i read through most of the posts in this thread and couldn't find anything about this, but sorry if this question has already been asked- i recently bought 2 hd44780 4 x 20 LCDs that do not have backlights. they have the reflective film on the back of the lcd glass, and you cannot see through that film at all. if i remove that film, and install the LEDs as i usually would, will it still function properly? please tell me there's a way to make these things light up! edit: nevermind, i answered my own question. but for any of you wondering the same thing- yes, it functions fine. i damaged one lcd trying to get the stupid sticker off, but the other one works great. i just need some polarizing film now to place on the back of the screen, and im good to go.
You could try LCDinfo as it has a driver for the CU20045SCPB-T23A; http://forum.lcdinfo.com/viewtopic.php?t=696&sid=2991176d91ef2ccde9ecaac4777c1841 For Linux you can have a go at LiquidMP3 as it has gone opensource (LCDinfo too), but Liquid is for graphical LCD/VFD's only.
LCD smartie review/link updated - used it for the first time in a long time last month and it's improved vastly I'll be honest my memory's not the best but I think I've used that display before - does it not have a serial interface? I think I got it working with LCDC by building a TTL converter so I could plug it into an RS232 port and then writing some custom def files. You can't do this anymore sadly, but if does have a serial interface, check the datasheet and the voltage levels it requires, you may need to invert them and convert to TTL. Won't be very easy finding supporting software unless coorz's tip off about LCDinfo helps you. Cheers, Rob.
LCD Smartie updated review/link Thanks for the updated link/review. LCD Smartie has been open-source for three months. We have just released 5.3 final, which has had three solid months of work on it, to make it work(!), stable and robust. We have also released a number of plugins including a winamp spectrum analyzer plugin - that can do the standard graphs but also tiny graphs where the bars are 1 pixel wide (so you can have a 40 bar spectrum analyzer in just 8 characters); these are cool on smaller displays! Chris [Maintainer of LCD Smartie]
Parallel software I noticed that most people here are use lcd smartie for thier lcd projects but i found it buggy and went in search of better. What i found was jalcd (Just Another LCD) at http://www.jalcds.de/ . Works great with my HD44780 controlled display via the parallel port.
Following this guide i got my LCD running, in less then 2 hours. awsome work ugly0900! the LCD cost 1$, i got it at a ham (amature radio) fest Im sure youve all "been there" and "done that" but i think i figured out some cool stuff... the first line is a built in feature of LCD Smartie that checks the FAH website and gets data on your team#, your user name, work units, score, ect... i chose to only display team name and work units; but there are more options. i figured out that you can add your team# (if you fold for more then one team) by tagging it after your username in the textbox in LCD smartie (ex: "theshadow2754&teamnum=33") then the second line took a little more work. there is a command called $FILE that puts a specific line of a text file on the LCD. what i did was to "share" the folder that FAH was running out of on each of my boxen, and then insert something like this in LCD Smartie: Code: CPU0: $File(c:\fah\unitinfo.txt, 6) CPU1: $File(//hp/fah/unitinfo.txt, 6) CPU2: $File(//cp/fah/unitinfo.txt, 6) but with 6 diffrent files. it then scrolls thrugh each of the CPU's progress. pretty cool! the second thing displays bit-tech's RSS feed on the electronic section, so i know if theres anything new (its sad, but i am addicted to bit-tech...) you are supost to say "WAIT! Bit-tech doesnt have an rss feed!!!" but it does... according to this forum post here is the code: Code: $Rss(http://forums.bit-tech.net/external.php?type=rss&forumids=36,t,0) where this is the base url: http://forums.bit-tech.net this is the RSS feed: /external.php this specifys the subforum #: forumids=36 and this gets you RSS (there is XML and JS also): type=rss at least *i* thought it was clever... just thought id share my sucess
Announcing LCD Studio v2 BETA Release! LCD Studio v2 Beta has been released for the public, checkout this amazing piece of software! Enjoy!
Graphic LCD negative contrast voltage solutions Ive been doing some digging lately and wanted to pass on my findings: If you happen to look for graphical LCDs, be aware that most of them use a negative voltage to drive it. Find the datasheet for your LCD and look for the specifications for V(ee) or V(lcd). The specs will most likely be shown like this: Vdd-Vee = 28V Dont confuse this as a positive voltage, or that the voltage is supposed to be -28V. What they mean is [Vdd (+5V) - Vee (-23V)] = +28V. So, doing a little algebra will lead you to find that your contrast voltage will be -23V from ground. The next step is to find out the maximum current draw from this negative voltage. You should find something like I(ee) or I(lcd). For smaller GLCDs, this current is 3mA or smaller. In order to generate this from a PCs power supply, the cheapest solution is the DC-32 from allelectronics. Its a handy little module for negative voltage generation. Only problem is that it can only supply 3mA maximum. So what can you do with larger GLCDs (320x240) ? For US people, this depends on where you shop. Eveytime I need something for a project, I have to switch back and forth between Digikey and Mouser. Whatever the first one lacks, the other will stock. This is really annoying when putting together a list of stuff to make shipping worth the effort. So I finally found a solution from both places: Digikey: The MAX749 is designed as a one IC solution for generating LCD bias voltage. It takes 5VDC and outputs anywhere from -12VDC to -28VDC@20mA. It requires the use of a few caps, resistors, a diode, a PNP transistor, and an inductor. Its average price is $5USD. Mouser: The microchip TC7662A is an inverting charge pump capable of taking 12VDC and inverting to -12VDC @40mA. And the nice thing is that they can be cascaded, ie- two of these can produce -24VDC@40mA from a single 12VDC source. Average price is $1.50USD. These require the use of only a couple caps per IC.
Could this not do it? Parallel ---> USB convertor http://www.dontronics-shop.com/home.php?cat=322 The U401 and U421 USB interface The U4x1 is a USB solution that is pre-built, pre-programmed, and pre-tested and will get you interfacing your PC to various devices in very little time! There is no USB device assembly, no driver development, and no firmware to write. In many cases the U401 or U421 can be plugged into an experimenter's breadboard and circuit interfacing can begin immediately. Demo software applications can be used "right out of the box". The U4x1 can be used with projects that were previously constructed by wiring to the parallel port of the PC.
Hi. I'm another noob with a little bit of electronics experiance. My question is, I've got a 2.5 inch Colour lcd screen frogm a PS2 controller. http://www.abcaz.co.uk/5_1152850/pl...2-lcd-controller-monitor-and-car-charger.html It has a controller board and everything so I just have to put a video signal into it. I want to use it as a screen to display basic data like the otheres in this thread. I'd like to run it off of a parallel port or a serial port. Not my video card. Any ideas?
A color screen is pretty much impossible to drive off of the Parallel/Serial port because of the amount of data that must be passed. USB would be your only other solution if you wanted to get away from your video card. However, then you run into being able to find drivers and software to interface it, plus a controller as well. It would be much easier to use your video card (one with a video out) and some software like Samurize to drive it.
Those are very useful details. Keep it up. _________________________ AES Ham Radio - AES Ham Radio Catalog by AES Amateur Electronic Supply
a litle more info on converting a laptop lcd would be nice, like a few pics. I read that laptop displays are generaly a modified dvi connection they use, (internaly) perhaps someone could find a general pinout or something
...odd place to post (this is a very old, out of date thread about LCD's!). Anyway it sounds to me that your problem lies with the way your printer driver converts colour to BW; my sugession for a quick fix would be to take control of that process and convert to BW before printing. You could print to a BW postscript printer, convert to PDF and then print the PDF with your old driver. Print your document to a file inspect the resulting postscript with ghostview to make sure it doesn't have the problem you describe, and if all's well print the doc to your BW printer. Hope that helps, welcome to the boards!
Hi Cheese, Here, you have mostly provided all the information related to LCD and VFD. Both of them, Which one is better? LCD or VFD. Which one is better as per performance and cost view? Thanks, in advance, for reply.
I used a lot of LCD's/VFD's back in the day and collated the information at the start of this thread (which is now out of date!). VFD's, especially graphic VFD's, are the most visually stunning and would be my preference for most small screen applications. Cheers.
How do I get a widescreen format on my LCD monitor? I just bought a 18.5" LCD monitor. It only has a VGA port, so that's how I have it hooked up. How do I get the widescreen format (1400X900...?), so that everything doesn't look stretched out. Do I have to have DVI, if so, will a DVI to VGA converter work (I have DVI on my graphics card)? _________________ yahoo keyword tool ~ overture ~ traffic estimator ~ adwords traffic estimator
