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Re: using character LCD as display.

From: Doug Sutherland <>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2003 20:57:04 +0100

Jeremy wrote:

 > Has anyone out there used a Character LCD as a display.

Yes, but the small LCDs don't work very well as console.
It can be done, but if you send the console output to a
4 line 20 character display it's not really usable, I
have tried. It does work well with a couple of buttons
as a menu to do stuff though ...

Here's a 4x20 VFD on sleeve that was used for a menu
http://home.earthlink.net/~wearable/galleria/jacket/

For a true console you'd need more than 4x20 characters,
a lot more ... I've seen some nice ones at national
control devices ... www.controlanything.com ...

These noritake displays look very interesting too:
http://www.noritake-elec.com/products.htm

 > Anyway I was looking at something like:
 > 
<http://www.matrixorbital.com/products/lcd4041.htm>http://www.matrixorbital.com/products/lcd4041.htm
 > could be put in a project box and strapped to my arm for travel.

That was a matrix orbital VFD that I used for sleeve display,
but like I said, it's not enough characters for a console, however
it works well for custom apps like GPS etc, and it makes for an
excellent menu system ...

 > the LCD has a serial interface... anyone ever concert  VGA to serial?

No, this is not the way to do it ... the way is
to use getty on the serial port ... I have tried
it with a 4x20 LCD ... the login prompt appears.
However, it expects it to be a terminal ... with
the keyboard ... so a viable solution is to use
a microcontroller attached to serial port and
interface both the keyboard and LCD ... I have
almost completed this but got distracted ...
I'm working on using the Cirque pocket keyboard
(small PDA keyboard) with an LCD to make a tiny
terminal exactly as you describe. I have also
seen code for interfacing PS/2 keyboards with
microcontrollers in various places ... so you
could use the twiddler or other PS/2 keyboard.

   -- Doug

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