LCD for bay from scratch

as a programmer wih some skills and a knack for electronics (not to mention not being afraid of the soldering iron) i was thinking about making a custom lcd display for the front of my case. I was going to connect it to the usb header on my mobo and use it for whatever i can make it do for now. I was planning on building it from whatever i need (since i think i can make it for less than alot of commercial things, and it seems like a fun summer project), but i have no idea exactly where to start on someting like this. Anyone know of any kind of kits or something i can use, or a company where i can get the lcd and any controller chips i'll need for it, and i'll design the circuits myself? Thanks in advance.

personwholives

The cheapest place to find the LCDs is eBay. Most of the LCDs people experiment with are compatible with the HD44780 interface chip. This chip is usually integrated into the pcb that the LCD is attached to. The interface that is usually used is a 4 bit or 8 bit connection to a parallel port, but I've seen serial circuits too. You would probably need a parallel-USB converter circuit to do what you want to. They make "backpacks" for LCDs that convert one interface to another, but they're not cheap.

Ken

if your good with electronics and programing ive seen some usb to parallel decoder chips. they have a whole schematic in circuit cellar issue #151

chip is made by Future Technology Devices http://www.ftdichip.com and is he FT8u245AM which has been discontinued in favor of the FT8U245BM, hope this helps

sweet. Thanks alot guys. Sombody always knows the answers here, it seems.

I just don't understand why you want to put yourself through this.... lol heheh

nova7 said:

I just don't understand why you want to put yourself through this.... lol heheh

Click to expand...

'cause its fun.....and besides, what the hell else am i gonna do this summer that isn't something i don't enjoy? i need to get some code practice, and i need to get some electronics practice, so this sounds ideal.......

besides, i love a good challenge/puzzle, and though this may prove to be less of one than i'd like, it'll still be entertaining, and will get me back into "coding mode" to do a real puzzle later this summer.

personwholives

i saw this and i wanted to know what i would need to program or even make it work like a matrix orbital one

how would i use this

Phil

PHILIP1193 said:

i saw this and i wanted to know what i would need to program or even make it work like a matrix orbital one

how would i use this

Phil

Click to expand...

well, you'll have to start by looking at the supplied pdf and build an interface. After that, you'll have to write your own plugins for the programs you want to use it with (at least, thats how i'm going to handle mine). These would vary in complexity depending on what you want them to do, and how you want to share the screen amongst them. Hope this helps some. I learned this stuff suprisingly fast, all things considered......

personwholives

I would just get a simple lcd from allelectronics.com (some cheap a stuff there), and purchase a bs2-ic . I actually was thinking about doing something like this... the bs2-ic made it really easy sample code:
Serout 0, N2400,("This is easy")