Guide Make your own USB LCD controller!

@ Latvian3Dman: yes I have all of this working, however I still need to add the Remote Control code section into the main program, but other than that yes it all works fine.

However once made I would like to spend more time on the PC based sodtware, becasue it does not use LCD Smartie or any other programs like that but instead it uses a program I have written in c# to get the information from programs (e.g. WinAmp, etc) and sends them down the USB link to the PIC.


@misaki: the rotary encoder is essentually a dial that can be turned either clockwise or anti-clockwise and it is used for effectivley whatever you want, (providing the code / program is set right), in this instance I am using it to control the volume on my computer. Glad to have helped with the idea for your PCB, mod on....

 

Thanks Paul.

Would you please post some pictures of your product for reference?

Misaki.

 

@ch424
Great work! You're a magician! It works flawlessly. I was thinking about adding mce remote support to your project and make the device HID compatible. For the first thing i've something regarding rc6-6-32 command hanling... for the 2nd I've to wok on it for a while. Can you send me the source code you use?

 

Holy thread bump, Batman. You made Makezine Blog

 

can i ask why you would want to make the device HID compatable?

from what i understand it would mean that you dont need to load the .inf file.

the down side being that the device would no longer look like a serial port to the system and would need to have software written to access the LCD .

the range of software available for serial LCD is great, why would you want to write your own software.

maybe i misunderstand something about HID devices (im no expert).

Let me know

Scorpia

 

question

Does this support 40x2 lcds?

 

Yes.

 

Ok, so i built this up on a breadboard, and I'm getting some weird results.
It starts up and is recognized by windows. I get a com port. And the lcd starts blinking, but its about a third of the way down the first line.

then if i try to start up lcdsmartie it gives me some characters and then freezes lcdsmartie.

and heres what the wiring looks like at the moment

this is the lcd I'm using
http://www.jhdlcd.com.cn/old/PDF_file/JHD402A-E.pdf
I haven't really done much with lcd's before, so any help would be appreciated.

oh, also i only had a 20mhz crystal, so i had to change the config bits to match

just the ocs to HS and the pll prescaler

 

I'm really sorry, but I really don't know much about how my code works any more, and I no longer have access to the computer I wrote it on and the test setup. Please could you try a 4MHz crystal?

 

just having a quick look i would say shorten the cable from the chip to the lcd, it loooks like your using an old fdd cable or something.

i found when building mine the shorter the cable the better.

try and make it less than 5-6cm,

edit: since lcd smartie crashes after a little while i would get a 4mhz crystal. but since it detects under windows it cant be far from working. maybe try hyper terminal to type characters to the lcd manually.



Scorpia

 

Cableing definitely looks a little long. I had to bring mine down to about 5cm just like Scorpia mentioned and then it worked perfectly.

 

sweet

Thanks guys, I didn't realize the cable would make that much of a difference.
that was basically just to see if it will work. im working on a board to piggyback the lcd now, so there wont even be a cable.
It works great now. running with lcdsmartie

 

Glad you got it working without too many troubles. Looks good!

 

yeah, great work,

are you making a custom PCB or vero board?

if your making a Custom board dont forget to share.

Scorpia

 

Thanks you two, saving the day again! Good job RustySpoon!

 

Well, I have just finished populating my PCB (pictures to follow very shortly) as I am currently trying to find where I put my programmer!!
However I was curious to hear of the problems people have been having with the length of cable to the LCD as I have used LCD’s like this many times and never experienced any such problems regardless of the length of cable.

If anybody has a copy of the code (just the LCD bit will do) I would be intrigued to see it and where any differences might occur.

 

If you PM me your email address I can send it to you...

Looking forward to pictures

 

Has anyome written code to be able to use this on a Mac? (I know... I know... tantamount to blasphemy... but I use Macs on a daily basis)

 

Well here is semi-finished result of my project:



and the back of the board:



Appoligies for the poor piccy quality, I left my camera at work.

If you remember from my previous thread I am not using the same code as you, as this is a HID device, so i still have to add on my IR sensor (for the apple remote) and make a stand for it, just a basic plastic jobby similar to the others.

Also I am still currently working on my C# program which makes up the computer based side of the project where almost full control of the LCD is a available, and it should all hopefully be customisable for interfacing to WinAmp, iTunes etc.

 

Should work with OSX no problem - just plug+play, then download lcdproc - Do post back and say if it works or not though! (or could someone else with a Mac test this?)

Good job Paul!