USB & serial LCD backpack

From DP

The USB and Serial LCD backpack connects HD44780-compatible character LCD screens to your USB port.

Read about the design.

Available for $16.95 at Seeed Studio.

Contents 1 Features 2 Hardware 3 How-to 4 Software 5 Firmware 6 Development resources 7 Download 8 Resources 9 License

Features

Project Summary
Name:	USB & serial LCD backpack
Buy it:	Get one for $16.95 at Seeed Studio
Price:	$16.95
Status:	Test production
Manufacturing:	Shipping
Forum:	USB & serial LCD backpack Forum

Small character LCDs can show new mail stats, system performance, news feeds and more. The USB and Serial LCD backpack connects HD44780-compatible character LCD screens to your USB port. It has a few nice features that set it apart from the serial-only LCD backpacks available for the same price:

• USB and serial control of characters LCDs
• Supported in common software (LCD Smartie, LCD Proc) as 'matrix orbital' display
• Adjust backlight from software, optionally contrast
• Couple extra pins for buttons
• 500mA fuse
• USB upgradable

Hardware

• USB and serial enabled LCD backpack design overview

How-to

• Attach an LCD
• Setup LCD Smartie
• Backlight and contrast adjustment

Software

• LCD Smartie (Windows)
• LCDproc (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, Darwin and Solaris)

Firmware

• USB and serial enabled LCD backpack firmware updates

Development resources

The controller implements a (subset) of the serial interface used by common Matrix Orbital Serial LCDs.

• USB and serial LCD backpack commands

Download

• LCD Backpack PIC HD44780.package.v1a
• LCD Backpack PIC HD44780.source.r1121.v1a
• Browse LCD Backpack PIC HD44780 GitHub

Resources

• PIC 18F2550 datasheet
• PIC 18F reference manual [PDF!]
• Microchip C18 C compiler
• Microchip USB stack
• Diolan USB PIC bootloader
• PIC LCD Backpack manufacturing resources

License

• Hardware: CC-BY-SA
• Software: CC-BY-SA
• Firmware: CC-BY-SA
• Bootloader: GPL