Having recently bought a pokey serial backpack lcd (I couldn't afford a Matrix Orbital), I now want to add those nice GPO's to it so I can control fan speed through MBM. The only problem is, I know **** about electronics! I will need a PIC of somesort?! Can anyone help ?
OK, so forget the lcd bit, how about serial port control for fans? Must be a way to turn those beasts on/off through the com port! Even a little hint would help!
Hey welcome to the boards. You don't need a PIC, but you will need to have PC software if you don't. Here's a nice example of the PIC approach: http://www.veys.com/nick/custom_electronics/mrbaybus2/index.shtml Crystalfontz is now selling a unit that does this: http://crystalfontz.com/products/633/ which is probably your best bet, given your statement regarding your own electronics knowledge.
Thanks for the info, but I'm still confused! The CF LCD looks superb, and could be programmed easily, BUT, as I don't have $70 and HATE waiting for deliveries, Mr Baybus seems the better option. So all I need now is a schematic! (Preferably in English rather than electronics symbols coz I iz dupid) The other thought is could I not just set up an on/off switch(s) which would be activated through the serial port (via software using MBM), and then hook that up to my existing rheobus?! Any ideas? Anyone?
That's the basic idea, but it would be a ton easier to implement using parallel port. You're still stuck writing your own software. Sort of along these lines: http://casemods.pointofnoreturn.org/cpumeter/
Eeermmm! Sort of get it, the chip in the led array is the switch, right? As far as I can tell it will only handle 6v, with an output less than that, and I need 12v for the fans. So if I (or anyone else) can find one of these which will output 12v I'm on a winner. Hoorah! Real sorry about my lack of knowledge here, though! But, it really needs to be on the serial port as I have already written my lcd software and was hoping to re-use that. If, however the parallel is the only way to go, then so be it. Thanks for the help.
OK, I went back and reread your original post, and you already have GPOs available on the backpack, right? You'll just need to use them to turn on a switching transistor that's sized appropriately for your fan current. I'll need a few more details about your fans and plans to go into more detail, but there are other threads around here on the subject.
Lets start again. I have a milford instruments 2x16 parallel lcd, to which I added the serial backpack, no GPO's, no extras at all, in fact it's crap. I also have a lovely rheostat baybus with twirly knobs and lights. What I wanted to do was control the on/off section of the rheobus through my own software. I thought it would be easy to add some sort of GPO's to my lcd and then just write a bit of code. So lets forget the lcd. Do you know of any way I can turn my baybus on and off, through the serial port? Fortunately for me, I live in England, so you can't kill me! Hahaaha
Hehe Uh, sorry, my parser is seriously malfunctioning today... I don't know how you'd control fans via serial at all, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. I'd be awfully tempted to proceed directly to USB, but I'd have to research it myself to get a sense of how to do it. I'm sure someone (National Semiconductor) makes a USB ocontroller IC that makes it pretty straightforward. But, parallel port is a lot easier to control as shown in the link above, but you've already got an LCD running on that, so my final answer is, I think you're out of luck unless someone comes along that knows way more than me about serial and wants to help.
Thanks for the help linear, I will look into the parallel port control, and perhaps one day post a solution! Until then, guess I'll just have to press the buttons!
