The TermDriver 2 is a USB-to-serial interface with a twist—it has a built-in screen for displaying relevant information. It can run at anywhere from 100 bit/s to 2Mbit/s, while showing you what’s happening on the wire. [James Bowman] worked on the TermDriver 2, and paid special attention to one feature—the visual look of the status indicators on the display.

[James] had hoped to make the status indicators look a little more old-school, a little more analog. His inspiration was the classic indicator panels from Apollo-era space hardware, which used bulbs behind plastic indicators. Incandescent bulbs don’t switch instantly on and off; they take time to warm and cool. This behaviour is both more pleasant, visually speaking, and would aid in making short-duration events on the TX, RX and other indicators more visible. Thus, [James] set about giving the LCD UI elements sixteen steps of brightness from off to fully on. The simulated bulbs get brighter the more rapidly activity is happening on a given pin. The indicator graphics, while tiny, are also given a nice superellipse shape, to recreate the warm centered glow of an incandescent indicator.

If you’re a UI fanatic who loves to make things as visually pleasing as possible, the work [James] has done is well worth looking at. We’ve featured other great GUI projects before, too, like this particularly visually pleasing effort. If you’ve had grand ideas in this space, be sure to tell us over on the tipsline.