extremely newb questions

relzool · Post by **relzool** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 10:55 am

morning,

Here's what I'd like to do, I just don't know if it can be done.

I'd like to use a four line display like this one LK204-24-USB-GW http://www.matrixorbital.com/pages/prod ... ductID=104 and have it display text from a particular website. An example of the website data in particular is at http://64.139.3.77/FST/Website/a/RightN ... 5897570984

I'd like the text of:

Right Now 9:27 AM Jan 16, 2005
Net Export 461 W
Generating 1,095 W
Using 634 W

Is there a way to get that info onto a display?

Any other ideas using a usb powered display or monitor?

Thanks,
elz

zigzak · Post by **zigzak** » Sun Jan 16, 2005 3:30 pm

Hi,

When you connect the LCD to your system you send the information you want it to display as text characters via your serial port (or USB emulated serial port in the case of a USB connected device).

I don't know of a way you can directly take information from a webpage and automatically send it to the LCD.

If the sample page you've quoted is generated by your own PC then you'd be better adapting the program which generates those figures to also send the information to your LCD serial port connection.

If this was me - I'd do it in visual basic - either by adapting your existing program, or by reading directly from a datafile.

If the webpage isn't yours then you could probably come up with a program, again if it was me I'd use visual basic, to automatically access the webpage and get the figures from it then send them on to the LCD.

Hope this helps!

relzool · Post by **relzool** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 9:18 am

Something I didn't mention in my first post is that I have no programming skills. I'm hoping to do this within an lcd so it's a bit more affordable than purchasing an lcd monitor that has an s-video or vga input, Plus I'd only need to run one cable.

Ok, how about this... could I have information from an excel spreadsheet displayed in an lcd?

I can run a web query in excel and have it refreshed every minute. Is there a way to then tell the lcd to get certain cells within the spreadsheet?

Am I getting warmer?

- elz

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:09 pm

Hi,

You wouldn't be to get the information from an excel spreadsheet to display information to the display on the LCD unless it is told through some kind of programming language. This for sure needs to be programmed and sent to the a com port.

Best Regards,

zigzak · Post by **zigzak** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 1:20 pm

Relzool - if you knew someone with a little programming experience they could probably do this quite easily for you?

Post by **Mat-Moo** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:39 pm

LCDC has a plugin that can read text files and display data... (If it helps)

relzool · Post by **relzool** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 2:48 pm

Ok, I do know of someone that has some VB & Java experience. Hadn't thought of him before. If I have him get the data, what do I then tell him to do with it? Just send it to a com port?

-elz

Tom · Post by **Tom** » Mon Jan 17, 2005 4:00 pm

Correct. All data is sent to through the comport to communicate with the display.

Best Regards,

Miles · Post by **Miles** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 7:39 am

The data does need to be sent via a communication port, however the information will need to be set up in such a way so it will be formatted to look how you want it to on the display. For example: you will need to have the program displaying information (strings) on specific lines of the display, data updates, contrast settings and etc...

zigzak · Post by **zigzak** » Tue Jan 18, 2005 11:14 am

I find that at a minimum you'd need to send Clear Screen code first, then send a new-line code after each line of text - as you know the length of each line (ie. the number of characters which will fit) on each line you can pad out with leading spaces if you want stuff centered, etc.

The docs that came with your display will tell you the various codes you need to send - again if you're getting this coded with visual basic, etc, it's very easy to send the required codes.

relzool · Post by **relzool** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:52 pm

Thanks for all the replies.
I've passed on this url to my friend so if he has any questions after receiving the display from me he can post here if necessary.

Thanks again.