LCD2USB modification

230810 PTMusta@utu.fi

(Not a very beautiful web page isn't it. This is totally written with qedit ;)

One of the projects I have just now under work needed a simple display, which can be read in direct sunlight. The one in my laptop is just black in those conditions.
I found a week ago a LCD module with an USB connection from: WWW.EIO.COM The module was U162MYA1 USB 16x2 Character LCD Lcdmod U162MYA1 USB 2x16.

The module is supplied by LCDMODKIT.

When you connect the module to your USB port or USB loader, there appears text:
LCD2USB ver 1.0
There is at least two program packets to use LCD modules with a PC:
LCD4USB and LCD_Smartie
both of these are large and fine packets, if you want to connect your LCD to your PC and show what THEY want to show on screen.
if you want to show your own text, they can not help you
So I Googled my way to the homepage of the lcd2usb driver:
www.Harbaum.org off Till Harbaum
There I found a Downloadable packet:
Version 1.08(avrusb)/2.08(usbtiny): lcd2usb-2007-10-13.zip
In this packet was a test program, which I opened and modified to fit my needs:
lcd2usb/testapp
I modified it to accept parameters from the command line
lcd2usb [cmd][addr][text]
- cmd: clr, home, goto, test, light, contr
- - goto, light and contr can use values 0-255
- addr: This is used with 'goto' to tell where the next chr goes. You got to experiment a little. With a 2 line display the first line is columns 1-16, the next line is columns 64-80 (0x40-0x4f) (check this)
- text you can add as the last part of lines with 'clr', 'home' or 'goto'

Examples: lcd2usb2
lcd2usb2 clr
lcd2usb2 clr Hello
lcd2usb2 clr "Hello World"
lcd2usb2 goto 70
lcd2usb2 goto 66 Testing
lcd2usb2 goto 67 "Testing it"
lcd2usb2 test

It might be I some day have interest to build there a hook, which returns the value of the keys.
The modification is only for Linux, even though the original program can be used in M$Win too

If you find this modification usefull or find some errors or make still more modifications, please tell me. I have never liked the C programming language and have given it no time. That is why the modifications are so clumsy.

ptmusta@utu.fi