This is a serial interface for any LCD using the incredibly common 44780 controller. There are a couple different serial interfaces like this on the market, but this project aims to be a superior version. It can use 5 – 30V with an included regulator. It has ESD protection. True RS232 levels mean you can use really long cables. Up to 8 buttons are also supported. This would work great with a car computer. All of the software and schematics are provided. Have a look around the madhacker site for a lot of other cool projects.
[thanks Stuart]
I just love LCD hacks.
–Kurt Roedeger
why would you bother to build a serial interface for the 44780 ? (I really want to know…)
#2: Because using a parallel port to drive the thing sucks?
i’d like to point out that many of maxim’s 232 interface ICs include 15k esd protection.
the rest of the circuit doesn’t seem to include esd protection. there should probably be a metal-oxide varistor and transil somewhere north of the 7805, to deal with spikes in automotive environments.
Oh, and the 74174 is a Hex D Flip-Flop with Common Clear. It seems to be used as a 6 bit serial->parallel converter for the data line coming out of the pic.
I’m currently working on a serial/parallel VFD (Vacuum Fluorescent Display) project. I picked up a few of these on eBay they are 40×2 VFDs have parallel and serial. VFDs are nice as they generate their own light, unlike LCDs and thus are much brighter. I use serial to drive the vfd… keeping things simple. As for input I use a 16×16 keyboard from Parallax (www.parallax.com, costy), a 74C922 16 key to binary encoder (plans on http://www.beyondlogic.org, grabbed at digikey.com) and a 6402 based UART (plans: http://www.jbgizmo.com/page2.html, hard to find, but I picked up a few free samples on the net). I’m considering replacing the UART with one of these nice little FTDI USB => Serial/|| chips. The electronics works good for the most part. Software wise it’s another story. I haven’t seen a single LCD app for the mac (osx, so posix interface). I decided to write my own, learning C at the same time. But I don’t think I have the agily with C to create such a project. Anyone knows of a simple open source project that could help me start out?
Does anyone know of a stand-alone in-case LCD? I’d really like to make/buy one for my computer, so I didn’t have to leave the monitor on 24/7. Plus, the coolness factor
#:
matrix orbital make faceplates for these lcds that fit in a standard drive bay. They also sell serial LCD displays, but they’re pricy if I remember.
you can dremel out a blank drive bezel and poke the LCD screen through. a 16×2 LCD screen is about $6, and if you’ve got an old parallel cable lying around… Coolness on the cheap.
quote:”I haven’t seen a single LCD app for the mac ”
you can check out my project here:
http://www.hackaday.com/entry/1234000570045205/
It uses a cheap USB -> parallel printer converter rather than
USB->serial -> parallel
I also have a small command line program to write data to the LCD
I’ve been looking like mad for this exact thing but based on an AVR instead of PIC. Does anyone konow of such a project?
Just wondering is there any good suggestions for a really cheap 4 line LCD with serial interface??? or even a cheap LCD serial interface controller is fine too (as long it can support up to around 4×20 characters) I actually found a few but they r all kind expensive I hope i can keep it under 40 dollars with LCD and controller or the LCD with serial interface
sir i am a hardwer &networkenng…. & can you give trick of how can change bios (post)screen
like you see on post screen
intel pentium 3 1 Ghz
to
how can change this sentece
to
Intel Pentium 4 3.2 Ghz
please reply me at viharpatel_1990@hotmail.com