Quote Originally Posted by Joe S.
Hi skimask,
Yeah well partly, it is much easier to put a display in a difficult place if you only need to run 3 wires to it, whereas you may have 20 or so going to your main p/c board and it might be real inconveinient to run 20 to your display. I have bought LCD displays from sure electronics on ebay and thay are cheap. I did have one fail though, I think from ESD.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7617627971
for larger order check his store: http://stores.ebay.com/Sure-Electronics

Ain't that the truth!
On every one of my little projects up until the last few, I've always had to design in a method for control and display, and always at the expense of pins, which could be better used for something else. So, on the last few, I built up a control/display module with 4 wires running to it using various LCDs/LEDs and switches/keypads laying around. For each different type of LCD, I have to modify the code to handle it, not to mention mount the thing up. I'm getting tired of that now also.
It's about time I'm making this standardized module, with a standard LCD, in a standard mount, with standard buttons, using a standard 'library' to run it, and connect it with a standard cable.

You want to go in and buy up a bunch of LCDs in bulk and save some $$$?