For some applications adding an alphanumeric display, particularly an LCD Character Module could be a plus, not only as a Human Machine Interface (HMI) but also as an output interface for device diagnostics and troubleshooting.
Nowadays Character Module LCDs are quite inexpensive, most of them use a parallel interface based old Hitachi HD44780 or its Samsung cousin KS0066 controllers.
You will also find some folks selling a Character Module LCD with an add-on serial interface or things like the Serial Enabled Backpack from Sparkfun.
On one of my projects I showed how to interface a regular Character Module using the SPI interface taking advantage of the Microchip MCP23S08 port extender.
I’ve been looking around for a while for a reasonable priced integrated solution, preferable with Chip On Glass Technology that does not take to much pcb real state.
To my satisfaction I recently found that the folks from Electronic Assembly in Germany started to produce the DOG-M LCD series that is exactly what I was looking for.
Nowadays Character Module LCDs are quite inexpensive, most of them use a parallel interface based old Hitachi HD44780 or its Samsung cousin KS0066 controllers.
You will also find some folks selling a Character Module LCD with an add-on serial interface or things like the Serial Enabled Backpack from Sparkfun.
On one of my projects I showed how to interface a regular Character Module using the SPI interface taking advantage of the Microchip MCP23S08 port extender.
I’ve been looking around for a while for a reasonable priced integrated solution, preferable with Chip On Glass Technology that does not take to much pcb real state.
To my satisfaction I recently found that the folks from Electronic Assembly in Germany started to produce the DOG-M LCD series that is exactly what I was looking for.
The DOG-M LCD display series, not only provide the classic parallel interface but they also offer using the same controller the SPI interface option, and guess what you can use them with +5V or +3.3V supply.
There are different variants including STN yellow/green, reflective, STN blue, FSTN positive and negative, some of which require a backlight, but EA also offer a nice collection of LED based backlighting with ultra thin construction.
The EA DOG-M display series is available from Mouser Electronics.
I’ll be using the 3 x 16 model for one of the products I’ve under development.
There are different variants including STN yellow/green, reflective, STN blue, FSTN positive and negative, some of which require a backlight, but EA also offer a nice collection of LED based backlighting with ultra thin construction.
The EA DOG-M display series is available from Mouser Electronics.
I’ll be using the 3 x 16 model for one of the products I’ve under development.
I'll soon post some pictures with the DOG-M displays in action.
Cheers
Jorge