If the 5V are for the LEDs, and if you're already using the paralell port, you can draw those 5V from the paralell port (don't remember the pins now, but check out the scheme for the Nokia LCDs in LCDHype). By the way, I guess the LCDHype's 'lightning control' is supposing your LEDs are connected to those pins, and you can control them by software (LCDHype).
heya @minging, yup, its the one i got from you! lol yup, i know the backlight pulls 900ma, as per the datasheet, but i cant get anything off the datasheet about the amount of power the lcd itself draws! is it safe to perhaps do the following: where the parallel cable goes into the back of my pc, pull back some of the sleeving, and on two of the pins that i dont require for use of the lcd, solder a 3 pin header onto that, solder a socket onto a molex at 5v, and use that? will the little wires inside the parallel cable be able to handle that? ta
The paralell ports of most computers can only supply about 40ma.... Not good. Just use a usb port, but connect the power line to a molex. If it is wired up to the right pins, it will not damage periphals plugged into it,.
@confused fishcake, i think your a little confused! lol. what i meant was: cut the sleeving off the paralel cable and solder to two of those little wires a molex so i can power the lcd like that, as would be easier!
Or take power from the USB, just find a usb extender you dont use, and use the black and red cable inside it. One USB connector gives 500mA if you activate it, before you activate it it gives 100mA
If you are worried about the "unsightly" cable hanging out of your box, try something like this: PCI Backplate These work really well as I use them to power almost all of my LCDs. There are a few different models with different interface plugs, so do a search for "backy" on that site and it should bring quite a few up for you. You can make a whole bunch of different connectors onto one molex power cable (usually termed an "octopus" cable) with this setup. Very easy and a lot neater. On a side note, I have used the USB to power a 128x64 PLED without any problems. But, the spec sheet states that it only uses 70mW full on. Full power off a USB is 2.5W, so the PLED was no where close to being at the high end of the power limit Hope this helps a little.
heya well i actually dont intend to power the backlight off the same usb port! the idea was in fact to perhaps daisy chain two usb ports together and perhaps see if that works looks like im gna end up attaching a special port to the back of my pc! ta
