looking for, but they're all in China. Who knows when they'll arrive? Something I ordered last April that claimed to arrive in under 20 days still hasn't shown up.

[mariushm]

Digikey and Newark (farnell, but they call themselves Newark in US/Canada)

 

Maybe also Mouser, as they have warehouses in US.

 

Digikey : https://www.digikey.ca/products/en

Newark : https://canada.newark.com/

Mouser : https://www.mouser.ca/

 

example those 16, 20,40 x 1,2,3,4 rows displays, parallel , serial (spi) or i2c

digikey :

https://www.digikey.ca/short/pc9j82 < alphanumeric (dots are arranged in 5x8 or such and there's blank lines between letters and rows)

graphic : https://www.digikey.ca/products/en/optoelectronics/display-modules-lcd-oled-graphic/107 <- like the regular alphanumeric but there's no empty spaces between digits so it's like a 160x32 pixel screen (you can upload 5x8 "letters" in the display memory and send command to display that and that's how you easily change 40 pixels at a time)

 

newark :

alphanumeric https://canada.newark.com/c/optoelectronics-displays/displays/lcd-displays/alphanumeric-lcd-displays

graphic : https://canada.newark.com/c/optoelectronics-displays/displays/lcd-displays/graphic-lcd-displays

 

same distributors also have all kinds of potentiometers and slide /rocker / regular switches and all kinds of tactile buttons and whatever you can think of.. cases and other crap.. Look through product categories.

 

 

[r4tch3t]

On 12/22/2018 at 12:03 PM, kelvinhall05 said:

I'm looking to build a project for school and I need a few parts. I'm going to attempt to recreate the thing that 8bitguy made in his "How does a character LCD work" series. I've found SPDT switches and potentiometers (although I don't know which one to get, I have no clue what the differences are between the many different types), but I haven't found the actual LCD and little plastic box anywhere in Canada, either local or on eBay or something. I really need it since I don't want to put my project on the line by waiting for stuff to arrive from China. Any ideas? Thanks!

Also amazon

https://www.amazon.ca/OSEPP-Display-Components-Other-LCD-01/dp/B01ISMVGMC

[aSpoink]

On 12/21/2018 at 3:03 PM, kelvinhall05 said:

I'm looking to build a project for school and I need a few parts. I'm going to attempt to recreate the thing that 8bitguy made in his "How does a character LCD work" series. I've found SPDT switches and potentiometers (although I don't know which one to get, I have no clue what the differences are between the many different types), but I haven't found the actual LCD and little plastic box anywhere in Canada, either local or on eBay or something. I really need it since I don't want to put my project on the line by waiting for stuff to arrive from China. Any ideas? Thanks!

You could try ElmWood Electronics. They are located in Toronto so shipping within Canada shouldn't be that bad. I've ordered some small stuff from them before and had good luck. They seem to have some different LCD's and project boxes that might work. Compared to eBay ElmWood is going to be more expensive but it might be worth it since you aren't going to be waiting months for items to arrive.