Hi all, I hoping to get these LCD's working via some kinda of serial interface. I've never used them before but I was told they should work without a piggy back board - is this correct?
Near to Technobots. (and MCU Store, but they do not take callers).
Technobots sell Sparkfun Serial LCD with Atmel processor. I half-remember (except my memory is shot) that the source code is available for download from Sparkfun site. Nice, very readable display, but I find 6 to 9V supply a bit limiting. Modified it for 5V, but then display quality goes down.
Robin - from Fareham - tried Atmel but prefer PICs
EDIT: Silly me... I am rambling on about GLCD, whilst your post is about LCD. Apologies.
Worse still... aren't Soton and Pompy arch rivals... And I am right in the middle of a possible war that I may have started !
thanks guys, I need to use the screens that we already have (lots & lost of them!) so I will have to try and work it out. I want to get a Arduino to work with the display, maybe I can get it to interface with the display using parallel signals? hmmm
That's true Pompey and Soton are know to have rivalry lol, but I think that's only really among the football community which I'm not really a part of lol
Dan....(You have the same name as my son, small world)... If you are using the arduino, there is a library already with a 4 bit interface... I suggest you link this site to your desktop...tronixstuff tutorials
RS 232 defines the signaling standard used for communication, it uses +12 and -12 V states to define high and low states.
The LCD screen you mentioned uses several I/Os in parallel. This kind of interface is commonly used in most LCDs and there is nothing new here.
1 I/O each for Rs and R/W and 8 I/Os for data.
To interface it with RS 232 you need an intelligent device like a micro-controller connected to the appropriate level translator (like MAX 232) for the RS 232 stage. The level translator will convert 5V levels from the micro-controller to the +12 or -12 V level as required by the RS 232 specification.
You can design the above system from scratch or use Arduino board as suggested.
it is a small world indeed Ian, good choice on your sons' name thanks for the link, those tutorials look well worth a read.
thanks arunb, that's interesting, I didn't know RS232 used 12v for logic, I should have known lol. so one could use a max232 IC and that would convert a serial signal too parallel would it?
No! not serial to parallel.. the max 323 converts voltage levels.. serial +/- 12v to serial TTL (0-5v, or indeed 0-3.3v if that's your circuit). the on board UART on the micro, does the conversion to parallel.