LCD Message Controller

[jasonlaronde]

I'd like to drive an LCD/VFD screen to display a pre-programmed message based on a line being drivin high or low (depeding on what works)

I have a 16 channel switching system for speakers on a wall in a stereo store. The relay control module I have currently lights an LED to indicate which channel is on... I'd like to take the voltage from the LED and instead trigger an LCD or VFD display to display the message "CHANNEL 1", "CHANNEL 2", etc...

Even cooler would be the ability to connect via USB and update the channel lables to display perhaps the speakers name and price... but that would just be a toy...

I guess in a perfect world I could want just a Hitatci HDwhatever compatable thingy with terminals that depending one which one is sent high/grounded could be connected to a cheap 16x2 or something panel to say whatever I want... any ideas?

Jay

 

[justDIY]

hit up our good friend google with the keywords lcd microcontroller

the main man Nigel has some good tutorials for controlling an lcd with a micrcocontroller as well

 

[kinjalgp]

This is what you are looking for...includes schematic & source code.
**broken link removed**

 

[jasonlaronde]

THATS IT!

But I need 16 inputs... any ideas?

Jay

 

[3v0]

THATS IT!

But I need 16 inputs... any ideas?

Jay

Use 2 of them?

 

[Sceadwian]

Or use one hitachi module and a micro controller with at least 16 free GPIO's plus whatever's needed for the LCD interface. Depends on your skill, if you don't know anything about micro controllers it'll take you a little time to figure out how to program one and get the results you want, but the project you want is very simple and would require minimal programming.

 

[jasonlaronde]

Programming skill on a scale of 1-10 is about a negative 3...

I can make a web page say "Hello, World!"

Does that count?

That's why I was looking for a ready made solution...

The controller on this Velleman thingy doesn't by any chance have 16 GPIOs that 8 of which simply aren't being used and with a little editing of the source code could do what I need????

Jay

 

[Sceadwian]

Even the 'ready made' sollutions are going to require some programming knowledge, especially kits. PIC or AVR basic is very easy to learn as long as you know a little bit about general electronics to understand the basic parallel programming circuits. If it's over your head you're going to need help from someone closer to you, there's only so much you can tell or teach in text, and you're going to get very frustrated since you're not sure how to approach the problem in the first place, because you have no experiance with the devices in use. Perhaps someone else in the forums can recommend other kits or modules that might be workable for you, but I'm not sure how useful they'll be.

 

[jasonlaronde]

The velleman kit mentioned above is perfect... More of an idiot solution... Just not enough inputs. I can assemble and program with the included software but just not big enough...

Cheers,
Jay

 

[Sceadwian]

Like 3V0 said then, just use two.

 

[jasonlaronde]

any way to use two control units to drive one screen?

Jay

 

[kinjalgp]

You can use other PIC microcontroller with more GPIOs like the PIC16F877.
The program would need slight change...if you cant do it...we are always there to help. But try to learn PIC microcontrollers, its not very difficult to understand.

 

[3v0]

any way to use two control units to drive one screen?
Jay

I do not think it would be easy.

But you could use 2 of them as I said earlier. Mount them side by side.

The screen with the active input would display the speaker's name/price info.

The screen with no active unit is blank or displays and arrow pointing to the other unit.

ie:

DISPLAY UNIT 1                 DISPLAY  UNIT 2

Speaker FuBar $332.85          <-------


              ------>          Speaker RealCheap $21.11

According to the manual you can specify a msg for when there is not input "---->". So this should work. No hardware or software modifications required.

The msgs are programed via a serial port. So you need to mount them so you can attach a serial cable or run serial cables to the back room.. whatever you need to do to make it work for you.