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Adding an LCD Status Screen to a PC
blankmange writes: "The Screensavers is running an interesting hack - add an LCD screen to your PC for just information. "The real estate on your screen is precious, and with your PC's vital stats, Winamp info, game stats, stock tickers, news tickers, sports scores, and more, it's easy to run out of space. How about adding a liquid crystal display (LCD) that can show this type of information?" Seems pretty straight-forward ... " Yes, but can you make one as as pretty as this one?
Here are the specs:
21. Technical Specifications
Motherboard
VIA Epia Mini-ITX with embedded VIA C3-800mHz proccessor, intergrated AC'97 sound, SP/DIF, LAN, VGA, TV-Out, S-Video, 2xUSB, COM, LPT, 2x512Mb PC133 memory.
HDD
Hitachi model TX230A-40gB 2,5" notebook HDD connected throug a 3,5"---> 2,5" converter.
DVD/CD-R(w)
Slim-line Sony model CRX-800E.
Graphic LCD Display
Datavision DG24128-5-S1-FLBY 240x128Pxl Graphic Display, powered by software from Mr. ChronoM, with backlight and contrast control.
Internal RF receiver for Keyboard and Mouse
Trust Wireless Keyboard and Mouse 300KD, totally stripped and connected directly to the motherboard.
HDD activity indicator
20LED HDD activity indicator with fully adjustable sensitivity and brightness controll. Colours: green, orange, red, blue, red high-density.
Developed and build by Mr. Loepie
Power supply
220Vac Enchance Model SFX-1209F Micro ATX 90Watts powersupply, fully stripped and mounted into the base of the computer, cooling by 1 x 4cm fan.
Lights
1 x Black-Light 10cm CCFL behind the frontpanel.
1 x Green 10cm CCFL between the HDD and the DVD/ CD-R(w).
2 x Blue 10cm CCFL in base, switchable.2 x 20 Red High-density LEDs in the base, switchable.
Cables
Coolermaster rounded IDE cable.
Coolermaster rounded floppycable. cut in two for connection of the Graphic LCD display.
All power cables are custom-made by Bart_Banaan.
Casefans
Titan 8cm model TFD-8025M12B-2 ball bearing in top
of computer as circulation fan with BioHazard fingerguard.
Titan 4cm model TFD-4010M12B-2 ball bearing in the base of the computer for extraction of warm air.
isn't really a brand new idea.
The LCDproc ( site currently down) and lcd4linux and
some other projects have been around for quite some time now.
I have created an USB Interface for LCD modules that has some advantages over the usual serial or parallel port hack. I hope to release it soon.
-- www.linux-laser.org - Open Source Laser Show Software for Linux
Here's a page on Beta Brite programming with links to some others.
This solution is a lot nicer. A small LCD that fits in the case and can be hooked up to the TV out of your video card.
Several months ago there was an article on /. about the BriQ, a powerful Linux/PowerPC box squeezed into the size of a CDROM drive. The only connectivity of the unit is an ethernet jack, a serial port, and the front panel. A couple weeks ago I was given a project at work to develop a menu system/UI that would run on the front panel of a BriQ to be used as a demonstration unit. The BriQ's front panel consists of a 20x2 VFD display, a tri-color (red, green, yellow) LED, and 2 buttons.
Control of the panel is simple: writing to /dev/lcd displays characters on the VFD (or changes the LED color w/ control characters), and reading from /dev/lcd gets the state of the buttons. I was able to develop a UI (in Perl) that used those buttons and the display to not only display status messages, but perform basic system tasks like rebooting and setting manual network configuration settings.
Unfortunately none of the displays that I've seen online have included anything in the way of input on the same serial connection, which would increase the usefulness of these status displays immensely. C'mon, don't tell me X (especially w/ proprietary drivers like nVidia or Matrox) has never frozen on you, leaving you to find some other machine to ssh in from and fix things. With a simple secondary I/O system like the one on the BriQ, one could not only have a really cool gadget, but also provide a needed backup interface for those computers that do double-duty as workstations and servers. Or even to get monitorless servers started up on strange networks w/out DHCP.
-3Suns
~~~~
The Revolution will be Slashdotted
These guys:
Massworks
Have a LCD touch-panel that plugs in via USB to your PC. Not an incredibly high refresh rate, but it appears to work quite well.
I'm thinking about mounting one in my car hooked into a custom PC stowed away in the trunk. Would make a nice MP3 player and probably could view DiVXs and such through it.
A bit expensive, but not too bad. Only two cables needed - USB & Power.
"Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence." - Charles de Gaulle
I apologize -- I should have been more clear in my original post. The impractical part is getting the university to authorize the purchase of the ticker. We couldn't get them to authorize $50 for an O'Reilly book!
Steve
Unfortunately none of the displays that I've seen online have included anything in the way of input on the same serial connection, which would increase the usefulness of these status displays immensely.
How about a little box with an Ethernet interface, 40x2 VFD, IR control, and audio output to boot?
The SliMP3 has an open control protocol which makes it easy to put things up on the display, capture IR key presses, and stream audio to the device. There is also an HTTP API if you don't want to roll everything yourself, and just want automated mail notifications etc.