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Adding an LCD Status Screen to a PC

Posted by timothy on from the you-have-10,203,180-new-messages dept.

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?

50 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Slashdotted already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:Slashdotted already by spongman · · Score: 2

      does anyone know of any small motherboards that have DVI capability built in?

  2. Hardware ? by forged · · Score: 5, Interesting
    How about creating a Computer MODS section ?

    It isn't the first time that this is suggested, and with the increase of case mods posts recently (and others sort of mods), this would make sense.

  3. Two screens by javilon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Personally, I would use two monitors.

    You can use a crappy one just for this sort of stuff. It will have much more real state that an LCD and colors. And it's much simpler! just a second video card or a multihead one.

    --


    When his defense asked, "Which computer has Jon Johansen trespassed upon?" the answer was: "His own."
    1. Re:Two screens by FyRE666 · · Score: 2

      Adding a second monitor and graphic card is hardly simpler, and will probably cost as much if not more. It will also take up more space and use a lot more power!

      Adding these little displays seems like a very good idea for things like headless servers for an "at a glance" check on the temperature and load avg etc. Certainly quicker than loging in from another terminal or having to switch on a monitor!

      --
      Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
    2. Re:Two screens by Rendwich · · Score: 2

      if you really just want a small, flat display, you can get them from Ebay very cheaply. I think gluing one to the side of your tower would be much cooler than these LCD things.

      How many times is /. going to run this item? I know I read something virtually identical here recently.

    3. Re:Two screens by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2

      But the LCD will take up much more space if it means I have to stick my system unit on the desk to see it. At present, my system unit is on the floor, and the only things on the desk are my monitor, keyboard, mouse, and some speakers.

      It's a fantastic idea for a server box, but I think the parent poster had a point; at $100+ for the display (so probably £100+ for those of us in the UK), it may well be much more sensible to buy a second monitor. And besides, the coolness of having a baby TFT next to the main one is way more than the coolness of having a little display on your system box. ;-)

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    4. Re:Two screens by boomer_rehfield · · Score: 2, Interesting

      *blows a whistle* Think...think laptop lcd... NOW think dual headed video card... now think VELCRO... velcro that bad boy to your wall, side of your computer, your head, or even your fuzzy cubicle wall... No extra space...just take down some of your penny arcade cartoons off the wall and you're all set. The idea that I had for this was that I used dual monitors at work but I still needed to monitor the help desk and calls, so I thought that maybe I could stick a dual head in an old pc, use old laptop lcd's from laptops we were dumping and just velcro (mount) them up on the walls strickly for monitoring network, the helpdesk server errors, and helpdesk queues. 4 monitors in the space of two. Kinda like your own personal NOC.)

      --
      Carpe Canem - Seize the Dog
    5. Re:Two screens by 8-Track · · Score: 2, Informative

      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.

    6. Re:Two screens by Drakino · · Score: 2

      Think...think laptop lcd... NOW think dual headed video card... now think VELCRO

      Now this would be a cool idea with the ton of laptop LCDs I have around work begging for use. Anyone know a site detailing how to go from some common laptop LCD connectors to a standard DVI or VGA?

    7. Re:Two screens by skotte · · Score: 2

      why not just buy a second printer port? they're dirt cheap.

    8. Re:Two screens by skotte · · Score: 2, Funny

      you know, i just thought of a kinda fFunny situation which might occur with a pointy headed boss sometime.

      BOSS: say, why don't we have monitors fFor all the servers?
      YOU: well, we have this KMV switch, which means i can use one monitor to look at any of the computers i need to.
      BOSS: i see. but you have two screen in your office. why not use one of those to put on the servers. then you can double the amount of servers you can look at, at one time.
      YOU: no no, i have a second screen in my office so i can look at ... the proccesses ..... why are you walking away?

    9. Re:Two screens by skotte · · Score: 2

      http://w1.457.telia.com/~u45706979/
      or use VirtuaWin, on win32.
      (GPL software on windows is always a good thing)

    10. Re:Two screens by lightcycler · · Score: 2, Interesting

      What do you mean know "how to make a serial-port driver for LCDs"?

      Rhetorical question really: I know how to do it, just can't be bothered at the moment.

      Serial port: 9-pin connector with 3 wires, connect that to a UART IC which provides the parallel output.

      LCD character display modules (£10 each, 2 lines x 9 characters) each use an 8-way parallel input, with a couple of power lines, a variable-voltage for the contrast adjustment, and an optional power supply for the backlight. Connect that right to the output of the UART.

      For programming, just download the data sheet for the LCD, look up its command-set (about 5-6 instructions), look up the code for each "letter" (generally approximates ASCII), then write a perl-script to take the information you want and send it to the serial port.

      I don't know much about winamp, nor about mobo monitoring (I use a pentium, so no need to!) but there are many freeware programs around which will take such information and send it to the serial port for you.

      Final problem: the display modules are about a centimetre higher than a 5.25" blanking plate, so they won't fit in my PC, so who cares about the electronics if the thing itself won't fit? Besides, I hate to go to sleep with lights on (taped over all my power-socket neons, etc) so I don't want an LCD anyway. Who wants to look under their desk for information?

      /me is about to print one of BlueFlash's images onto the side of his case: much cooler, higher-resolution, and infintely more attractive than an LCD.

    11. Re:Two screens by ncc74656 · · Score: 2
      c'mon .. just mod me up one lousy point now an then

      Maybe if you'd get a new fFscking keyboard, somebody might do that...WTF is up with your usage of the F key?

      --
      20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
  4. Connecting an LCD to your PC... by Afrob · · Score: 2, Informative

    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
    1. Re:Connecting an LCD to your PC... by Ed+Avis · · Score: 3, Interesting

      IBM's PS/2 Model 95 (one of the last PS/2 MCA-bus machines, mainly for use as a server) came with a built-in LCD display... there's now a Linux driver for it.

      --
      -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  5. Ultimate case LCD screen .... by subsolar2 · · Score: 2

    is a 6" color VGA display run off of a PCI VGA card in the system. Maximum PC had such a system as one of their "Rig of the Month".

    1. Re:Ultimate case LCD screen .... by subsolar2 · · Score: 2
      Nice, but they tend to be hella expensive.
      Not much more than the small displays ... we use them at work for shop floor equipment running dedicated DOS software (DOS is not dead). I believe they have been picking up backlist B&W displays with controller for a bit over $100. I don't remember where they pick them up off hand, or else I would add a link.
  6. Those LED scroller things... by Mwongozi · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I've always wanted to hook up one of those big LED text scroller things that you sometimes see in shop windows to my PC, to display the time and things like "You have mail!"

    But I don't even if know if it's possible...

    1. Re:Those LED scroller things... by mwise · · Score: 3, Informative

      Here's a page on Beta Brite programming with links to some others.

    2. Re:Those LED scroller things... by edo-01 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Great idea, but how about instead of having it at your desk to let you know you've got mail, mount it in the rear window of your car for those times when the horn just isn't enough :-)

    3. Re:Those LED scroller things... by The+Evil+Troll+King · · Score: 2, Informative

      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

    4. Re:Those LED scroller things... by juliao · · Score: 2
      Great idea, but how about instead of having it at your desk to let you know you've got mail, mount it in the rear window of your car for those times when the horn just isn't enough :-)

      I've been thinking of doing the same for years, but never got around to doing it. But not just for the rear window. If you h-flip the output, you can have one installed behind your windshield, facing forward, and the message will read nicely on others' rear-view mirrors.

      Use both, and you've turned your car into the ultimate expression device! Maybe we could even sell them retail... (Kit includes: two text-scrolling-gizmos, one controller-box, one easy-touch message selection keyboard, one serial programming cable, one baseball bat)

      (Don't ask what the bat is for. If you can't think of just how people would react if you HAD one of these... well, don't get one...)

      Come to think of it, THIS is where a speech-to-text device would come in handy... ;)

      --

      free the mallocs!

  7. linux syslogd? by Ubi_NL · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm not really into tweaking syslogd but,

    how much difiiculty will it be to route system messages (illegal logins / diskspace low etc) to /dev/lcd?
    that would make the thing pretty usefull as the current software seems to be windows-only

    --

    If an experiment works, something has gone wrong.
  8. Radical mods are silly. by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 2

    Such radical mods are silly, because of Moore's Law. I mean, what's the point in sweating blood for something that looks k001 that will be so much dragging it's feet in less than 6 months that you'll want to kick it everytime you boot the darn thing? Of course, one can plan ahead and make room for improvements, say, swapping the motherboard.

    1. Re:Radical mods are silly. by skotte · · Score: 2, Interesting

      well, heck, given that argument, doing anything is silly because of moore's law. buying a keyboard, a mouse, even a mousepad becomes a silly thing to do. i know a guy who refuses to buy a computer because he's waiting fFor The Big One. which makes sense, until you realize i used to know another who refused to buy a commodore because he was waiting fFor PCs to have a whole Megabyte of memory. i dunno if that guy ever bought one, but his reluctance seems silly now. his waiting was over, and history in a week. the Two Meg machines were hot on the way.

      sure, moore's law makes this seem silly. but moore's law makes everything seem silly.

  9. It can be done by eap · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is possible, and I have seen it done. The brand I saw used was Beta Brite, and I think you could get them at Sam's. That was about 4 years ago, and you had to build a special serial interface cable because I think the signs have a cat 3 jack, or something. Then, you just send commands to the serial port, probably with some control characters to scrolling effects, etc.

  10. This is what we made by brejc8 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    My flatmate has been working on this system which shows any image you want. All you need to do is write a script which picks an image and then run a program to transmit it over the network to the display every few seconds. Things like weather, news or mail.
    I wanted to link it with my camera robot and have a few buttons on the side to control it.

    --
    Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
    1. Re:This is what we made by tf23 · · Score: 2

      I've been thinking about doing something *very* similar to this. What I want is a cheap (~$100US) color LCD that I could physically mount anywhere in the house (that cat-5 is run to) to display misc photos taken with a digital camera stored on a fileserver in the house that's shared via smb/nfs/ftp.

      The unit would preferably get everything it needs off of cat-5, or possibly cat5 and another strand of low voltage line for power.

      I've not got much farther then shopping around for LCD's and running cat-5 through the walls. But that's how side projects go... slowly.

      --
      http://slashdot.org/~tf23/journal
  11. Remote LCD by wowbagger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My computer lives inside the desk, where its fans are muffled by the enclosure (with a large, low speed high volume QUIET fan ventilating the desk). I couldn't see an LCD on the computer.

    How about an LCD panel on a USB, so that I could mount the LCD up where I could see it?

    Or better still, how about just running more than one monitor - and having screen real estate I can use for ANYTHING?

    --
    www.eFax.com are spammers
    1. Re:Remote LCD by twoshortplanks · · Score: 2
      Yeah, I've got one of these screens. Never use the damn thing - it's not even hooked up.

      As you say, the computer's under the desk. Not much use having a screen down there. More importantly though I tend to use my laptop or work remotely most of the time - what's the point in having a bespoke information system that I can only see when I'm phyiscally in the same room.

      --
      -- Sorry, I can't think of anything funny to say here.
  12. salvage by Alien54 · · Score: 2
    I recall the story from a few months back where the guy built a super sized game boy, using a oversized monchrome LCD screen his dug up, among other things.

    I always wondered what he did with the thing after the novelty of playing the game wore off.

    at least he could salvage the screen for something like this

    --
    "It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
  13. You can use VFDs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    VFDs are the displays on cash registers etc. You can program one quite easily via the serial port. You can see one implementation here.

  14. Dumb terminals by LinuxHam · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I went dumpster diving for over 20 portable dumb terminals. 9" screens with a carrying handle molded into the case. The keyboards fold up and clip on in front of the screen. I had one hooked up to the serial port on my firewall and would also tail -f /var/log/messages. Once you get live ipchains and snort reports, you tend not to want to go back.

    But now I'm more interested in finding a good 9-10" X term suitable for keeping Big Brother up 24x7.

    --
    Intelligent Life on Earth
  15. Synaptics cPad by morcheeba · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Synaptics has a new touchpad for notebooks called the cPad. It has a B&W LCD under a (mostly) clear touchpad that can be used as a secondary display. It has it's own API, and looks pretty neat - it saves valuable screen space and I hope I could move the task bar down there. I've only seen it on the Toshiba Satellite 5100 series, but I'm sure Synaptics is agressively marketing it to other laptop manufacturers.

    --
    HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
  16. Toshiba laptop cPad by macemoneta · · Score: 2

    The Toshiba 5105 uses the Synaptics cPad, a touch sensitive LCD screen as a touchpad mouse. I haven't been able to find any information needed to create an open source device driver, though Synaptics web site does document the Windows API. I've wanted to use this device for various information displays in Linux (like Gkrellm, but so far requests to Toshiba and Syntaptics have been fruitless. :-(

    --

    Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.

  17. LCD is damn cool by foobrain · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I am using an LCD since past month. It's a 16x2 one, controlled by a Hitachi HD7780. Since I'm not in USA, importing a CristalFontz or Matrix Orbital one were impo$$ible.

    I've found this on a electronics junkyard for US$5, got an old printer cable and soldered everything as found on LCDProc's (search freshmeat for it) man page.

    A picture of it can be found here:
    lcd_no_painel.png

    LCDProc runs on *nix, is damn easy to configure and to write a "plugin". Since it's networked, just a few lines of Perl code and you can write something that flashes the backlight and display some important syslog line... :)

    There are some modifications you can do it, such as inverting (removing a plastic thing inside it and putting it back there, flipp'd 180 degrees) the colors, so the back'll be black and the letters'll be green. I'm about to do this next week (when I get time).

    Some guys also changed the backlight LEDs (blue ones everyone?), but it's difficult to find SMD things here :(

  18. More usefulness... by 3Suns · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
    1. Re:More usefulness... by Emil+Brink · · Score: 2, Informative

      Matrix Orbital. Many of their displays support keypads for input, one even goes all the way up to a full PS/2 keyboard. I haven't tried these for myself, but from reading their site some, I get the impression the keypads run over the same serial link as is used to control the display. Makes sense to me that it should, too.

      --
      main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128 >>4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}
    2. Re:More usefulness... by ffatTony · · Score: 2
      try this:

      main(O){10<putchar(4^--O?77-(15&5128>> 4*O):10)&&main(2+O);}

      e.g. no ';' before the 4. It's not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be, but stellarly obfuscated none the less.

  19. Another solution by Nogami_Saeko · · Score: 3, Informative

    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
  20. Screen real estate? by wedg · · Score: 2

    I don't know about you, but I have more space than I know what to do with. Hell, 4 of my 10 desktops are empty.

    --
    Jake
    Dating: while( 1 ){ call_girl(); get_rejected(); drink_40(); } return 0;
  21. A hack to make up for bad UI design by Jimmy_B · · Score: 2

    Screen real estate is extremely valuable, but the way to recover it is certainly not to move things onto a miniature secondary screen. Virtual desktops are a much better solution. Most Linux UIs support them, and if you use Litestep, so can Windows. The concept is simple: have several "virtual" screens and switch between them. That way, you can put all your "overhead" windows (ICQ, Winamp/XMMS, tickers, file manager) on one screen, Mozilla on another, etc, and switch between them with a mouse click. You can also gain space by getting rid of the stuff that wastes it, like adware, or by keeping it minimized.

    Of course, you can also gain more screen real estate by investing in hardware, but if you're going to do that it makes far more sense to get a bigger or second monitor than a black+white LCD screen.

  22. Use LED scrollers for /. headlines :) by antdude · · Score: 2

    You could use it for /. headlines too. [grin]

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  23. "Real Estate" - stop using this phrase! by simetra · · Score: 2, Funny

    Puhleeez. Desktop Real Estate is a phrase they use in PC Magazine for Pete's Sake! Am I the only one who, when seeing this phrase, immediately assumes that the author is a fucktard?

    I say we immediately begin abusing anyone who uses this phrase.

    Thank you for your attention to this matter

    --

    "Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
  24. Re:Use WindowMaker and Linux by Fastolfe · · Score: 2

    Agreed, even in my case where I have two monitors on a WinXP system, I have more than enough space to keep all of my background apps running *and* still be productive with Photoshop or some other big app.

    However, I do also have a third cheap monitor off to the side dedicated to receiving syslog messages and other text bits of importance from my Linux systems. It might be nice to offload some of this onto an LCD screen that I can use a little more portably. It's not my screen's real-estate that I'm concerned about, it's my desk's!

  25. Build your own LCD display instead by wolvie_ · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Overclockers Australia have a guide to building a parallel port connected LCD screen for under A$25 (US$14ish). Doesn't look too hard (though some soldering required obviously). Unfortunately they only have info on controlling it from Win32.

    http://www.overclockers.com.au/techstuff/a_diy_lcd

  26. Crystalfontz by Tony · · Score: 2

    The Crystalfontz 633 may be exactly what you are looking for. I just received one in the mail a couple of days ago, and I'm using it for my car MP3 player interface. I haven't done much with it yet, but so far, it is *very* cool.

    Have fun, and play safe.

    --
    Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
  27. Hack a SliMP3 by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.