Hello,
Last year I did a project that used LCD Smartie to show PC stats on analog gauges.
I just finished a new project, an Ethernet backpack for 20x4 character LCDs. I'll be releasing the design under a public domain license.
The Ethernet backpack has a simple TCP server that accepts Matrix Orbital-style commands, as outlined by _X7JAY7X_ in Serial Backpack I. I added one command to display the backpack's network configuration as assigned by DHCP (254,153). Edit: and another that puts the screen in standby mode, for example when the port closes when LCD Smartie exits (254, 154).
It works perfectly with LCD Smartie using the Matrix Orbital display plugin. Since the display plugin uses a com/serial port, I use a freeware serial port forwarder to create a virtual COM2 on my system and then forward that to the Ethernet backpack's TCP server over my local network.
It would be really awesome if someone could make a new plugin, or modify the Matrix Orbital plugin, to forward the bytestream directly to an IP address over TCP. The client should handle loss/regain of connection gracefully (try to reconnect once per second, non-blocking time outs).
I'll send 2 of my extra PCBs to the author of a working plugin. That's one for yourself, and one to bribe someone to assemble it for you if you're not a hardware geek.
Thanks!
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