New Ali express 3.5 inch monitors

[phart010 | 1,708]

There’s this new product on the market. It’s a 3.5 inch IPS monitor that uses usb-c. They’re available on Ali express for around $20 shipped although I’ve seen some sellers with it as little as $8 shipped.

Problem is they are pretty much designed to display a pc performance monitoring dashboard using a custom performance monitoring app.

I wonder if anyone will make custom drivers for this so that it can be recognized as a pc monitor. Or even if it can somehow be used as an hdmi monitor via a usb-c to hdmi adaptor 

 

https://m.aliexpress.us/item/3256803317280463.html?ug_edm_item_id=3256803317280463&pdp_npi=2%40dis!USD!US %2426.00!US %2420.02!!!!!%402102e76916795266404795551de36d!!edm&edm_click_module=alg_product_l1r2_1375904380&creative_img_ind=1&tracelog=rowan&rowan_id1=aeug_edm_41180_1_en_US_2023-03-22&rowan_msg_id=pharCOWS_41180_%24ac4b47a543fe48a18e0c311a3928b0f0&ck=in_edm_other&gatewayAdapt=gloPc2usaMsite&_randl_shipto=US

Edited March 23, 2023 by phart010

[BlackVega | 583]

What usage would you have from this? 3.5" is so much meh...

[phart010 | 1,708]

4 hours ago, BlackVega said:

What usage would you have from this? 3.5" is so much meh...

I don’t know but it sure wouldn’t involve video games

[RH | 4,980]

5 hours ago, BlackVega said:

What usage would you have from this? 3.5" is so much meh...

 

57 minutes ago, phart010 said:

I don’t know but it sure wouldn’t involve video games

I kind of get this.  I like the idea of hobby projects and a (potentially) $8 USB screen feels like it has so much potential.  Pair this with an RPi and some specific sensors, and you could make some ridiculously cool hud... for something at a reasonably cheap price?  I don't know what that would be though.

[fcgamer | 4,754]

I'd love a few of those for gaming, to use at the little bar setup in my flat.

[Gloves | 11,843]

It looks like it's not actually able to be used for anything save for the software that it comes with:

Quote

3. Can other content be displayed?
No, it can only display the content of custom software settings

 

You need to download software to your PC to make it work, from these links in the description:

Quote

 

So it's pretty useless outside of the very specific use case presented in the photos on the listing: displaying information about your CPU, RAM, etc..

 

Like @phart010 says in the OP, MAYBE someone could make a driver or some such to make it work, but honestly it's likely built to such insanely low specs, the frames per second would be completely useless. It can likely only be used for the intended purpose, and probably sucks at even that job.

[phart010 | 1,708]

1 hour ago, Gloves said:

So it's pretty useless outside of the very specific use case presented in the photos on the listing: displaying information about your CPU, RAM, etc..

This is why we need all y’all smart computer people to write some new code to make it work 

 

edit: didn’t see your note about the frames. I wonder what determines the framerate 

Edited March 23, 2023 by phart010

[darkchylde28 | 1,546]

On 3/23/2023 at 5:23 AM, BlackVega said:

What usage would you have from this? 3.5" is so much meh...

On 3/23/2023 at 9:31 AM, phart010 said:

I don’t know but it sure wouldn’t involve video games

I don't know about that, as folks in the Apple II groups I'm part of on Facebook tend to go gaga over little 4-5" flat panel screens originally meant for use with home security cameras.  I wouldn't want to go hooking up any sort of modern, high def console or gaming PC to the thing, but for older stuff, especially stuff that you might want to just wedge into an existing setup for a parallel experience, I could see this being of use.  Creating some sort of HUD or off-screen gauge cluster or something could also be neat, but would require a lot of specialized programming to accomplish, even beyond writing drivers and such to get the screen recognized, so I don't see that happening unless some maker already has that kind of thing already in mind and would want to use these for their prototype/proof of concept.