DIY LCD (OLED soon) front-panel display

[Stephen Neal]

I finally got fed up with the poor quality iMon displays in my Antec Fusion cases, and did a bit of research for replacements. Nothing really seemed quite right.

So I've had a go at building my own. So far, so good. Nowhere near finished - but as a proof of concept it's working, with a backlit 2x16 character LCD at the moment, but I've got some OLED equivalent displays in the post (I hope!)

After a bit of digging it appears that LCD Writer is a decent Media Center plug-in (which replaces Frontview), and it can use any display that is supported by LCDSmartie (which is a lot of displays)

I also discovered people were using Arduinos (cheap, easy-to-program tiny computers with lots of I/O and on most models a built in USB interface) to talk to LCDs, and someone had written some code to emulate a Matrix Orbital display (which LCD Smartie supports)

So I thought LCD/OLED + Arduino (emulating Matrix Orbital display) + LCD Writer with the LCD Smartie Matrix Orbital driver might be a solution.

And it works.

It's a bit Heath Robinson at the moment - (the Arduino and LCD are on a breadboard) but I hope to engineer a neater solution (Arduino Nano + OLED display + Micro USB B plug to motherboard USB header) I might even see if I can make it fit in the same packaging as the iMon!

If anyone's interested I'll put up some pix and links. None of this offers any Infra Red remote control - but I've always wanted to disable the IR receiver on my iMon as I use standard Microsoft eHome receivers (or OEM variants). Might buy a Maplin one and see if I can dismantle it and mount it internally?

 

[bagatanmd]

very interested. hope to see some pics soon.

 

[blueboy1971]

also very interested so would like to see pics/build

 

[wolvers]

I like the sound of this............ but it doesn't exist until we see pics!

Subscribed.

 

[Grangey.]

pics pics pics

 

[murtoz]

pics pics pics

yes please!

 

[clarkey2r]

Where you an Arduinist before you decided on this project?

 

[Stephen Neal]

Where you an Arduinist before you decided on this project?

Nope - but it seemed a neat way to solve the problem, and a nice re-introduction to a little bit of hardware/software tinkering. (I did an Electronic Engineering degree - but only worked in that sphere for about 6 months after graduating...)

Hope to get some pix up before too long. OLED displays arrived in the morning post. Need to solder some 0.1" headers to one so I can breadboard prototype with it.

Just picked up a Maplin MCE remote with the very small USB receiver dongle, and an internal USB motherboard header to 2xUSB A female dongle to allow internal connections.

 

[Stephen Neal]

Well - just soldered on the headers, connected the OLED in place of the LCD, and it worked first time.

The Play/Pause/FF/REW/Rec/Stop user-defined characters aren't there yet (just random dots), and I'm not sure I've got the right font table selected to get åöäøæ etc. characters displaying properly (I watch a lot of Nordic telly), but I'm dead chuffed that it works.

The 16x2 OLED display is exactly the same size as the 16x2 LCD - but hugely more readable. It's not a bitmapped display - just standard 5x7 characters - but the viewing angle, contrast and amber colour are so much clearer and nicer than the murky LCD backlit things in the iMon. Think I may try to track down a 2x20 display - as those few extra characters make a bit of a difference.

As promised - pix to follow.

 

[Stephen Neal]

Here are some pix (not great quality - took them in a rush) :

The prototype board (Arduino Uno + small breadboard) :



What happens when the Arduino is running but the PC hasn't told it to do anything (picture doesn't really do display justice - had fill flash on...):



Default display when LCDWriter is running :



When watching a channel in Media Center (The full programme title scrolls twice, along with the channel number - then the first 16 characters are displayed statically) The garbage in the bottom left character should be a nice play/pause etc. symbol. (Work needed there...)



Now I know it works I'm going to try and build a board with an Arduino Nano (same size as a 32 pin DIP IC) which should fit onto a board smaller than the OLED display with a Mini-B USB connector. The Maplin IR receiver is also tiny - so both should easily fit into the gap in my Micro Fusion Remote case.

 

[wolvers]

Good stuff Stephen.

 

[Navvie]

Looks awesome. Way better than the display in my fusion remote.

 

[murtoz]

Great, thanks for sharing. Certainly looks better than the imon vfd I have. How much do you think you spent on this in all?

 

[Stephen Neal]

The OLEDs were from the US and were US$25 (took about a week to arrive and I bought two in case I blew one up!)

I got them here : http://www.nkcelectronics.com/OLED-16x2-character-display_p_202.html

Hopefully they should be available in the UK soon. (E-mailed their UK distributor and they were helpful, and I think Rapid should stock them soon. The models are from Winstar.)

I used an Arduino Uno for prototyping : http://www.oomlout.co.uk/arduino-uno-p-252.html?zenid=f3bad3e64ca7c11293c32e4046cdaa41

The Unos seem to be around the £20-£30 mark from UK online sellers (Nanos, which are much smaller, are a bit more expensive from etailers but appear to be available for <£20 on eBay) - and other than that it's just some interconnections - not even a resistor or capacitor...

Might see if I can build a PCB the right size to mount a Nano and OLED display on.

Internal USB cables to go to a motherboard header will be around a fiver I suspect, though most iMon users will have an internal motherboard header to USB socket adaptor that came with their original iMon.

LCDWriter only appears to be useful within Windows Media Center, though you can also use LCDSmartie with the display.

When I get a bit more time I'll try to improve the Arduino code to get the symbols to work properly. Bit busy at the moment (but couldn't resist taking a little bit of time to see if the OLEDs worked!)

 

[Grangey.]

good work stephen, always great to see custom solutions

 

[Stephen Neal]

Just heard. Rapid Electronics should be stocking the Winstar OLED character displays, including 20x2 models, within the next fortnight.

Haven't managed to get LCDWriter/LCDSmartie to display Nordic characters yet - but HAVE got the Arduino to. (Something in LCDWriter or the LCDSmartie plug-in is mapping them to ?s)

 

[Theydon Bois]

Very smart - the reason I never really bothered much with getting my display to work on my Zalman is that its just not bright and clear enough to read - you blow the contrast up to light it enough, but it lights the background as well.

 

[namuk]

Nice i have a Alpha Lcd desk version running next to the pc, this is basicly the same Smart-Display-Company.

i looked in them Build your own types a while back, i got it down to buying one just for the software, the matrix orbital is the one to go for if your building your own.. as that will be my next route.

also this is compatible with that screen as well LcdStudio this is updated all the time, very easy to use as well.
also there is SDK software, so if your crap at doing plug-in's for Lcd software you can always ask a developer, the maker of Everest now AIDA64 if you ask him on the forum.

if your into script programming try Lcd Hype.

 

[Stephen Neal]

Nice i have a Alpha Lcd desk version running next to the pc, this is basicly the same Smart-Display-Company.

i looked in them Build your own types a while back, i got it down to buying one just for the software, the matrix orbital is the one to go for if your building your own.. as that will be my next route.

also this is compatible with that screen as well LcdStudio this is updated all the time, very easy to use as well.
also there is SDK software, so if your crap at doing plug-in's for Lcd software you can always ask a developer, the maker of Everest now AIDA64 if you ask him on the forum.

if your into script programming try Lcd Hype.

I particularly wanted it to work with 7MC in a similar manner to Frontview - but less buggy - and LCDWriter seemed to do this OK.

Do LCDStudio or LCDHype get things like "Current programme/channel" "Time Elapsed in recording" Play/Pause etc. stuff from 7MC ok?

*** EDIT : Actually LCDStudio and LCDHype appear to be for graphic displays not character displays. My OLED and Arduino stuff is really for character displays - though unlike most HD44780 LCDs the Winstar OLEDs appear to have a bitmapped graphics mode - and they don't have gaps between the characters like most LCDs appear to - so it might be possible to use them ***

 

[Stephen Neal]

Very smart - the reason I never really bothered much with getting my display to work on my Zalman is that its just not bright and clear enough to read - you blow the contrast up to light it enough, but it lights the background as well.

I liked the VFD in my original Fusion (much nicer than the LCDs they supply) - but the iMon/Frontview software is sooo awful. The Antec-supplied iMon LCD in another case was just awful - low contrast, overly bright backlight, laggy - and still awful software (and rubbish IR receiver).

So far I'm quite pleased with the OLEDs - very clear and they have a very fast refresh rate like VFDs and don't have the horrid lag of passive LCDs.

 

[wolvers]

Nice i have a Alpha Lcd desk version running next to the pc, this is basicly the same Smart-Display-Company.

What do you use it for Nam? I'd really like to be able to use my front display to show GPU stuff like fps, usage etc but there's no option for that in the crappy imon software.

 

[namuk]

What do you use it for Nam? I'd really like to be able to use my front display to show GPU stuff like fps, usage etc but there's no option for that in the crappy imon software.

use taskmanager,everest, i did use fraps now and again until a later version came out because Alpha spat the dummy out with the software developer and now i get no updates

you can also use teamspeak,rss feeds,network,mem usage,cpu speed, temps ect quiet a bit can be added through the software, the link for the smart display is basicly the alpha lcd updated with a faster screen, and they also supply the SDK which is a biggy, if you can not be bothered building your own that smart display is the next best thing.

think there around £100 imported, have a look on there forum for plugins and what more software supports

 

[Theydon Bois]

I liked the VFD in my original Fusion (much nicer than the LCDs they supply) - but the iMon/Frontview software is sooo awful. The Antec-supplied iMon LCD in another case was just awful - low contrast, overly bright backlight, laggy - and still awful software (and rubbish IR receiver).

So far I'm quite pleased with the OLEDs - very clear and they have a very fast refresh rate like VFDs and don't have the horrid lag of passive LCDs.

I think if there was a nice easy repalcement to OLED, I would buy it and swap the original out...

 

[Stephen Neal]

I think if there was a nice easy repalcement to OLED, I would buy it and swap the original out...

If I get the time to get it to a proper state I might consider documenting it and possibly commissioning some PCBs that would allow you to plug in an Arduino Nano and an OLED display, and would have the right screw holes and dimensions to replace an iMon in a Micro Fusion Remote and/or a Fusion Remote.

Got to get accented characters working properly first.

 

[murtoz]

some PCBs that would allow you to plug in an Arduino Nano and an OLED display, and would have the right screw holes and dimensions to replace an iMon

I think there'd be a real market for that. I'd happily buy one!