LCD HD44780

Hey can a LCD HD44780 that is 4x20 work within MacOS X like it can with a wintel based system? I know since a mac doesn't have a paralle port and uses USB I have found guides on wiring a HD44780 for USB use. Just don't know if it can work in MacOS X.

You can use a usb to serial adapter and a serial board on your LCD.

Or, you can write the mac software for the USB controller chip.

I have done this for one controller chip here:

http://home.sandiego.edu/~epooch

--Eric

epooch that is great, please let us know if/when you plan another group buy of the kits, I'd love one!

Im curious as to what you are talking about. Is it one of those specialized lcds? Anything is possible is you have the know how, but the real question is- is it worth the trouble?
-maestro

On a few of my PCs I use this LCD for showing off my playlist in Winamp, system temp, system specs and for just maingit scroll random text. Since i'm going with a blue theme on my sawtooth I thought I would add one of theses LCDs to make the system feel more pleasing and to add more blue lighting via the blacklight that shows a blue background and white text.

Yeah, they are pretty cool. I have them working with growl to give all sorts of notifications like the current iTunes song, etc.. I am currently working on integrating one in my 5.25 inch external harddrive case (I have all laptops). I will post some pics when I am done.
Anyway, if you have one with an rs232 serial board already on it, you can use a usb serial adapter and then send data to the corresponding /dev file.

--Eric

Post edited by: epooch, at: 2006/01/18 02:19

Post edited by: epooch, at: 2006/01/18 02:20

Did you get this to work with a Mac? If so, please post a mod guide. I havent seen any of these type of lcds used on a mac before. Ive also heard that some are hard to program on PCs too.
-maestro

maestro wrote:


Yes, as I mentioned, I did it with USB to the parallel LCD: http://home.sandiego.edu/~epooch/cgi-bin/blosxom.cgi/tech/leds

Other people have done it with a USB ->serial adapter and a RS232/serial board on the LCD, but it is more expensive and not very elegant.

I will post a mod guide here when I am finished with my external hard drive encosure.

Post edited by: epooch, at: 2006/01/18 06:57

maestro wrote:


Makes me want to suggest a new MacMod motto: Anything is possible as long as someone has the know how!

or just, "Anything is Possible" or "See no Limitations"

Does the blacklight for the USB setup work? or would I have to splice into a drive 5v connection?

You can run a backlight off of the USB power, but you would need to cut open the adapter as I show on my site. If the LCD is pretty low power you should be able to get it off the parallel port adapter too.