I must say that I was rather shocked to see NO posts in these forums
I've been using Planar displays for a few years now, but on a hobbiest level. Although these displays are extremely hard to come by on a used/surplus basis, I do have a pretty good collection built up of the EL displays.
A few of which that I don't have are the EL480.60.43, EL160.120.39 and I need to replace a not-fully-functional EL640.200-SK.
So, if anyone knows what type of equipment these were used in (specific company info, equipment type, etc.), I would be most greatful!!
A little background on me:
I started using Planar EL displays a few years back when I saw someone who had connected one to a computer as an auxiliary information display. I eventually started making my own controllers based on the SED133x controllers to interface up to the Planar EL's. One problem that became apparent (and is covered in Planar application note 121-01) is the memory arbitration conflict, which will show up as noise on the display. It seems to be more noticeable in displays larger than 320x240. But, since the SED133x interfaced to quite a few of the Planar displays, it was a good choice as a controller. After further research, I came across the S1D13700 controller (also Epson) which was pretty much pin-for-pin compatible with the 133x, but with the further benefit of integrated SRAM, which allowed me to reduce the size (and therefore the cost) of the controller boards. Much to my surprise and excitement, the 13700 was not affected by the memory conflict problems of the 133x controllers. So, I built a few prototypes and started working with a friend of mine to come up with a USB version to drive the Planar EL displays (and many other 4-bit monochrome LCD's as well).
Needless to say, I absolutely love the Planar EL displays....it's really become a passion of mine, to say the least. Which, is another reason I desperately seek the other 3 I mentioned above.
I, as you can imagine, also await to see if samples will ever be available for the new Transparent EL diplays