PIC digital readout idea

[40fordcoupe]

Has anyone given much thought to posilble designs for a digital readout system built around PICs? I have been thinking about it a bit. I even went so far as building a small binery encoder and breadboarding a PIC to read the encoder and count steps. In my experiment I used LEDs as a readout, but that would not be satisfactory in the shop. IMHO an old PC running DOS could provide all the display and control functions fairly cheaply.

[Al_The_Man]

Originally Posted by 40fordcoupe . IMHO an old PC running DOS could provide all the display and control functions fairly cheaply.

Like this you mean? http://www.lindsayengraving.com/othe...rests/dro.html
The source code is there if you want to enhance it.
Al.

[40fordcoupe]

Originally Posted by Al_The_Man Like this you mean? The source code is there if you want to enhance it. Al.

Thanks, Al
I will spend a lot of time looking at the site. I thought this would be a good way to get my feet er.. wetter. It sure beats blinking LEDs.

[Karl_T]

http://www.shumatech.com/

read this one too

[Karl_T]

http://www.yadro.de/

and this

[NGinuity]

40,
I am actually incorporating a Digital Readout into a pendant I am designing. We can collaborate if you would like.

[40fordcoupe]

Originally Posted by NGinuity 40, I am actually incorporating a Digital Readout into a pendant I am designing. We can collaborate if you would like.

Sounds very interesting, How far along are you in the progect?
Bob B

[40fordcoupe]

The more I think about the pendant incorporating a DRO display the better I like it.
What do you planning on interfacing the pendent too? Mach3 perhaps.
Also what language are you programing the PIC(s) with?

I have PIC BasicPro and all my experiience with the PIC has been with that language. Also I'm a bit rusty, but spent a number of years fixing mainframes. So I'm not completely a novice, but not too far from it.
Thanks, Bob B.

[NGinuity]

Originally Posted by 40fordcoupe The more I think about the pendant incorporating a DRO display the better I like it. What do you planning on interfacing the pendent too? Mach3 perhaps. Also what language are you programing the PIC(s) with? I have PIC BasicPro and all my experiience with the PIC has been with that language. Also I'm a bit rusty, but spent a number of years fixing mainframes. So I'm not completely a novice, but not too far from it. Thanks, Bob B.

I plan to interface the pendant to anything I can write a plugin for. Of course, Mach3 will already take it with no outside work to it, but others will be a bit of a challenge. For the immediate future, I would like to get it working with EMC and Sheetcam as well. I go tinker at massajamesb's shop sometimes and he uses Sheetcam, so I would be interested to see if I could do something with that. My problem is that I don't really write much Windows software, so that will be something new. I'm more up on the Unix derivatives.

I program the PIC's with assembler. Don't let that scare you. There's only like 31 instructions in the set. Right now, I will probably use a precanned serial LCD module (no use reinventing the wheel, and I got one from a surplus electronics store), and interface those pins to a PIC with a lot of I/O pins on it. The LCD module takes quite a ridiculous amount.

And don't worry, I still have to log into a TSO session about once a week on the mainframe to restart a started task we have a memory leak in :-)

[40fordcoupe]

TSO? I haven't even thought about that for years.

What LCD Module are you using? I'll see if I can find one like it.
Thanks,
Bob B.

[NGinuity]

I have no idea what this LCD module is, but it has 16 pins (14 for the run of the mill data and voltage, etc, plus, it is backlit, which ties up the other two pins.) I am sure there are definitely more heard of LCD's to use, but I picked this one up for 5 bucks at a surplus electronics store.

Model: VK5121ELYG

Google didnt turn up a whole lot, which, quite possibly, is why I only spent 5 bucks on it.

[NGinuity]

Whoops, apparently a few weeks and Google make a difference....now there is a lot of results for that model.