I'm sending the sales page now. I think it'll be $16.95. That's USB and serial LCD control, USB upgradable, for the same price as the SparkFun serial-only backpack.
Backlight can be set from software. You may be able to hack it for software contrast control too. There's a solder jumper that connects the contrast voltage to the second PWM pin on the PIC. I didn't trust this to work for every LCD so it is disabled by default, but the potential is there.
USB and serial backpack (http://http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/PIC_LCD_backpack) for simple HD44780 character LCD screens. A few nice features set it apart from the usual serial-only LCD backpacks:
*USB and serial control of characters LCDs
*Supported in common software (LCD Smartie) as 'matrix orbital' display
*Adjust backlight from software
*Couple extra pins for buttons
*500mA fuse
*USB upgradable
*Open source (CC BY-SA)
Resources
Manual (http://http://dangerousprototypes.com/docs/PIC_LCD_backpack)
"about to drop" ? you are saying price is about to drop?
btw one question wrt this device, how come I2C is not broken out, I use i2c slave board to drive lcd's for years, works like a charm (and I prefer it to i2c port expander as you can make it "smart" and ofload your main mcu)
About to go on sale...
I didn't think about SPI or I2C, those would be great additions.
[quote author="ian"]About to go on sale...
I didn't think about SPI or I2C, those would be great additions.[/quote]
I have somewhere a project with two different 16F's one with hardware and one with software i2c implementation .. need to find where they are :) haven't used them for a while but I generally like to put i2c bus on my projects and add all output devices on i2c bus (lcd almost always)
Well? When is it going on sale? I'd like to get one...
You say LCD backpack... Is there an LCD included, or do I have to provide my own?
This is within my realm of interest. It would be nice to add this to an arduino project like LCD.println("foo"); or LCD.Scroll("bar"); it would make debugging very easy and quick without establishing a serial connection... maybe as a output device for the web platform, or last email received in evolution...
Hi adamoutler,
I actually thought it was available now, but I don't see it in our catalog. I'll contact Seeed.
LCD is not included, it is just the backpack/driver board.
USB support is solid, but the serial UART input is still a work in progress. Actually, a serial-only firmware works great, but I've not blended it into a combined USB/serial firmware yet.
It would be quite easy to use for debug. It uses the simple matrix orbital protocol. A few bytes set it up, then you can send text just by sending characters out the serial port (serial.write("Hello world") ...Maybe? not very familiar with the arduino libraries).
Ian,
Seems the board has finally shown up on seeedstudio. But it has been filed as a Nokia color lcd controller.
doesn't seem like i can post the url.
hopefully there is stock soon :)
Thanks for the update. You're right, they're selling it as the Nokia knock-off LCD.
The HD44780 will be 16.95, same price as SparkFun serial-only backpack. They are moving it to a new page now.
The color nokia backpack is being sold at cost as scrap because we could never find a good supply of the displays. They're available for anyone who wants them, they should work, but there is no support whatsoever (well, I'll help in the forum, but no exchanges).
Correct page and wording now online:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/usb-an ... th=163_169 (http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/usb-and-serial-enabled-lcd-backpack-p-908.html?cPath=163_169)