[aprssig] K107 Serial LCD Controller

[Brian Riley]

My buddy Russ (KD5MTN) and i just finished a new project that may be  
of interest to a lot of you who hack at micros. I am sure I am  
preaching to the choir here about the merits of a serial LCD backpack  
when working with limited i/o pins. I am equally sure there any  
number of units out there available and suitable for your work ...  
SO, you may ask, why bother looking at this one?

The K107 LCD Controller board was designed to accommodate the PH  
Anderson (KZ3K) controller chip <http://www.phanderson.com>. It is an  
inexpensive, compact PIC-based board (silkcreened and solder masked)  
designed to handle 1x10, 1x14, 1x16, and 2x7 connections, has TTL- 
TRUe and RS232 INVerted input (jumper selectable), and on board PWM  
circuitry for LED backlight control in software as well as a 'beep'  
output and 2 switched output lines all under software control.  If  
you chose to purchase the Anderson controller chip with the board,  
you get software selectable geometry (2x16, 2x20, 2x24, 2x40, 4x16  
and 4x20) A 'big number' (4 lines high by 3 or 4 wide) mode for four  
line displays, plus all the usual xy positioning and commands.

The board can be made up with a very small handful of parts dedicated  
to a particular display connection and application or the K107 can be  
fully populated for use on the bench with a variety of displays and  
applications.

The K107 LCD controller is offered in bare board only ($4), board and  
chip, board and parts, and complete kit. Before the month is over  
there will be some 'bundles' offered with the board kit and display  
as well.

There is a complete manual in PDF form available as a free download  
at the website. It has schematics, parts lists and layout, pin  
assignments, assembly instructions and pix, and complete software  
interfacing reference.

The bare pcboard has potential use independent of the Anderson chip.  
The setup is for an 18 pin PIC and will accept a 16F84, 16F628,  
16F648. The serial input line is on pin 7, the hardware USART line  
for the 16f628 and 16F648. The above mentioned documentation includes  
a section titled "A Hacker's Guide to the K107" to help independent  
use of the board.

Complete documentation and ordering information is available at

     <http://www.wulfden.org/k107/>

----
cheers ... 73 de brian  riley,  n1bq , underhill center, vermont
   <n1bq at wulfden.org>