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Inexpensive USB LCD With Linux Drivers For LCDproc

Posted by kdawson on from the on-the-side dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The Windows Vista SideShow technology shows some promise. But what about Linux devices that can present snippets of information independent of the main display? Here's a review of the picoLCD-4x20, a relatively inexpensive USB device ($50) that supports both SideShow on Vista and LCDproc on Linux."

3 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Homebrew angle. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you are interested in doing this yourself, look into "character LCDs" using the "HD44780" microcontroller. These are easily attached via the serial port...

    Some example character lcd's and pricing

    Instructable on doing a character lcd

    and for the lazy among you,

    Google search for "character lcd hd44780"

    Grab your soldering irons and have some homebrew fun! It isn't that hard at all!

  2. What Linux Device? by Kawahee · · Score: 5, Interesting

    what about Linux devices that can

    What about them? How is this a Linux "device"? It doesn't run Linux, it comes with drivers that make it compatible with LCDproc.

    Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but if we're going to set the bar that low I'm going to go out and tell my friends that my Microsoft mouse is a "Linux device" because there's driver support for it on that platform.

    --
    I'll subscribe to Slashdot when I see a month without a dupe, a typo, or an article the "editors" didn't read.
  3. Re:Zero-click information retrieval by perlchild · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I just wish we'd go back to a bios-based LCD, for when the screen won't work, the ram won't load in, or something similar. A way to indicate a crash without using beeps... Some environments are so noisy it's just not possible to distiguish some combinations.