Beagleboard XM + parallel LCD: Where to start?

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1

Hi,

I've just bought my Beagleboard XM in Sparkfun: I will receive the
"dog" on next week :-). Anyway, I'm already thinking in how to begin
with the project I have in mind: an embedded system of augmented
reality.

I'm worried about how to attach the LCD. I want to use a 640x480 LCD
(6" or 7") with touchscreen but not a DVI one, since all of them are
sold embedded, so I'd have to open the case and take out all the
components: It doesn't sound as a good idea (also are very expensive).

I've been reading about the LCD port in the reference manual and I
have few questions how to use a 24bit parallel LCD. I hope someone
can give me hints:

- What kind of IC should I use to adapt signals between 1.8V and 3.3V?
- What purpose is I2C3 port? Initialization? Do I must to use a LCD
initialized via I2C?
- What about the driver? I want to use an Ubuntu distribution. Do
Ubuntu port for beagleboard have drivers for common LCD controllers
(Himax, Ilitek, etc.) ?. Do I must write my own driver? What file do I
have to edit?

Thank you.

2

Hi
You can see on k7 schematic.
http://opensourcemid.googlecode.com/files/K7_schematic.pdf
K7 use 18 bits color(6 bits/color),
You can change to 24 bits color(8bits/color).

3

I found this project that looks very interesting:

http://www.harbaum.org/till/dvi2par/index.shtml

It seems is not so difficult to adapt the signal levels by using a
"panel link receiver". But I ask: Will it be the same result if you
use level shifters (1.8 bidirectional 3.3) directly to the parallel
video interface of the Beagleboard instead of use the DVI port + panel
link receiver?

On other hand, I still having the doubt of how to modify the OS in
order to configure it for your own LCD, i mean: color depth,
resolution, vsync, hsync and so on. I guess it's necessary to modify
some file and recompile the kernel (as you can guess, actually I'm not
a "guru" in unix systems ;-)).

P.S.: I'd like to use Ubuntu.

Thank you in advance by any hint or advice.