LCD cable length?

[Art]

Hi,
Just wondering if anyone has tried wiring an LCD (4 bit interface) remotely from the microcontroller, and how long the ribbon cable can be?
I know I could try this, but someone might have done it and could save me the hassle.
I want a ribbon cable from the back of my 4wd to the front of the vehicle.
Cheers, Art.

[spcw1234]

I have done it with a cat5 wire about 10' and had no problems.

[ScaleRobotics]

Here's Darrel with 25 feet of ribbon cable connected to his: http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/show...7417#post47417

Edit: Wildbilly ran it with 40 feet. A few posts later.

[Art]

Thanks guys
Didn't want to do the wiring, but should have at least searched!

[Art]

It's a VFD display with the standard LCD controller.



It's working with one metre of cable, but a bit hit & miss.
No garbled text, but sometimes it doesn't come on at all.
Maybe it just needed a longer startup time than the usual PAUSE 1000.
Ideally, I want about five metres of cable length, so I'll keep reading!

[Darrel Taylor]

In the thread where we ran them on 25/40ft cables, the LCDOUT library routines were over-ridden so the timing could be changed.

Normally, the LCDOUT command gives a 1uS pulse on the enable line.
But as the cable gets longer, 1uS isn't enough.
I used 5uS for the 25 ft length, which seemed to overcome the rounding off of the waveform on a scope.

You might try using the routines from that thread with the modified timing.
Essentially, it's the LCD_AnyPin routines with a few modifications.

[Art]

Will do, thanks
I think I'll have to.