Sayzer,
Greetings !
Here is the Rub:
every time I or tons of others out there need a serial display, we have to stop what we are doing and order a preprogrammed chip, a kit, or an already assembled serial display at significant cost. A year from now I will likely be able to write enough code to handle this, for now NO. sometimes it is just better to connect the display via a serial connection, for instance, you homebrew a burgular alarm, you keep the alarm chip safely inside, and display can live outdoors. Nowhere have I been able to find code already written and available to home roll a suitable serial display and it really is agrivating to have to stop and order and wait for one when you need it. This seems to be the only PIC related everyday item where near zero code is in the public domain
The code I posted seems to work with a 2 X 16 display but I doubt it is suitable as is to use as a general purpose serial LCD adapter, I think it needs USART support to provide a data buffer so data doesn't get lost. Additionally
the LCDOUT routine is great for a finished project, but these push in wire type breadboards are so clumbsy as to make you waste too much time fiddling with connections, whereas a serial lcd is more convienent. I have seen in books authors who use shift registers to do this, curiously enough they were books about PICs * * * * So what I am looking for is a serial backpack device common to all who use this forum that we all get familiar with using so your code or Darrels, or Bruces, ETC does not have to be modified to work on as it seems every serial backpack out there uses different initialization routiens, and you still have to wait for and pay for every time you want one.
Thanks
Joe