Parallel LCD

Agent Cobalt

I'm currently working on a bike computer and the display is a 4x20 parallel LCD.

My problem that I'm encountering with the display is that I want to show the speed of the bike in what I call 'large digits' aka 1 digit will use 4 lines of the display and however many columns are needed. I have seen this feature on a couple serial LCDs and due to money as well as the fact that I have 4 of these parallel LCDs needing to be used, a serial LCD is not an option. Has anyone written any code for a parallel LCD to enable this type of feature? I only need 2 digits in large mode and then need to be able to use the remainder of the LCD for other stuff. I've thought of possible methods to do this but whenever I try any on my propeller, none of them work.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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Truth can be dangerous... Trust can be deadly.

"I'm leaving!"
"But I haven't set you on fire yet!"

Franklin

It will all depend on which parallel LCD you have. Some will do what you want and some won't. Could you supply more info like model numbers?

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- Stephen

Bruce Bates

Agent -

Chances are better than even that you will need to use some sort of custom characters, which has a learning curve all of its own. Unless I'm mistaken it may take a "special" LCD to mix custom and regular characters on the same display. It may even require a graphics style LCD. With an appropriate graphics LCD what you want to do is fairly trivial.

Regards,

Bruce Bates

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RDL2004

The cost to add serial input to an LCD can be fairly low. If the LCD you have uses an HD44780 compatible controller (most do) then look here for more info: Wulfden.org

edit: The big digit mode is not the prettiest thing in the world, but it gets the job done much easier and cheaper than a graphic LCD

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- Rick

Post Edited (RDL2004) : 7/27/2007 10:14:38 AM GMT

Agent Cobalt

The parallel LCD I have is HD44780 compatible. I figured that I would have to use custom characters. I have an app that generates the basic stamp code needed for a custom character I design which I believe Parallax had written. I just can't figure out where to go from there.

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Truth can be dangerous... Trust can be deadly.

"I'm leaving!"
"But I haven't set you on fire yet!"

Lee Marshall

after initialising the LCD, you need to write the character segments to CGRAM(Character generator ram), which can then be written to the display by simply giving the memory location of the required segment.
i have never had to do this, but this should help: www.geocities.com/dinceraydin/djlcdsim/djlcdsim.html


segment=square of dots that would usually be a character, but in this case part of one.

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The Propeller is the best micro!

srry if im sound a little unprofessional sometimes, im 15.

Whit

There is a piece of software in the download section at the Parallax site. See this link - http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/downloads/software/software_basic_stamp.asp
and look for LCD Character Creator Version: 1.0 is a Windows-based program that makes it easy to create custom characters for parallel LCDs. Includes complete on-line integrated help.

Don't know if this will help or not.

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Whit+


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