LCD Data on portA and portB

[NavMicroSystems]

You can also manually control the LCD.. .with out using LCDout.

Of course you could,
even without using a PIC
by simply having some DIP-Switches on the Data Lines and a PushButton on the Clock Line.

(Dwayne, you remember my very first PROMmer)

If you would like to use the Power of PBP's LCDOUT
(like all the Modifiers etc.)
you would have to write your own LCD Routines

I feel cutting some traces on the PCB and soldering some wires or building an adapter cable will be less time consuming.

BTW
the "Dwayne Method" will only work if there is nothing connected to PortB.3
(Means you are wasting one PortBit)

[Dwayne]

Hello Ralph,


Ralph>>Of course you could, even without using a PIC
by simply having some DIP-Switches on the Data Lines and a PushButton on the Clock Line. (Dwayne, you remember my very first PROMmer)<<

<chuckle> Yes I do...


Ralph >>If you would like to use the Power of PBP's LCDOUT
(like all the Modifiers etc.)
you would have to write your own LCD Routines <<

that is correct... And this is what I did... Granted the wheel has already been invented, but sometimes that wheel has to be made oblong to make something work a little bit better for other situations.

Ralph >>I feel cutting some traces on the PCB and soldering some wires or building an adapter cable will be less time consuming.<<

Yes...I agree...But I don't know what limitations our gent has... Would that be allowable for him???

Ralph >>BTW
the "Dwayne Method" will only work if there is nothing connected to PortB.3
(Means you are wasting one PortBit)<<

I showed two ways... One using a MSB / LSB the other is more of a Bit shift for the first 3 bits, and the 4th bit assigned to Porta. Lengthy...Yes...but sometimes skinning the cat can't be done the way we want it done...

Thus I offered another solution, if the cat is not allowed to be skinned that way...Whether it helps or not...oh well... it is a option.

[NavMicroSystems]

...Granted the wheel has already been invented, but sometimes that wheel has to be made oblong to make something work a little bit better for other situations.

OK, if you want to prevent the wheel from turning, you could make it rectangular, but then I wouldn't call it a wheel any longer. (The proven best shape for a wheel is round)

...But I don't know what limitations our gent has... Would that be allowable for him???

This is exactly why we should stop guessing and wait for EDWARD to come back with some more detailed information

[EDWARD]

yo thanks for the help guys. modifing the hardware is not an option because i am planning on upgrading a whole bunch of these boards with new code (1000+ boards)

dwayne- i think your on the right track as to what i need. i think that i should be able either:

2. to use four 1 byte variables (one byte for each data line on lcd) and output serially each byte at the same time

or

1. pick what bit holder in a byte to output on a specifed port.



i drew a picture of what my idea is. the main question is how the data should be strucuted. the data a drew is not exact its just to give you an idea of the structure.

remember that there is a 256byte eeprom on the board as well. this is only additional memory correct? my pic has built in memory. my best guess is that the eeprom was added to the design to hold the LCD data.

[mister_e]

My suggestion, use LCD.BAS from Melabs. It's made to work with PBC and you can modify it for your special need
download it here

[mister_e]

well, i should read carefully the first post... i'll agree with the Ralph's suggestion. But for a thousand board... could be interesting to make a DIP adapter that change the OLD PIC pin to the new PIC pin configuration.

Well just an idea.

[uuq1]

Below is the code I had developed to write data to LCD without using the LCDout command.
thought may be of help:

'************************************************* ***************
'* Name : LCD 8Bit.BAS *
'* Author : uuq1 *
'* Notice : Copyright (c) 2005 [set under view...options] *
'* : All Rights Reserved *
'* Date : 4/25/2005 *
'* Version : 1.0 *
'* Notes : *
'* : *
'************************************************* ***************
'VARIABLES DECLARATION
CHARCNT VAR BYTE
CHAR1 VAR BYTE
TOTAL CON 20 ' A CONSTANT FOR NO OF CHARS ON ONE LINE OF LCD

'Pin Assignments
LCD_RS VAR PORTA.0
LCD_EN VAR PORTA.1

Start:
Pause 150
TRISA=2
TRISB=0
PORTA=0
PORTB=0

PORTB=%00110000 ' FUNCTION 8 BITS, LCD INITILIZATION REQUIRE THIS COMMAND TO BE SENT 3 TIMES.
GOSUB LCDINS
PORTB=%00110000 ' FUNCTION 8 BITS
GOSUB LCDINS
PORTB=%00110000 ' FUNCTION 8 BITS
GOSUB LCDINS
PORTB=%00111000 ' fUNCTION 8 BITS, 2 LINES, FONT #1
GOSUB LCDINS
PORTB=%00001100 ' DISPLAY ON, CURSOR OFF, BLINK OFF
GOSUB LCDINS
PORTB=%00000001 ' CLEAR THE DISPLAY
GOSUB LCDINS
PORTB=%00000110 ' CLEAR THE DISPLAY
GOSUB LCDINS
CHARCNT=0

PRINC:
IF CHARCNT <= TOTAL THEN
CHAR1="A"
ELSE
CHAR1="B"
ENDIF

IF CHARCNT=TOTAL+1 THEN
PORTB=$C0 'GOTO 2ND LINE FIRST POSITION
GOSUB LCDINS
ENDIF

IF CHARCNT >= (TOTAL * 2)+1 THEN
PORTB=1 'CLEAR THE DISPLAY
GOSUB LCDINS
PORTB=$80 'GOTO 1ST LINE FIRST POSITION
GOSUB LCDINS
CHARCNT=0
ENDIF

'PRINT THE CHAR ON LCD
PORTB=CHAR1
GOSUB LCDDATA
PAUSE 100

'INCREMENT THE CHARCNT
CHARCNT=CHARCNT + 1
GOTO PRINC

LCDDATA:
PAUSEUS 25
HIGH LCD_RS
PAUSEUS 25
HIGH LCD_EN
PAUSEUS 25
LOW LCD_EN
RETURN

LCDINS:
PAUSEUS 25
LOW LCD_RS
PAUSEUS 25
HIGH LCD_EN
PAUSEUS 25
LOW LCD_EN
RETURN