The Unofficial XCSoar Manual
Hardware/PDA Displays
From XCSoar
Contents |
PDA Displays and Sunlight Readability
When choosing a PDA for cockpit use, sunlight readability should rank highly. It's worth noting that the clarity of an LCD screen indoors can be very different to its clarity in sunlight. To understand this, we need a basic understanding of the technology behind the displays.
LCD screens can broadly be grouped into three categories:
- Transmissive - designed for use in low ambient light.
- Reflective - designed for use in high ambient light, eg sunlight.
- Transflective - a merging of transmissive and reflective technologies.
Transmissive displays rely on a backlight to illuminate the screen; they do not make significant use of ambient light. They are extremely unsuitable for outdoor conditions, and have never been favoured by PDA manufacturers.
Reflective displays are highly visible with a strong ambient light source. A diffusing reflector behind the LCD filter reflects ambient light back to the user.
- These displays are uniformly excellent in sunlight, but suffer from low contrast indoors. Due to a perceived demand for displays that are clearly readable indoors, they have fallen out of favour with PDA manufacturers in recent years.
Transflective displays attempt to combine both transmissive and reflective characteristics. Indoors, the displays are uniformly readable and high contrast. Outdoors, they reflect enough ambient light to be reasonably readable, but - so far - appear to fall short of the clarity of reflective displays.
- The sunlight readability of transflective displays varies from one display model to the next, and opinions vary as to how suitable each display is for cockpit use.
A comparison of iPAQ H3850 (Reflective) and H3970 (Transflective) screens in outdoor and indoor use
Common Displays
In some cases, displays may be identical between different PDA models or even different PDA manufacturers.
For example, the Toppoly TD035STEB3 display is used by the following HP iPAQ models:
- rz17xx
- hx21xx
- hx24xx
- hx27xx
The sunlight readability of these PDAs will be identical.
Identifying Displays
In order to make an informed buying decision it's therefore useful to know which PDAs share a display:
Displays - Listed by PDA Model
All displays are transflective unless otherwise indicated.
| Manufacturer | Model | Display Size | Display MFR | Display ID |
| Compaq iPAQ: | ||||
| H31xx (Monochrome) | 3.8" | Unknown | Unknown | |
| H36xx (Reflective) | 3.8" | Unknown | Unknown | |
| H38xx (Reflective) | 3.8" | Sanyo | TM038QV-67A03 | |
| H39xx | 3.8" | Sony | ACX501AKM-7 | |
| HP iPAQ: | ||||
| H191x | 3.5" | Unknown | Unknown | |
| H193x | 3.5" | Sony | ACX502BMU-7 | |
| H194x | 3.5" | Sony | ACX502BMU-7 | |
| H5xxx | 3.5" | Unknown | Unknown | |
| H22xx | 3.5" | Sony | ACX502AKN | |
| H4xxx | 3.5" | Sony | ACX502BMU-7 | |
| hx47xx | 4.0" | Sony | ACX523AKM-7 | |
| hx2xxx | 3.5" | Toppoly | TD035STEB3 | |
| rz17xx | 3.5" | Toppoly | TD035STEB3 | |
| rx3xxx | 3.5" | Toppoly | TD035STEB2 | |
| rx19xx | 3.5" | Unknown | Unknown | |
| Acer: | ||||
| N3x | 3.5" | Toppoly | TD035STEB1 | |
| N50 | 3.5" | Toppoly | TD035STEB1 | |
| N300 | 3.7" | Unknown | Unknown | |
| ASUS: | ||||
| A620 | 3.5" | Toppoly | TD035STEB1 | |
| A620BT | 3.5" | Toppoly | TD035STEB1 | |
| Dell: | ||||
| Axim X3 | 3.5" | Sharp | LQ035Q7DH02 | |
| Axim X30 | 3.5" | Sharp | LQ035Q7DH04 | |
| Axim X50 | 3.5" | Sharp | LQ035Q7DH05 | |
| Axim X50v | 3.7" | Sharp/Samsung | LS037V7DD05 | |
| Toshiba: | ||||
| e800 | 3.7" | Sharp | LS037V7DD02 | |
| Fujitsu: | ||||
| Pocket Loox 420 | 3.5" | Toppoly | TD035STEB2 | |
| Pocket Loox 720 | 3.5" | Sony | ACX526AKM |
Displays - Listed by Display ID
| Display MFR | Display ID | Size | Used In | |
| Sanyo | TM038QV-67A03 | 3.8" | Compaq iPAQ H38xx | |
| Sharp | LQ035Q7DH02 | 3.5" | Dell Axim X3 | |
| Sharp | LQ035Q7DH04 | 3.5" | Dell Axim X30 | |
| Sharp | LQ035Q7DH05 | 3.5" | Dell Axim X50 | |
| Sharp/Samsung | LS037V7DD05 | 3.7" | Dell Axim X50v | |
| Sharp | LS037V7DD02 | 3.7" | Toshiba e800 | |
| Sony | ACX501AKM-7 | 3.8" | Compaq iPAQ H39xx | |
| Sony | ACX502BMU-7 | 3.5" | HP IPAQ H193xx, H194xx, H4xxx | |
| Sony | ACX502AKN | 3.5" | HP iPAQ H22xx | |
| Sony | ACX523AKM-7 | 4.0" | HP iPAQ hx47xx | |
| Sony | ACX526AKM | 3.5" | Fujitsu Pocket Loox 720 | |
| Toppoly | TD035STEB3 | 3.5" | HP iPAQ hx2xxx, rz17xx | |
| Toppoly | TD035STEB2 | 3.5" | HP iPAQ rx3xxx | Fujitsu Pocket Loox 420 |
| Toppoly | TD035STEB1 | 3.5" | Acer N3x, N50 | ASUS A620, A620BT |
Rebadged PDAs
Some PDAs listed above may be sold under a different name:
| Listed name | Rebadged names |
| ASUS A620 | Typhon MyGuide 5500XL |
| Acer N35 | NavMan PiN 570 |
Display Model Numbers
Some information can be discerned from the model numbers.
For example, Toppoly, Sharp and Sanyo appear to use a naming scheme whereby the first digits in the model number refer to the diagonal display size in inches.
| eg | TD035 | 3.5" display (Toppoly) |
| LS037 | 3.7" display (Sharp) | |
| TM038 | 3.8" display (Sanyo) |
