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lcd hd44780 usb help

Discussion about LCD's and other related hardware

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KeV
Posts: 9
Joined: June 13th, 2007, 1:11 am

lcd hd44780 usb help

Post by KeV »

ive got a lcd 20x4 hd44780 which i use with a for my sim racing which is powerd by a plasma lite usb.

the thing is i cant get it working with lcd smartie ,what would i need to put in the start up parameters for a usb device .
KeV
Posts: 9
Joined: June 13th, 2007, 1:11 am

Post by KeV »

anyone can help me on this on how to set this up ?
mattcro
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Joined: March 8th, 2006, 1:58 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by mattcro »

Is this the Plasma Lite you mean?: http://www.betainnovations.com/hardware ... _lite.html

Interesting bit of kit - you must be well into racing sims? I just muck about with Richard Burns Rally and a bit of Race WTCC and GTR on a crappy Saitek wheel.

I think that Smartie would need a new display driver to use that LCD. Smartie supports several industry-standard common display type/interfaces, but the Plasma Lite is a bit more unusual. :wink:

If your programming is up to scratch, you can try writing a driver to interface with Smartie (looks like Beta Innovations provide an SDK), but otherwise I'm afraid it's probably a low priority for the Smartie team.
KeV
Posts: 9
Joined: June 13th, 2007, 1:11 am

Post by KeV »

yes thats the one and yes im in to my sim racing.
maybe i just get a lcd just for smartie if its going to be a pain to do .
mattcro
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Joined: March 8th, 2006, 1:58 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by mattcro »

Getting another LCD that Smartie supports natively is probably the easiest way to go.

If you have a spare parallel port on your PC, you can use a very simple circuit to connect a standard LCD module directly to the port - just a connector, cable and a few components and a bit of soldering. You can even get assembled/wired LCDs ready to connect from various places including eBay. Check this page for the circuit.

For something a bit more sophisticated, you can buy very smart LCD modules that come with a 5.25" drive bay mounting kit and connect via USB, made by Matrix Orbital and Crystalfontz and available from PC modding shops etc. Some have a few buttons to control the displayed info pages or media players.

If you're into electronics and microcontrollers, you can do it yourself - there are a few projects on this forum using Atmel AVR and Microchip PIC microcontrollers to interface bare LCDs to the serial port or USB.

I guess the Plasma Lite LCD shows info about the game controller system? If so, you'll have 2 LCDs - 1 for controller info and 1 for system/media info. You can show things like CPU load, CPU/GPU temperature, network activity during gaming... the list is endless!
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