Web Server In A Box - LCD Add-On Project

Hi Guys,

This is a free software project, that I give up all rights to,
which is NOT to be confused with GPL.
This means you can add it to any project and make it proprietry.











PCB Layout thanks to Centrex of Whirlpool forums.


LCD Addon Pic Code Version 6 - Art 18/04/10
Download Links:
http://www.filefront.com/16156051/wib lcd add-on v6.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/377111869/wib_lcd_add-on_v6.rar.html
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ydyx72
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=AHL27XG1

Knock yourself out.
There is a similar project in Silicon Chip Magazine (Feb 2010) that uses
a four digit seven segment LED matrix to display the time with the WIB project.
You might want to look at that one if you'd prefer an LED clock display.

The above hex file is for 16F628 or 16F628A.
This microcontroller is available from Jaycar (Cat number ZZ8520).
Open the hex file with your pic programming software.

Make sure you use a 7805 regulator circuit (inset image) to provide regulated 5 Volt power for the addon circuit.
If you are using the 6 Volt Jaycar MP-3145 power adapter suggested in the original article,
You can use a very low value 1 Watt resistor (I think I used 1R2) connected in series
with the power supply instead of the 7805 regulator circuit which would require more than a 6 Volt input.

The LCD module I used for the upright version was Jaycar Cat number QP5516 ($19.95).
The horizontal version uses a Dick Smith Electronics Backlit LCD Display.
The Dick Smith model makes this mod easy, it feels as though it locks into place.
Any compatible LCD will do, but you wouldn't fit anything bigger in the supplied enclosure.
WARNING: the Jaycar QP5516 LCD has pins 1 & 2 (power supply and ground pins) in the
opposite positions compared to the schematic (and most other similar LCD displays).
Be aware that for this LCD display, pin 1 is + 5 Volts, and pin 2 is the Ground connection.

The horizontal version of this mod requires you cut a 2Gb Sandisk SD card in half.
The chip resides close to the connector, so you're only cutting plastic.
Don't worry if you have to remove the plastic lock switch on the SD card.
It is really only a piece of plastic. It's position it is in is detected by the card reader,
but the WIB card reader ignores it anyway.

The blue 2Gb Sandisk card I used has translucent casing so I could see the chip inside.
Larger SD cards contain chips that take up all the space inside the SD card.
You can't cut these larger cards in half, so they cannot be used with this mod.
File transfer can be done over FTP, so there's no need to remove the SD card.

Don't forget need to enable the add-on device in the WIB via it's web interface.
Valid baud rates compatible with the LCD Add-On program are:
300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, and 19200.

Thanks to Centrex of Whirlpool forums for providing me with custom PCBs for this project
I have also built the project on a small piece of prototyping board.

I have set up a web page for the project:
http://www.freewebs.com/defxev/WIB.htm
which includes a short YouTube demo video.
Cheers, Art.

 

Nice project. Did the serial bug in the WIB give you any trouble? I wanted to get the module to display text messages from the web interface as well as the time but it was impossible with the stock firmware.

Here's a bad cellphone pic of my efforts to give the WIB a display. As a (recovering) thermionic emission addict I have too many of these VFD's after buying a bulk lot. The crappy camera doesn't do it justice. I'll have to dig out the proper cam.



This one uses an Atmel ATMEGA8 to convert the serial because I have a heap of them and because it should get both PIC and AVR fans offside. After patching the WIB code it has also been set up to display messages sent to the serial port for 30 seconds before returning to displaying the time output. The next project is to hook up a larger graphical VFD display and get a basic RSS reader going on the dsPic in the WIB. An alarm clock that gives me RSS feeds when I wake up would be pretty sweet.

 

Nice VFD. Is that just a standard HD44780 chipset at the back end?

 

No it's an older custom parallel interface. The displays themselves are quite old. The data sheet came as a hard copy that I'm fairly sure would have been faxed from one guy with a beard to another guy with a beard sometime in the late 80's or early 90's. That said it's not all that different to the HD44780 interface and they are nice displays.

 

Wow, very nice display.
I didn't know you could get dot matrix displays lie that.

 

I have collected a few different types over the years. Mostly bulk lots on eBay when they could be had cheaply. Sometimes you'd get 20-50 units of the same type for less than the cost of a single one would have been retail but they don't seem to be listed in lots much anymore (and are not that cheap when they are). Only one of these has the HD44780 interface but I have the data for all of them and they're all pretty similar so it has been easy to get drivers going.

Here's a pick of most of the individual VFD types I've collected:


I'd really like to hook up a big graphical unit to the WIB but the serial bus is a bit slow for graphics. Might have to make a custom WIB with a larger dsPIC.

 

Hey @rt. You're PM inbox is full apparently.

 

Just cleared it.

 

I've got a HP point-of-sale pole display which I picked up fairly cheaply - this is a nice little 20 x 2 alphanumeric VFD with a serial input with built in USB UART bridge chip. You simply squirt 9600 baud serial data at it and it displays.

 

That sounds nice. I "almost" got two of these when I worked for a particular retail outlet.
Turns out there was another electronics hobbyist amongst the staff who was a bit quicker.
I noticed they had a 9 pin serial port and DC socket.

 

Here's a VFD one that scrolls to save the display:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8uVisSp8L0

Its a 1x40 VFD display with Hitachi controller,
connected to the 16F628 in the same fashion as the first schematic.
The pic code is below.

It would be nice to try an odometer style vertical scrolling effect.

 

128K WIB

I have made a 128k board that works with WIB it has RS232 buffer, opto couplers, a relay and switching regulators to enable battery back up here is a picture of it.


Now all that is needed is to use some more of the 128K

 

WIB Clock

I have managed to get my WIB clock working.
Done in PicBasic Pro
Thanks to Art sharing the serial info.





Jman

 

I have a very neat LCD with a full C library written for it if anyone is interested.
http://www.hot-lcd.com/show-e.asp?ArticleID=12

It has a clock at the top with 88:88 and date in the form of 18/88, also has a battery meter, 3x16 character display, a battery guage with 3 bars, signal meter with 3 bars, and an email light and a few others. I also have a library to use the built in RTC in the pic24f and set the time on the display.

Here is the LCD in question, works out about $2 each if you buy 10. You have to order from china however they are usually very good and get it to you in a week or so.

http://www.hot-lcd.com/show-e.asp?ArticleID=12

The library is written for a PIC24fj256gb106 with I2C but it should work on any PIC out there. Only needs 2 wires for the I2C, a power pin and a couple of caps.

Schematic

Y2 is a 32Khz crystal for the clock to keep time.

The project basically constantly updates the time and measures the battery and sets the battery meter to the appropriate number of bars, it isn't very accurate but it will drop down over time.

The project contains several libraries:
LCD
I2C (protocol for communicating with LCD)
Battery measuring routines (uses internal ADC)
Delays (uS and mS)
Real time clock routines

Now it is all copyrighted but feel free to use it in personal projects. If you want to use it in anything other than that please let me know.

http://rapidshare.com/files/367929865/lcd_with_clock.rar.html

 

That's certainly cheaper than a 2x16 char LCD.
It it a 2 line 7 segment display?

 

Nope, 3 line dot matrix with 4 7 seg displays at the top to make up the clock and date along several other elements at the top. Much much better value than the crap at jaycar.

 

China LCDs

They have a lot of very interesting LCDs. Do you have to order 10 of everything or is it just a minimum dolar amount also whats the prices like on other LCDs could not see a price list on their site.

 

No you can just order one if you like, but we were using that in a production model so ordered 10 samples to play with.

 

OK, @rt, I'm getting the following for the time output...

55 01 0C 7B 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 63 7B 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 31 7B 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 62 7B 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 00 3D 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 7F 3D 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 3F 3D 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 7E 3D 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 1F 3D 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 7D 3D 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 3E 3D 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F
55 01 7C 3D 77 38 7E 0D 7F 7D 00 7F

55 - header (ignore)
01 ignore

Now the third column should be seconds ($7C = #124??) , but it does not even appear to be incrementing in seconds, as for the other columns I can't get them to translate into anything like time and date.

Obviously, I'm translating this wrong, can you explain this? (Probably right in front of my eyes..)

Thanks.

 

So the 55 is "U" this tells you the start of the string
something like this doen in PicBasic
DEBUGIN [WAIT("U"),STR cgchar\9]

' [ seconds] cgchar(1)
' [ minutes] cgchar(2)
' [ hours] cgchar(3)
' [ date] cgchar(4)
' [ month] cgchar(5)
' [ year] cgchar(6)
' [ day] cgchar(7)

Then the balance is made up of the following

"U",BA,B0,B1,B2,B3,B4,B5,B6,B7,B8,B9.

B2 = Hour
B1 = Minute
B0 = Second
0
B6 = Day of the week (0 = Monday - 6 = Sunday)

B3 = Day
B4 = Month
Year + 1970 + lcdout $B5

Here is my capture
5574232F1217032801040001 5574242F1217032801040001
5574252F1217032801040001 5574262F1217032801040001

So you can see your theroy is correct.

To display them on an LCD you need to send the LCD the ASCII value

Are you using a PC to capture the output if so you need to pass it thru a
MAX232 or such because the serial is inverted ?

Hope this helps

Jman