| Electronics > Beginners |
| Small LCD to PC motherboard for cheap front panel display - can it be done? |
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| Atheus:
Hi all, Simple one for ya. Well, hopefully. Can I connect a PC motherboard to a 'normal' basic old LCD - lets say the LCD1602 (because that's what I have lying around...) as opposed to a monitor - to a mini-ITX server? Or any PC in general? What connector on the motherboard would be most likely to support an adaptor, and might such an adaptor be available? Could I use a USB to UART device (cheap) to control it, UART being so flexible? I will be buying the board (if I do this project) so please suggest any connector which is widely available and I can seek it out. If I'm on to a loser and there's no easy way, how difficult would you say it would be to build a USB to LCD1602 adaptor, using something like a Tiny85 and a 16 bit shift register? Or if possible without the micro at all and just the shift register & a few spare parts? Really any suggestions or LCD-based musings of any kind are much appreciated :) Cheers! ~Atheus |
| MrAl:
Hi, You have to specify what it is you want to measure or read on the display. if you want to measure voltage, then you have to use an ADC with the display as well as a control circuit. If you want to measure temperature, then you need a temperature sensor and circuit to drive the LCD. What does work is if you use an Arduino like the Uno or Nano and create a volt meter for example. Then you just need the LCD display plus one Arduino board. For example i have one hooked up to mine that is a clock and timer and also shows the date and day of week and what day to change the clocks for daylight savings time. It runs whenever the PC is turned on, and has an RTC to keep the date and time accurate. |
| FreddyVictor:
How about this backpack for LCD ? - found it on OSH shared projects, but there may be others Sparkfun do have some Serial enabled LCD's but they're pricey and only have UART (5volt) rather than USB which is what you'll need |
| Nusa:
--- Quote from: FreddyVictor on April 17, 2017, 07:44:38 am ---How about this backpack for LCD ? - found it on OSH shared projects, but there may be others Sparkfun do have some Serial enabled LCD's but they're pricey and only have UART (5volt) rather than USB which is what you'll need --- End quote --- That backpack looks like exactly what the original poster was asking for. That link also gives some clues as to the software side of things, since the hardware is only half the project. |
| rdl:
Matrix Orbital probably sells something like what you are looking for. They seem to cater mostly to the PC modding crowd and their prices are somewhat high in my opinion. Back around 2003 or so, I bought one of their PC drive bay inserts. It worked as advertised and lasted several years until the backlight started flickering. |
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