Page 1 of 1
Posted: Tue May 07, 2002 9:03 pm
by Beaucoup
I plan to embed an LK162-12 16*2 LCD in my USB keyboard
The keyboard's got an internal USB hub with a spare channel and plenty enough power to drive and backlight the display, but this will obviously require the use of a USB to Serial adapter. Can anyone reccomend such an adapter that will work in a relitively painless fashion with this display under Linux? Obviously, smaller is better, since this thing's getting shoved into a small space, but any setup that has been tested to work is worth noting.
-Andrew
Posted: Thu May 23, 2002 7:14 pm
by Beaucoup
Well, I found one that seems to work; a cheap generic brand PL2303 based adapter, which, once stripped down, fit easily in the small space. It also helped that it didn't require an external power supply.
Here's the finished project, horriffic Dremeling included. To get everything to fit, I had to remove the display's serial backpack, and reconnect it with a nice long ribbon cable, after removeing all the connectors and headers from it. I completely Dremeled off the GPO's, and also took a few millimeters off the display's PCB itself, completely destroying any imagineable warrenty this thing may have had :-P
The connections are soldered via the USB-to-Serial adapter directly to the keyboard's internal USB hub, and powered off the same, so there are no external connections. It seems so far to run under both Linux and Windows XP as well as if it were connected directly via serial(except with LCDProc, apparently due to a bug that some other people have seen as well).
http://24.88.123.54/tempshare/lcd3.jpg
The cutting is a bit sloppy to look at, but given that this is the first mod I've done which was more sophistacated than putting LEDs in things, I'm satisfied with the way it came out. :-)
-Andrew
Posted: Thu May 23, 2002 9:20 pm
by GarrettWG
I think you should add the picture to the gallery section! And believe me I went through 3 3.5 adapters to get mine in so don't feel bad
Posted: Fri May 24, 2002 5:04 am
by gordy_hand
On 2002-05-07 21:03, Beaucoup wrote:
I plan to embed an LK162-12 16*2 LCD in my USB keyboard
The keyboard's got an internal USB hub with a spare channel and plenty enough power to drive and backlight the display, but this will obviously require the use of a USB to Serial adapter. Can anyone reccomend such an adapter that will work in a relitively painless fashion with this display under Linux? Obviously, smaller is better, since this thing's getting shoved into a small space, but any setup that has been tested to work is worth noting.
-Andrew
I used one for my new lcd and it works a treat . Where are you based if its in the uk I can give you a link to the product I used
Posted: Fri May 24, 2002 9:16 am
by Henry
Beaucoup:
Aside from the dremelling, that's pretty damn sweet!!!
Posted: Fri May 24, 2002 3:50 pm
by Cheese
Nice work... I'd appreciate links to usb-serial convertors in any countries (for my faq), cheers,
Rob.
Posted: Fri May 24, 2002 10:36 pm
by Beaucoup
I'm in the United States; I got the adapter cable from a locally owned retailer here(CompuForce,
http://www.cforce.net/). The device is made by a company called Manhattan, and seems very similar to high-speed USB to RS232 adapter that Keyspan makes, except this one only set me back $30 US :-).
Posted: Sat May 25, 2002 1:05 am
by Steve Ryan
Hi to u all this is my first post i'm waiting for the arrival of my display i got my serial to usb adaptor from the UK
http://www.greenwicheshop.com
Posted: Sat May 25, 2002 4:13 am
by gordy_hand
Posted: Sat May 25, 2002 5:31 pm
by Cheese
Thanks for the links...
r.