I have a fairly simple question that will draw on your experiences with micros and parts so far.
What is the smallest and/or cheapest micro (that you know of) capable of:
Must haves:
- SPI communication (sw)
- Capable of driving a very small LCD
- SOIC package
Nice to have:
- USB capabilities
[PIC is preferred but I have no issues with other brands.]
The other part is an LCD to pair with this micro - does anyone know where can I get a small LCD (1 line) - the kind that only displays 2-3 digits (like the ones in cheap digital gadgets or thermometers)?
Bill, I just looked into it and I have one additional question. The LCD module works at 5V while the rest of my circuit works at 3.3V - I am wondering if this could be a potential problem. From your experience would such a setup work with a 5V LCD?
Any chip that can use its ports as source or sink can drive a static LCD as long it has the pin count. I'm just mentioning this in case there' a cheaper alternative.
If you want a really cheap micro and an external LCD driver solution, you can get an NXP external controller from Digikey for $1.71. You can also look at this datasheet if you want to see the waveforms you need to generate if you have shared pins and multiple common pins.
I have not used this myself. I did experiment with direct drive and it works well, but since I can get the 7110 glcd's for $1 each and they only take a couple mA's when running, I never ran with it.
I think I have one of those 7110 glcd's... any idea where I can get the connector for it? It seems to be non standard. And where do they sell for $1? I got it from Dipmicro for about $3 .
I think I have one of those 7110 glcd's... any idea where I can get the connector for it? It seems to be non standard. And where do they sell for $1? I got it from Dipmicro for about $3 .
I made up a footprint in Eagle and use a bit of flat bar and 4-40 bolts to hold it all together. You can see the pictures in the other thread. The Eagle library is in there as well.
As far as I know the 18f14k50 (or 18f13k50) is going to be the smallest pincount USB chip from Microchip. Will fit all requirements except driving the bare glass LCD. It's a little peculiar though, as the D+, D- pins share the PGD and PGC pins. The 18f version is the 5V version with a 3.3V internal regulator, or use the 18LF version for straight 3.3V supply.