Guide Make your own USB LCD controller!

Hi all,

This is result after a couple of weeks. I get it working now.

What I do next is find out how to stick it to my case. Maybe more couple of weeks , I guess

Thanks for the supports, ch424, Latvian3Dman... I hope this is not the last electronic project I like to do

Have a nice time!

Misaki.

 

i've been trying to get this project working for couple of days now.. ( >.< noob at work)
got all parts assembled
PIC programmed
everything ready, plugged into computer
Device found -> load driver and it gave me Communication Port 5
load LCD smarties, set plugin to matrix.dll and parameter to "COM5,9600"
<--- Sadly -->
LCD is blanked.. doesn't seem to power up, though i used multimeter to check for voltage on pin 1,2 which came out to be 5v. What could be the problem?

 

bearnuc, check contrast setting on LCD pin3, if its wrong there will be nothing on screen.

 

Awesome, good job misaki!

bearnuc, Pin 1 and 2 of what?
If it's pin 1 and 2 of the LCD, then you need to check the underside of the PCB to make sure the wires aren't touching. Pin 1 should be 0V and Pin 2 should be 5V.
If it's pin 1 and 2 of the PIC, then that's not expected either: Pin 1 should be at 5V and Pin 2 should be at 0V.
Also, yes, try what Latvian3Dman said

Could you take a photo of the bottom of your board?

thanks
ch424

 

>.< indeed it's contrast setting which is wrong. Cheers Latvian3Dman for guiding me .
Another noobish question. i'm now trying to get the backlight to work. My LCD has 16 pin and pin 15,16 is supposed to be for LED backlight indicated in datasheet as
Pin 15 - A
Pin 16 - K
I've followed CH424 PCB layout so how should i connect Backlight to BL+ and BL- ? just a direct connection to these two pins?

 

A stands for Anode (+) and K stands for Katode (-), so I guess you can connect those appropriate BL + and -. As for me, i made permament backlight, using 220 Ohm potentiommetr (variable resistance) for brightness setting.

 

Depending on your LCD, you may need a series resistor with the backlight, so it's either:

Code:

BL+ ------ [resistor] ------ A
BL- ------------------------ K

or

Code:

BL+ ------------------------ A
BL- ------------------------ K

Do you have the datasheet for your LCD? What voltage/current is the backlight supposed to be?

 

my pictures

Here is my USB LCD...

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project completed. Will take pics once i get OLED >.< now it's just good ol' greenish yellow LED. Thanks CH424 for creating a great guide and Latvian3Dman for such a quick advice

 

Hi,

I'm wanting to make something very similar to this, but make some alterations. Is it possible you can send me the source code?

laesq [ at ] thelawslounge [ dot ] com

Cheers,
LaesQ

 

Hey latvian3dman, that rig is awesome, looks really cool. what are all those leds for ?

 

My case

Hello, thank you for noticing my case work
Top 5" bay - it is "DiscoLitez Deluxe 32" (http://discolitez.com/), you can define each of leds to certain frequency and/or amplitude level. Below DVD-RW, its my self-made cooler controller with tachometers, thermometers and a clock. Very bottom - "BlinkenLEDs" , just hit it in Google and you will get the picture. Two green lines - 2x20 OLED, powered by "jaLCDs" software and working on USB with this: (http://lcdtousb.dpz.cz/)

 

CH424, just wondering what did you set the Rotary Encoder button ID as? Don't know whether i asked the right question or not here is what i'm trying to do

i'm trying to enable the Rotary Encoder as a scroller in one of the winamp LCD plugin from : http://www.markuszehnder.ch/projects/lcdplugin/index.php
The LCD works in this plugin as well (with setting of Matrix Orbital Serial port). Just the last bit which still confuses me >.< the rotary Enocoder works in LCD Smartie but i have to manually inset the button ID (for rotary encoder) in this plugin

 

Latvian3Dman: that's an awesome case! Thanks for the help with bearnuc's problem too.

bearnuc: Rotating the encoder one way should give the character A, the other way gives B and pressing the encoder in gives S. Is there a place to tell your plugin that?

 

CH424, yes there is, i'll try later on today and will post result

update: seems that this winamp plugin doesn't really work well >.< can't get spectrum analyzer to work properly so i kinda give up on encoder bit

 

The LCDSmartie spectrum analyser works brilliantly with this project. Use the following as four lines on a 20x4 LCD:

Code:

$dll(winamp,1,3x15,u#0) $WinampPosh
$dll(winamp,2,0,0)+$WinampResh
$dll(winamp,3,0,0)=$WinampLengts
$WinampTitle - $CustomChar(8,31,31,31,31,31,31,31,31)$CustomChar(7,14,31,31,31,31,31,31,31)$CustomChar(6, 0,14,31,31,31,31,31,31)$CustomChar(5, 0, 0,14,31,31,31,31,31)$CustomChar(4, 0, 0, 0,14,31,31,31,31)$CustomChar(3, 0, 0, 0, 0,14,31,31,31)$CustomChar(2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,14,31,31)$CustomChar(1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,14,31)

You have to download the winamp plugin first though.

Good luck!

 

Ch424, yap LCD smartie works a treat. Would b nice if i could find a way to incorporate m3u playlist to show as menu like that mp3 plugin i was trying to get it to work.

 

Hi guys,

For the past couple of years I have been working on a project similar to this and was intended to perform a lot more tasks, however due to a few things I don't have much spare time at the moment so i decided to modify my project to perform similar functionality to this one (as i currently have this bit working), these are the main differences in my project:

- Works as a HID device on the computer, as opposed to emulating a COM port, this also provides the ability to update the firmware on the PIC at a later date via the USB connection to the computer, amongst other things

- Has a Rorary Encoder and Push Button both interrupt driven, instead of polling the devices

- An IR Sensor, which has been programmed (again interrupt driven) for the Apple Remote to control the computer (i.e. you can change track / volume from the remote)

- It has 4 LED's connected to it, however these can be used as General Outputs, along with the other un-used spare Pin.

I have just created the PCB Layout for it, however this is the first PCB layout I have properly done hence I would be very greatfull of any comments / suggestions on areas where I might have gone wrong / could do with improvements.



EDIT: Schematic available here

The idea is that the LCD covers the left hand side of the board, and the whole thing will be mounted on a small perspex stand.


Thanks
Paul

 

paul, that all sounds very great and promising! so, is this all working allready?

 

Paul, this is really interesting. I'm looking for a way to re-arrange the components to reduce the board size for matching the LCD 4x20 board. Your PCB layout has just given me a good idea. Thank you!

Hi all, sorry if this is the noob question. What is the Rorary Encoder? and what does it use for in this LCD board?

Many thanks!

Misaki