Open Screen Adapter (OSCAR) goes AVR

OSCAR is a super high resolution 9.7″ screen with an Atmel-powered adapter that allows users to easily link the display to their PC, Mac or Linux machine.

“The board is Arduino compatible which makes modifying the behavior easy and all the software and hardware is open source,” OSCAR spokesperson Freddie Temperton explained in a recent Kickstarter post.

“The particular display used with OSCAR is the one most commonly found in the iPad 3 and 4, marketed as the ‘Retina Display’ and has a whopping 2048×1536 pixels. This gives it an amazing pixel density of 264ppi (pixels per inch) and glorious colors.”

Key OSCAR specs include:

• Atmel ATmega32u4 microcontroller (MCU)
• Supports DisplayPort/Thunderbolt (via a small connector)
• Takes 12V 1A input (9-12V recommended)
• Consumes a nominal 6W
• Software upgrades via a micro USB port, allows the computer to control the backlight and power to the display
• TPS61176 backlight drivers
• LMZ12001 high efficiency buck regulator
• All spare IO pins available on 0.1″ pitch headers (6 analogue pins, 9 digital, I2C, SPI, serial and 5V power RGB LED for OSCAR status)

“OSCAR takes care of driving the LED backlight and regulating the panel power supply. With the onboard ATmega32u4, the device acts like an Arduino Leonardo. This enables USB communications so that you can use OSCAR to control things like backlight brightness and enables you to expand the functionality of OSCAR,” Temperton explained.

“Adding an IR receiver for control or adding an IMU board to automatically rotate the screen are all possible. As you can use the Arduino IDE, customization is easier than ever to implement. There are also drivers for the LED backlight so brightness can be adjusted using a PWM output from the microcontroller. [Plus], buttons are included to turn the display on/off and to increase or decrease the backlight brightness.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out OSCAR’s official Kickstarter page here.