Hi,
First post and noob here.
My questions are these: What is the technical term for this LCD Display and how do I interface with it via Arduino?
Thanks!
Unless it has a recognizable part number on it, I'd say the chances of interfacing to it are very low
Also. You normally interface via some sort of LCD driver IC. The display in the picture looks like its just the panel ie withut any driver electronics
Thank you. So something like this should suffice: http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Maxim-Integrated/MAX8570EUT+T/?qs=Jw2w9zrI6w%252b2MqaT6eLK0Q%3D%3D&gclid=CK2nv5eKtcACFSMV7AodE14AVA
Now that you say that, I figure that I should have kept the board. How difficult would it be to black box hack this?
Probably very hard to reverse engineer
Just buy yourself another display, you will save yourself a load of aggro.
There are plenty of LCD's that other people have already documented how to interface to the Arduino
16 x 2 character displays using parallel or I2C are common. So are the SPI displays from Nokia mobile phones.
Also small LCD dot matrix displays are commonly used
Is there a reason you have to use that display?
Not really, my desire to use it is more for the scavenged part cool-factor than anything else. I don't even truly have a particular application for it, perhaps I might use it later on. It appears to be very simplistic, it's hard to imagine that a bruteforce method would take very long, but I am most likely unaware of something related to the technology. I could probably find something similar to it and just use its datasheet, trial-error, and eventually the inevitable score, but it's probably more of a hassle than it's worth.
Thanks for the information.
my desire to use it is more for the scavenged part cool-factor than anything else
Fair enough
I think next time, you'd need to keep the driver electronics as well, in order to have a fighting chance of using it.
Find something else to scavenge.e.g an old Nokia mobile phone
see
Super cool!
I bought 2 of those displays from eBay, thinking they were new, only to find that when the arrived, that they had been taken out of old mobile phones and had "burn in" and discoloration on the screens.
To save aggro, I got a 50% reduction in the price from the supplier, but in future I may just see if I can get some old mobile phones (for free) and take the displays out myself
I'm currently working out how to fit one of them to my cordless electric drill charger
Long story, but my drill charger (NiMh batteries) packed up, and I found the control board (analog electronics) had basically melted down, and taken the 25VA 30V transformer with it.
So I replaced the transformer with a 30VA one (as I couldn't find a small switch mode PSU that would deliver 30V at around an amp that would fit in the existing case.
Then I use an Arduino Mini as the control, and a relay module to turn the charging on and off.
I use a resistor divider network to measure the voltage across the battery i.e connected to A0
I use the 2 existing LEDs on the case to show power on and mode, i.e waiting, charging or finished.
However I think it would be good to fit one of those phone displays, so I'm currently trying to model a 3D hosing that fits neatly onto the top of the charger, to house the display, as the case of the charger is utterly full with no room even for a small display
Nice project! Sorry to hear about your charger going on the fritz, but it sounds like you got it taken care of. I'd probably just build a separate unit and have it plug into the original case on the side. That way you could use your device on multiple chargers.
For the record, the above picture is not my work. It came from the link you gave me. I was wondering what the name of the adapter is, so that I could search one down for purchase. Looks like a must have... you can plug into it like a breadboard!!
Anyway, I just built a simple device that sprays air or water when it detects motion, for indoor use!! It has a wide angle PIR outputting 3.3v, so I pass it through a MOSFET to a 5v relay, out to 12V to power the solenoid, very simple... but darn effective -just ask my cats. lol
Hi EvaTech
Charger blew up ages ago, but managed to fix it using the Arduino micro, and I managed to squeeze everything back into the same case !
But had to update my firmware yesterday because I realized the batteries were not getting fully charged because I was detecting battery voltage to determine when the batteries were full, and the voltage I'd specific in the code was too low.
It was 1.42V per cell (times 15 cells in the battery pack = 21.3) , so I changed it to 1.48V per cell (22.2)
But I also detect the drop in battery voltage that occurs in a constant current charger when the battery has reached full charge, and now that I use 22.2V as absolute max voltage (if negative voltage slope not found), the negative voltage slope detection in my code has started to work
So I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.
PS. Before anyone tells me I'm charging niMH batteries incorrectly.... Yes, I probably am, but my charger is definately better than the analogue one that was in the charger in the first place, as it definately only detected max charge voltage.
It didnt have a charge time limit (like I put in my code) and it didn't sense the negative voltage slope, like mine does.
PS. Negative voltage slope detection, as a bit tricky due to the ripple from the transformer , its impossible to smooth a mains transformer 50HZ to be able to have less than 5mV of ripple, when supplying 1Amp at 30V without a massive capacitor.
And there was no room for large capacitors in the case of the charger.
The original analogue circuit had a 1000uF which I kept, but it would need 10 x that or more to reduce the ripple
So I use a huge number of samples of the battery voltage (5 seconds worth at normal ADC sample rates, i.e thousands of samples) and do a rolling average to integrate out the ripple.
And it works surprisingly well.
I guess I should post it to the gallery section when its finished.
PS.
Also fixed my remote control garage door when the receiver in the door motor thing packed up. I've have fitted an Arduino in and external box to take the place of the internal remote control stuff for the door.
I it currently uses 433Mhz but I have plans to convert to using NRF24L01 and have it automatically detect when the car is comming down the street and open the door for me 
Are there ANY identifiable parts on the back? Any lettering on the connector?
If no such stuff can be found, chances are it is not a standard Hitachi connected part ( 10 pins connector is little odd count) and you are out of luck.
Experimenting with LCD is fun and working LCD is a great tool in debugging your program.
All of my apps always start with initializing LCD first.
Cheers Vaclav
@Vaclav
There are a two sequences of letters+numbers printed on the ribbon, when I get back to the lab (i.e. My House), I'll post those for anyone to help identify it. I retrieved them from two different Brother Printers, if that helps.
How will your garage door know when to close itself? Also, how will it know when not to open itself?
EvaTech:
@VaclavThere are a two sequences of letters+numbers printed on the ribbon, when I get back to the lab (i.e. My House), I'll post those for anyone to help identify it. I retrieved them from two different Brother Printers, if that helps.
I am 98% sure you have a OEM / proprietary LCD module and without the rest of the schematic you will be spinning your wheels.
LCD itself, without the "driver" are not that easy to interface. Just for drill google Hitachi LCD standard ( I forgot the # sorry).
It is about 50 pages well written document and it shows not only the software interfacing, but also how the actual display works as far as hardware goes. As far as learning LCD, even if you take this module apart there is not much to see there, keep in mind it is all very very low current stuff and the circuit traces are printed on the supporting "glass' are almost invisible.
I would venture to say this is is like learning internal combustion engine - you know how piston works, but taking it apart from the rest of the engine wont prove much.
You need LCD module with driver( few $ on e-bay) so you can hook it up to Adruino directly and play !
Than your next question will be - why am I getting these funky characters on my LCD ..ha ha.
But if you even causally read the Hitachi standard you will know the answer!
Cheers VaclavHow will your garage door know when to close itself? Also, how will it know when not to open itself?
@vaclav
With my garage door, I have not totally worked it out.
But the basic principal is that the car and the door both have nrf24l01 modules, connected to Arduino Mini boards.
Either the car or the door, keeps sending a code every 1 second.
If there is no communication because the car is turned off, the door needs to close.
As soon as the car ignition is turned on, communication will start between the car and the door, which will make the door open.
As the car dives up the street, the range of the nrf24l01 is quite short, so the door will close as soon as communication is lost, I.e after 20m or less.
One issue i can see, is that if I park outside the garage and turn off the door, the garage door will close. This may not be desirable.
Note. As I am externally controlling the door motor unit, I suspect I will need to connect extra wires to inside the door motor unit to get the door position, I.e open or closed.
However in the long term I may replace the existing control board in the door motor unit with the Arduino, because it is a very old unit, and it already has faults that I keep having to fix, e.g internal wireless remote control stuff failed several years ago and is now controlled by an Arduino
But I suspect this project is more complicated than it seems, I.e I may need to add additional sensors etc and more complex logic
@vaclav
Thank you, I will take your advice and locate those components and read the guide. I just scored another lcd display, this time with everything still attached, so I might give it a go with this new display first... not sure.
OK, that sounds like a winner. You could use a laser like in an elevator, so when you pass through, a timer counts down and then shuts the door. This would work for both coming and going. 
Very upset right now, I was finishing my device and must have crossed wires or something and I bricked my PIR!!!! Not happy.
I was finishing my device and must have crossed wires or something and I bricked my PIR!!!!
Commiserations
Are you absolutely sure its bricked, eg did you run it off a separate power supply and just look at the output with a multimeter ?
Yes, I tried that, it's totally dead. As soon as I shut the case, the device failed to power. I was using a jumper style cable for the 12v source connection and I left it connected to determine at what point was the device being forced to fail... The cover is off, the device works, OK, now the cover is roughly an inch from the box, still works, fine, now the cover is back on the device, and it fails... so I kept the unit powered... Was using the multimeter to check voltage and WAM, PIR is toast.
I've since moved on. I scavenged two motherboards for inductors, capacitors, and some nice cable housings, which I am now using to learn about capacitance and induction. Hoping to find a way to boost voltage. I have an IR receiver and it omits .1 volts, so I am looking for a way to boost it to 3.3vdc - 5vdc so to trigger a dc relay. Any ideas?
I have an IR receiver and it omits .1 volts, so I am looking for a way to boost it to 3.3vdc - 5vdc so to trigger a dc relay. Any ideas?
How much current is the output of the IR receiver capable of producing?
You can convert 1V to 3.3 or 5 etc, however the current requirement is 3.3 or 5 times higher on the input, i.e Power out = power in * inefficiencies
Relays often take 20mA or more actually often 40mA or more.
So assuming your relay takes 20mA at 5V is 100mW, to get the same power at 1V you'd need 100mA
And, the conversion is not 100% efficient. 50% efficient is more likely. so you'd need 200mA on the input to get 20mA at 5V on the output
PS. Plenty of curcuits online for doing this, they are basically an oscillator, a diode an inductor and a capacitor