I thin the other reason is that it is a lot of fun
The 16x2 LCD board is great and I would also be interested in the Graphics board. I am thinking of using this with "sensor shields", e.g. I want to monitor the depth of a water tank using a pressure sensor.Chris
Why reinvent an already available wheel? There are so many other worthy projects waiting out there!!
Reasons?
I can list them:
Mine is faster and can do more. (ATmega168 vs PIC with 4k flash)
Mine is completely open, both hardware and software. The 117 is code protected and no source is provided.
Mine has four different interfaces (SPI, I2C, TTL Serial and RS232) compared to only TTL Serial on the 117.
Mine is cheaper. $10 for premade and $8 for a kit (SMD components however).
Mine is significantly smaller. Under a third of the size of the ModernDevice board.
And probably a few other reasons I've forgotten.
I actually wanted to buy a serial LCD controller but I couldnt find any which were half decent.
They were all closed source and only had TTL Serial and maybe RS232 interfaces.
Also I have a source which sells LCD panels at $7.90 for 16x2 with backlight in single quantities or $5.90 in bulk.
$12 can buy two.
[EDIT] Oh and if these LCD controllers are popular then I will be going on to tackle things like graphical LCDs and other trickier hardware. [/EDIT]
I'm convinced. I'm currently enjoying my relationship with I2C so I'm keen to see what else I can add to the chain.
So, for 2 units ($20) including 2 16x2 LCD panel's ($12), it's $32 + shipping. Sounds a bit light.
Just a question: You do not provide a ground signal to your SPI, SER and I2C connectors. I would have expected these to have a ground since they are not differential. Am I missing something?
Oh they can, that's not the issue. Afaik, the issue is that it's not clear to the user that these lines must be tied together; especially since gnd is already filled.
EDIT: Funny enough, someone just posted this
As a rule of thumb, you always need to connect the ground between two devices which talk to each other.
Nick, I'm definitely interested in your OpenLCD project. I started playing around with a 16x2 display last night, starting with the 8 bit interface and then going to 4, and then this morning I was thinking that it should be simple (and cheap) to delegate control to another Arduino chip. Lo and behold, I stumble upon this thread! ;D So, please keep us posted on your progress! I'd love to see some code in the SF SVN repository... (hint, hint! ;))
Ok, so now that I'm thinking about it, is the ATmega168 going to be running the Arduino bootloader (and thus be reprogrammable by other Arduino users) or will it have its own "OS"?
Ok, so now that I'm thinking about it, is the ATmega168 going to be running the Arduino bootloader (and thus be reprogrammable by other Arduino users) or will it have its own "OS"?
It will be a Arduino but the reprogramming feature will be optional.
Basically the EEPROM will store a whole pile of settings.
One of the settings will be if you want the bootloader turned on or not.
Update: The PCBs are on their way and will arrive on Monday.
Now to chase up the components.....
Sweet! The more I build up my current project (an intervalometer for my camera), the more I realize I need some way to offload the LCD connections somewhere else. I'm using every single pin and I still want to do things like toggle the backlight and add another button or two. Ugh. And I'm already using 4 bit mode, which is noticeably slower than 8 bit!
Boy are they tiny. About the width of my thumb and its significantly longer than them.
Should be fun soldering. 11 components have to fit in to that tiny space.
I have a really shocking ability to judge sizes from a photo.
0805 is freaking tiny.
I've finally gotten all the parts and I've got one board half done.
TQFN parts are a pain. Nearly got it first shot but cant line it up properly now.
I'll try again tomorrow.