programmable RS232 - HomeBrew Forum at eHam.net

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programmable RS232	Reply
by SV1ENS on October 16, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
Hi All, Sometime ago I got a hold of a "highway Master" VFD 2x40 character display. From what I was told it used to be installed in trucks feeding the driver with info. Not sure how it was fed but the input is a RS232 which I tested and works OK. At this point I would like this display to actually do something useful and be computer free... I'm looking for a programmable RS232 solution to maybe have my call scroll on the display, or even better find a device that has a RS232 output, maybe a weather station ?? Any feedback is appreciated !

RE: programmable RS232	Reply
by AA4PB on October 16, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
There are PIC chips that have TTL level serial outputs. You could program the PIC chip to generate the desired messages for display. You may also need an MAX232 chip to convert the TTL level serial to RS-232 level serial for the display.

RE: programmable RS232	Reply
by N3OX on October 16, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
I've been using the "Arduino" development board a lot: http://arduino.cc/ It's a microcontroller (Atmel ATMEGA168, more recently ATMEGA328) but it comes on a board with all necessary components to program it over USB and run it, plus it's got a free development enviroment with lots of libraries of functions. It's also got a large user base of fairly un-technical people which I suspect makes it easier to find help for basic problems. I've certainly been helped by tutorials that kind of start with : "so you don't know anything? Here's how to use a microcontroller" :-) I've been happy with it. Here's an example of using it on a serial LCD: http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Learning/SerialLCD You have a lot of digital inputs and outputs and even analog outputs on this and most other microcontrollers, so there's a wide variety of things you could read in and display. Of course, since it's the development board and chip all in one, it's more expensive to build into a device than if you just programmed a chip and put it into a circuit with your own components. For the projects I've built so far, though, I just stuck the whole thing in there when I was done: http://n3ox.net/projects/stepperswitch Eventually I'm going to use the USB connection in that project, so it's worth having it on board. 73 Dan

RE: programmable RS232	Reply
by SV1ENS on October 19, 2009	Mail this to a friend!
The Arduino is exactly what I need, Thanks for the replies... 73 Demetre - SV1ENS

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